Ed Parsons on “What Map Maker is /is not”

Ed Parsons on “What Map Maker Is /Is Not”

June 30th, 2008 · 10 Comments · GIS

Real Ed Parsons tries to frame what Map Maker is. I’m still disappointed in what Map Maker is not, oh well at least they could have paid folks using Mechanical Turk for their time.

Sanchez pays big for map edits

Tags: edits·Google·map maker·Open Source·open street map

10 responses so far ↓

1 Chad // Jul 1, 2008 at 6:13 am

But… But.. it is “free” for all to use.. if you use Google’s products only to view it.
2 JW // Jul 1, 2008 at 7:03 am

This outrage about not having free access to the data is pretty irritating. The free market is going to dictate access to that data. Pretty soon there will be so many sources of geodata that the value placed on it will become close to nothing. But really, why would anyone expect an organization to house and maintain a dataset and then not control its use? It is akin to me shipping all of my DVDs of data to you, then demanding you stick them on your server and provide me free access to them. Even if you were a slightly reasonable person, you’d still probably enact rules on the times I can get to the data.

The bigger problem in the future is how to best access the ideal dataset (free, nearly free, or not) for the particular situation. Datasests really are becoming a dime a dozen and pretty soon it will be sensory overload on which one to use.
3 jxn // Jul 1, 2008 at 9:41 am

Man james you have the best pictures. Mad props!

License to Kill is the best Bond movie BTW.
4 Bruce // Jul 1, 2008 at 10:01 am

Why doesn’t everyone send their data to places like OSM and then Google can grab it from there?
Or am I stating the obvious?
5 msmith // Jul 2, 2008 at 8:50 am

Who is going to maintain all this free data in the future? The industry is going through growing pains. Are Google and Microsoft going to spend 50 million a year updating imagery? I dought it
free is not really free, someone has to pay for it and is that us.
6 Caitlin // Jul 2, 2008 at 8:57 am

Who’s going to QA/QC all this data and provide decent metadata? If it’s anything like the squabbles going on over at Wikipedia it won’t be pretty.
7 KoS // Jul 2, 2008 at 9:54 am

Better yet, what are the legal liabilities?

KoS
8 Luc Vaillancourt // Jul 2, 2008 at 11:38 am

Why not see value in the fact that having your geography available on GM / GE is a good way to market your territory and the activities around. They represent more attractiveness that any initiatives for geo-experts…

I see more value in real action on location (moving, buying, investing, visiting, …), generated by this form of geo-publicity on the map, than in any geo data. It’s what you do with the info more than the data itself.

If I was in charge of the economic development of any place or village or city, I would like the data on Google and other popular Websites freely available and up to date.
9 James Fee // Jul 2, 2008 at 11:49 am

Possibly, but personally if I’m taking the time to edit maps, I want to either get credit, or get paid.

Otherwise I’d just assume play a round of golf or basketball with my son.
10 Wab* // Jul 3, 2008 at 9:33 pm

James, I’m with you in the get paid department.
To some extent your missing part of the story here, but I don’t know how public it is so I guess I’ll just tantalize instead ; )