Tag: usergeneratedcontent

Map update strategy

A device like the Tom-Tom navigation devices can gather incredibly accurate GPS paths that when combined with the user feedback of Tom-Tom and Google Maps users and matched against satellite imagery can allow TeleAtlas to make more maps changes in less time, less expensively than sending out cars and drivers. This capability will grow, going forward, with the introduction of navigation devices that offer a 2 way connection back to TeleAtlas and TomTom. The volume of data, the nature of the data and the timeliness of the data could mean that Map errors in Google could be updated in a 1 to 4 month time frame going forward, rather than the traditional 6-9 months they have taken in the past.

The recent TeleAtlas update includes 50k map edits from community data to the Maps.

Mapmaker Review

Google MapMaker is out. There are several geowiki projects, but when someone like google decides to have a go at the problem you have to take notice. First thing to note is that the MapMaker is open for a limited set of countries, one of which I have blogged about earlier. So let’s see what the uptake of MapMaker is by looking at Karachi (a city of ~20million, metropolitan and where locals are cultured with a strong entrepreneurial spirit) it appears there is very fast uptake from the locals. Here is what has happened in the course of a few hours

compared to OSM: superior UI -> superior results

Open Aerial Map

Open Aerial Map is a non-profit, open access, meeting place for the aerial imaging community. It exists to provide a freely available image map of the world created solely by community contribution, and to facilitate the free exchange of imagery, technology, and ideas. In order to provide an unrestricted, free, an unbiased view of the world, OpenAerialMap encourages the free exchange of aerial imagery, without restriction on its use.

that & gps data & lots of people = free maps for the world.