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Open Maps?

Posted by Cliff on from the community-cartography dept.

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 They also need to be accurate down to the street level and no more than 10 years out of date.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?"

6 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe it's time by lawpoop · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
    -- Pablo Picasso
    1. Re:Maybe it's time by snillfisk · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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)..

      --
      mats
      One man's ceiling is another man's floor.
  2. Maps and accessories baby... by chamilto0516 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    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...

    --
    Magic Eight Ball: Outlook not so good., Hmmm, how about Excel and Word?
    1. Re:Maps and accessories baby... by cosmol · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

  3. Re:*scratches head* by ericspinder · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
    The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
  4. Maps are not copyrighted by tiltowait · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.