Open Maps?

Chilltowner asks: "I'm trying to get local (US) maps together for a community project. I want to able to modify and annotate the maps and provide them free to the public, creating a derivative open work. They also need to be accurate down to the street level and no more than 10 years out of date. I've been searching around for maps available in the public domain or under open licenses, like the Creative Commons licenses allowing derivative works. I've looked at the National Atlas, but the maps, though interesting, aren't detailed enough with street information. The topographical and aerial image maps available through that site are from Terraserver, which are copyrighted to Microsoft. Plus, I really just need simple vector road maps, not USGS rasters. I tried looking at the Census Bureau's TIGER line data, but I can't make heads or tails of it. Are there maps available through other agencies (national or international)? Are there Free/Open-Source Software projects that are making use of public data to build street-level maps for free (as in speech) use?"

Comments

Maybe it's time

[lawpoop]

I've seen several projects where people use their PDA/GPS to map their daily route. Maybe it's time someone organized a collective mapping project, for release cunder the creative commons license.

Re:Maybe it's time

[snillfisk]

We've already done a bit of work on this, although not in any open projects yet. We do however have a small testbed for integrating and designing datasets in a SVG-client before going through a peer review process by others that have data in the same area.

Our white paper on the architecture may be seen at SVG Open from the 2003 proceedings. A small amount of information (including a live demo -- it does however require that someone accepts the data submitted, so don't expect to see anything in the gateway at once) is available here.

The idea is however a good one and is absolutely doable. The problem is that you'll probably get rather large datasets for the most used paths, while the roads noone travels frequently will remain unmapped (and those are really the roads that you _do_ need a map for)..

Making maps is not an esoteric science

[Anonymous Coward]

People have been making maps for hundreds of years, maybe thousands of years.

Hell a Japanese guy with no formal mathematical training was able to figure out how to make very accurate maps (especially considering the poor accuracy of the maps of Europe) using no more than 300 men, several teams of horses, and large sextants and compasses.

Why don't you start up a mapping project on your own and put a subproject idea under the main banner encouraging people to implement whatever harebrained scheme you are talking about. The community will enjoy your work and you will gain notoriety as the guy who opened maps to the world.

PostGIS

[SEWilco]

First, look at PostGIS. It is a geographic extension to PostgreSQL. That gives you a single place to store your data.

Then look for "TIGER PostGIS" to find tools which support both formats, and find something to read TIGER into PostGIS. Then look at editing and display tools to find one which supports PostGIS.

Maps and accessories baby...

[chamilto0516]

I was suprised when I bought my GPS unit. The maps (or unlocking the maps that we shipped with it) were almost as expesive as the unit itself. I have a Garmin eTrex Venture and between the Garmin US and DeLorme TOPO USA, I have paid more for this data than the hardware.

The maps are where the GPS device companies make their profit. That and accessories ($35USD for an AC car adapter!).

If I were to ever start my own Open/Free project, it would most likely be a call to all us GPS hobbyist out there to create our own Open/Free maps and GPS coordinates of useful landmarks.

Excellent Ask Slashdot question...

Re:Maps and accessories baby...

[cosmol]

Then as hundreds of people move about, all recording it, then you'll build a map.
That's sort of like the strategy ant colonies use to establish paths. It's interesting, but such a brute force method would duplicate much effort, and miss many routes. The data is out there, we just need to convert it into a usable format.

Maporama

[Alien54]

I actually prefer using Maporama, which allows you to generate maps up to 999x999 pixels.

You can choose a number of color styles, and you can save the generated map as a gif file, which is can then edit with common software. Very configurable, and an account is not needed.

They also provide street numbers when you are zoomed in close enough.

Overall, worth a bookmark.

Property Appraisal Maps

[webber1]

Why not check with the property appraisers in the area for which you seek a map. Most are to street level and are pretty up to date since the taxation depends on their accuracy?

Re:*scratches head*

[ericspinder]

Yes, you have "missed something" the National Atlas (a service of the USGS) is clearly public domain material. As is (I think) all published government sources. In fact, most of what the map makers do is based on government surveys and publications. The companies do some fact checking(some better than others), add "features", and consolidate information, but the 'base' work is often public domain.

Re:I'd suggest really old maps

[line.at.infinity]

I've seen some old aerial photographs of the city I live in (and I wouldn't be surprised if those photos were as old as webster 1913) but the major roads, rivers, and landmarks still remain in the same place. While we're at it, we could make a digitized map of the past (maybe some historians with grant access would be interested) and edit on top of these maps. The one problem would be the lack of GPS information from old maps, but that could be solved by extracting coordinates from the maps and photos, with probably reasonable accuracy.

The key to a copy-free solution would be maintenance. Just copy how the major map companies update their data. And the public would do a better job of it since as a whole the general public has more itches they want to scratch than the few paid workers who update maps. (e.g. "that road doesn't exist!!") As mentioned on /. way back when, one could drive around with a GPS coordinates recording device.

Maps are not copyrighted

[tiltowait]

so go nuts with whatever you can get your hands on. At least that's what the law was the last time I checked: you can't copyright a fact (or a made up fact for that matter), although some people are trying to change this.

I had a the pleasure of once working for a map company, for example, that at a time (before I worked there of course) traced a competitor's maps when drafting their products. An ensuing lawsuit, during which the judge actually acknowledged this practice, resulted in a verdict in favor of allowing such infringements.

Re:USGS

[Technician]

Don't overlook commercial software. Much of it uses common data, but provides a nice user interface and features that may make the price reasonable. The price for map packages are falling rapidly as the early adoptors that will pay anything have already paid. Now the rush is on for market share. Take advantage of the corner gas station price wars. There is a war between Microsoft (no suprise) and Rand McNally for vector street maps. Microsoft is trying to keep the percieved value high by keeping the list price high but it trying to get market share with a heavy rebate. Street level vector maps are in the under $20 range for ones that work well with your GPS and PDA. Delorme got skunked on the unexpeded fight. They tried selling a map, then having the GPS and PDA stuff as seprate packages. Ooops sorry Delorme, you missed the boat.

On the TOPO side the war is between Delorme, and Natiional Geographic. Delorme sells a vector based topo map which is nice. National Geographic sells Rastor Maps of the USGS maps. The state series is a little spendy, but detailed. It's a clear winner if it is out for your state if you do off road and back road stuff. However having a picture of the streets is it's weak spot if you are trying to use it for street navigation. In a nutshell, if you use the TOPO maps by National Geographic, you will want another map for street use.

Just out from National Geographic is an answer the vector street problem. The Back Roads Explorer map combined the Raster Maps with a real time overlay of the street vector maps. The 17 CD set can be bought for under $40. It contains the entire USA TOPO and vector street maps. It's detail in the TOPO isn't as good as the state series, but you can load the state series into the package for the best of both.

Now the issue of marking them up and such. National Geographic permits printing of maps provided the copyright remains on the map (in the boarder, not imbeded like Mapquest). I'm not sure of the quanity or uses of the maps so more research will need done especialy for commercial use, but home printing and sending maps to your friends in your hunting party all marked up to the hunting camp is a permitted use. The tools to mark up the map are included and work well. Added to the ability to export to my PDA or handheld computer and connect to my GPS and upload, and download waypoints, routes and active track are all features that make this commercial map a winner.

Disclaimer, I don't work for National Geographic. I like to Geocache and finding a road in close to the cache is half the fun.