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 They also need to be accurate down to the street level and no more than 10 years out of date.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

Freegis?

[Anonymous Coward]

FreeGIs project?

The FreeGIS Project provides * software overview on free Geographic Information Systems (this web site)
* communication on developments, plans, infos on free GIS software and free Geo-Data (mailing list)
* software and data prepared for direct use (CD)

http://freegis.org/

Re:Freegis?

[ruckc]

good source of information, but doesn't come with maps.

Best place i have found maps is:

1) Tiger data (If you read the infosets long enough you can begin to undersdtand them)

2) Shapefiles from ESRI(These shapefiles were generated from Tiger data)

The software i prefer to use is Tiger Map Server The author of this software has also figured out a way to convert tiger data into his own shapefiles due to ESRI's license.

Best of luck!

Re:Freegis?

[roman_mir]

After a while you don't see the infosets anymore, all you see is blond, brunet, redhead...

Re:Freegis?

[Spetiam]

The USGS also has maps viewable online. I'm not sure, but FOIA may make their maps part of the public domain. They talk about FOIA on the USGS web site, he might want to check that out. There's a ton of other information there that might be relevant.

Re:Freegis?

[gletham]

If you want street maps at that level you need to look at the local government or county webmaps out there. NAtional government sites don't maintain that kind of level of accuracy in the public realm. Try getting a tool like Geomedia Viewer and load some webmap services (see geographynetwork.com) and another good one is the WMS Viewer - a great example of what you can do with OpenSource GIS ... The Intergraph WMS Viewer (wmsviewer.com) facilitates collaboration of geospatial information stored in WMS sources. The thin-client Web-based application enables users to view one or more WMS servers accessed through Web sites that conform to the WMS interface standards defined by the OGC. Details here good luck Glenn - www.GISuser.com

No need to re-invent the wheel

[The-Bus]

Maybe it's possible to buy a database of that information and make it your own? I don't think map24.com, for example, started from scratch... That would be a hell of a lot of work.

Re:No need to re-invent the wheel

[Tomcat666]

I attended a speech of the inventor of Map24 - the CEO of Mapsolute.

- They get their data from three companies, TeleAtlas, NAVTEQ and AND. For quite some money you can get their databases consisting of GBs of maps, and use it the way you want. This is true at least for the EU version, different conditions might exist for the US maps (see map24.com bottom).

- The Map24 applet connects to their map server directly (just over a proxy), using their own Map Transport Protocol (MapTP). So in theory you are able to connect like the applet, and query the whole country at the highest zoom - getting GBs of vector information to use. But they'll probably notice, so don't try it. :)

Anyway, the conclusion is: Like most mapping websites, Map24 (Mapsolute) use commercial maps of mapping companies, they didn't start from scratch. But using it without shelling out a lot of money won't work.

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.

USGS

[glass_window]

The USGS has this really cool thing they call the 'national map' (http://nationalmap.usgs.gov/nmjump.html) that will display all sorts of information down to the street level and it allows you to download and print the maps you display along with the information. But enough of that, go check it out for yourself, enjoy!

For a more direct link: http://nmviewogc.cr.usgs.gov/viewer.htm

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.

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.

Re:PostGIS

[po8]

Yeah, this is the kind of /. question that drives me nuts. "I want some map data, with a whole bunch of constraints on what kind it is, and I want it to be free. Oh, by the way, I found exactly that from the USGS. However, in spite of the fact that there are tens or maybe hundreds of open source projects that use it just fine, I can't figure out how. So that's no good."

The first page of freshmeat.net after searching for "tiger" contains a link to this open source TIGER map server. Maybe that would be a good starting point. Further down the page are getmap and geotools, which also support TIGER.

I wish submitters and especially editors would realize that when they don't do their homework, they're wasting the time of literally hundreds of thousands of people. Sometimes a lot of time, like when the idiots actually waste extra time writing a long-winded reply.

*scratches head*

[Akardam]

Maybe I've missed something, but I was under the impression that the arial and topo maps presented via terraserver were copyrighted/owned by the people that put them together in the first place. I don't think Microsoft, as much as we may think otherwise, has mapping sats in orbit. Last time I checked, the data itself belonged to people like the USGS.

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:*scratches head*

[Anonymous Coward]

It clearly states under the aerial photos on Terraserver website "Image courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey." As the previous poster said, this is reiterated in the FAQ. Anyone can reuse, repackage, redistribute, even sell information/maps/photos, etc produced and published by the federal government. They can even copyright the delivery method/software, etc but the original data cannot be copyrighted (the idea being that it was created with taxpayer money.) So any of the images on Terraserver can be used and manipulated in any way. For future reference, while you've gotten great information from everyone on this site, this is something you can actually ask about at the library (gasp!) believe it or not, there are Federal Depository Libraries all around the United States where librarians specialize in Government Information, and can actually answer questions like this. (Both where to find the maps and the copyright question.) Often these departments have Map libraries associated with them because of the large amount of geographic and geologic information produced by the federal government.

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.

Re:Maps and accessories baby...

[SmurfButcher Bob]

That'd only give you positional accuracy, which is almost useless. What's needed is attribution for a given segment - what's the address block of the left side? The right? Are the addresses uniformly distributed? Any "even" numbered houses on the "odd" side of the street or vice-versa?

Then there's the type of street, directionality, names and aliases, speed limits, on-street parking, sidewalks left and right, bike-routes left and right, congestion levels (by time of day), max axle weight capability, max height clearance, lane counts (left and right), and other attribution (car-pools only, etc) that'd be relevent.

Positional accuracy of the segments is pretty much worthless by itself. Cool to look at in real time, but only useful in real time... which is stupid ("Look, ma! The map say's we're right HERE! And look, we ARE!")

Good attribution with crap positional accuracy is 1000000 times more useful than perfect position without such attributes, because it enables you to use the map BEFORE you go somewhere.

TIGER -- look again

[pb]

Go to freshmeat and search for "tiger maps"; check out the Tiger Map Server project.

Note that they don't have labels rendered on the streets yet, but plan to add this. However, all the code is there, and the data is available, so there's no need to reinvent the wheel here.

Re:TIGER -- look again

[Jaysyn]

I think he's needing datasets & not predrawn maps. His best & cheapest bet would be to get the Free TIGER line files & read thru the 436pg manual on how to use them. That's what we did. I guess if time is a problem, then he's going to pay out the nose. Other resources include MapInfo Streetworks (not too expensive for the level of detail) & ESRI.

Jaysyn

Re:TIGER -- look again

[waykiorg]

I think TIGER is the way to go. One of the things about using TIGER data is that it has its own data format, however there are converters out there that will convert them to SHP format, which can be used with pretty much everything (i.e. MapServer and PostGIS). There are also companies that offer converted data from TIGER (albeit for a price, but it does take a little time to actually do the conversions yourself).

All of the street level labels are there too, which makes it a very good source of free data. I've been using the data for my own project and it was fairly easy to setup.

Tiger Files

[aef123]

Take another look at the Tiger Files, they really are one of the best sources of data you can use. In fact, I have found that the tiger files are even more accurate than MapQuest for rural Utah towns. (However, MapQuest has them beat for more populous areas.)

Not only do the files include streets, but it also covers bodies of water, railways, etc.. You can even retrieve additional information such as school districts and voting districts, which you can overlay on your maps.

Along with the files, you can download a 300 page PDF document fully detailing all the table structures and how to interpret the data.

Don't discount them just because it will take a bit of work to figure them out.

Re:Tiger Files

[BearInTheWoods]

The US Census Bureau's TIGER/Line data is very good (and free) for vector-based line data (roads, rivers, railways, etc).

That said, here are a few shortcomings in the TIGER/Line database:

• city database is incredibly incomplete -- lots and lots of the smaller towns are missing; this is surprising given the source of the data (Census Bureau); you'll want to get your town/city data elsewhere (e.g. USGS)
• point-based landmark data is inconsistent and poor (many important things seem to be missing while things like shopping malls are included, but very inconsistently)
• there is no 'freeway exit' information, making routing algorithms problematic
• there is no data to discern normal roads from '1-way' roads -- another problem for routing algorithms
• the database contains several errors (from simple mis-spellings to oddities in the supplied street address ranges)

Aside from those minor shortcomings, I find the TIGER/Line data very useful and hope it's not suddenly made unavailable by some bureaucratic nonsense.

What would be nice is a way to have an open-source/libre/gratis database to expand upon the TIGER/Line datasets.

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.

Re:Maporama

[Alien54]

There are a few oddities I've noticed, often due to the boundaries for bodies of water being defined at the province or stare level, and not being detailed enough at the local level. But often they are quite good.

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?

I'm looking too.

[Kent Swanson]

I'm trying to set up a similar to mapquest, but specifically to find bike friendly routes. I have searched around an the best data I have found is the tiger map data. The file naming scheme in not friendly but once you are past that it isn't so bad. Lood for opengis ( a cd of gis tools) to help process the data. Grass is a good tool, and mapserver from the university of Minnesota is a good web tool for displaying maps. The one downside of TIGER data is that it doesn't tell you if roads are connected or just pass over or under each other, and nothing about if a road is a one-way or not. My project if I get it off the ground will have a tool to gather that info with a handheld (zaurus) and a gps.

Remember Mr Perens

[platypus]

Bruce Perens once bought a data set of AFAIK exactly what you want from his own money and put it on his server for free use. Look here
http://perens.com/FreeSoftware/
Though I didn't get into the ftp server, I'm sure the files are still out there.

Very nice and forthlooking of him.

Find the offsping of Tiger

[thogard]

Tiger is the format of the census files and they list every road where people live or work in theory. They are also only accurate for time of the census (1990,2000,2010) and some of the pre/post processing checks (1989,1992,1999,2002,2005,...) and are accurate relitive to the local map datum which may or may not be anywhere close to WGS-84 (which is what your GPS will most likly default to). A while back a new group was set up to prevent the duplication of work between the Census dept and others that also need the same data (USPS, Dept of Interior, USDA). I'm not sure what that dept is called.

There are plenty of resources on the net about how to parse Tiger line data and most of the main mapping programs that do street level views where based on that data with many corrections. For example its common that older streets will be on a state map datum and improperly adjusted to NAD27 and/or WGS85 or something else. You can find roads that aren't parallel even though they all are directly north or you can get some interesting results when one township was on one datum and the next township over was in a different one which results in the streets appearing to be in the order of 1st, 3rd, 2nd. You also have things like auto placement where one road is just so out of place, auto placement aginst sat photos puts the wrong name on it and somehow it bounces the correctly named road someplace else. The plan was to clean that up for the 2000 census data but I think the task was just too large.

There is a programm called "Grass" that will read in these files. It might be a place to start.

You might want to do a google groups search in the newsgroup sci.geo.cartography as well.

Terraserver copyright

[cr@ckwhore]

Just a quick FYI... terraserver images are not copyright of Microsoft ... the technical name for the images are "Digital Ortho Quadrangle" and their supplied by the USGS. Microsoft can claim copyright on the interface, etc., but not the images.

You can obtain more information about DOQs on the USGS web site. Start by searching google...

Watch out who you ask for information ...

[auburnate]

In this present day and age, you may have officials from HLS or FBI come knocking wondering what on earth you need maps for ...

SourceForge Project and US Government Map Products

[OldHawk777]

Project: RoadMap: Summary

http://sourceforge.net/projects/roadmap/
http:/ /tiger.census.gov/cgi-bin/mapbrowse-tbl
http://ww w.census.gov/geo/www/maps/CP_MapProducts. htm
http://opensourcegis.org/
http://fsffrance.o rg/news/news.en.html
http://www.map-collections.c om
http://www.mapimage.com/grass_latitude_maps_ma p_ap plication_poly_server.html

GI - http://maps.langenberg.com/

A navigation system that displays US street maps (from the US Census Bureau) and tracks a vehicule using GPS. Specific areas can be displayed by selecting a street address (street number & name, city, and state). RoadMap can run on iPAQ and Zaurus.

Developer Info
Project Admins:
pascmartin
Personal Information
User ID: 11734
Login Name: pascmartin
Publicly Displayed Name: Pascal F Martin
Email Address: pascmartin at users.sourceforge.net
Site Member Since: 2000-02-06 13:19 :Vector Graphics

* Development Status: 5 - Production/Stable
* Environment: Handhelds/PDA's, X11 Applications
* Intended Audience: End Users/Desktop
* License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
* Natural Language: English
* Operating System: POSIX
* Programming Language: C
* Topic: Viewers, GIS

I hope this helps - OldHawk777

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:Wrong.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your Local "MLK drive" was called something different 30 years ago.

Typically, the "wrong side of the tracks".

Since you're in the US..

[snillfisk]

You should consider yourself lucky. Most of the information you need is already avaiable to you, in the public domain. As several other has mentioned, the Tiger-files will provide loads of information and you should really have a look at those (to convert them into your own format). It took a few weeks to do it, but the task is far from impossible.

The other question asked is however much more important, what about completly open maps in a free for all use setting? As i mentioned, this is the case for the US, but quite far from the truth for some other countries in the world :| If you're going to let other people use your data, please provide them in an open and accesible format, like WFS. Have a look at GeoServer and PostGIS (for PostgreSQL) or do as we do, store everything as GML - an open standard presented by OpenGIS (which also stands behind WFS and WMS). Take a look at their website which features quite a few important standards and other resources.

Making data available as WMS or WFS allows other people to seamlessly integrate them into their own applications. Seeing an application just importing more and more information thats available by WMS is simply amazing. The norwegian rescue service uses an internal WMS-server for all their mapping data, which provides information about currents, weather, available ships in some parts of the world that supports the system and loads of other information. This comes from several different sources and are integrated into the application on the last step. All the seperate units are responsible for their own mapping data and can upgrade and improve their data at any time without any interaction from the end user.

We export information by WFS, although probably not very interesting for your use, it demonstrates the possibilities. You may browse our repository at OneMap by using our SVG client.

VTP needs a mention here....

[Antilles]

http://vterrain.org/

from their site:

<b>The goal of VTP is to foster the creation of tools for easily constructing any part of the real world in interactive, 3D digital form.

This goal will require a synergetic convergence of the fields of CAD, GIS, visual simulation, surveying and remote sensing. VTP gathers information and tracks progress in areas such as procedural scene construction, feature extraction, and rendering algorithms. VTP writes and supports a set of software tools, including an interactive runtime environment (VTP Enviro). The tools and their source code are freely shared to help accelerate the adoption and development of the necessary technologies.

</b>

No, he is not re-inventing the wheel

[FeatureBug]

He wants maps which are under a Creative-Commons type of copyright licence because he wants to be able to publish derivative works such as annotated or modified versions of the original map . The copyright licences on most existing maps, as used by map24.com, are not compatible with Creative-Commons licences, which prevents him from using them.

UMN Mapserver is free, can use nationalatlas.gov

[ftzdomino]

UMN Mapserver works fairly well to display map files from nationalatlas.gov (water features, county boundaries, state boundaries, a lot else). I have used this to display points on state and county maps. I use data from the Tiger 2002 files to get long/late coordinates from an address in order to plot onto the map. The tiger files aren't 100% useful for mailing addresses, as they don't contain all streets and have no information about R.R. postal addresses. As far as understanding the tiger files goes, there are some help documents which explain what all the files are as well as their data formats.

Copyright and the Government

[Baricom]

There's been a lot of questions about what the government can and cannot copyright. Here's some relevant information:

• The government cannot copyright their own works, but they can hold the copyright of others. Source
• Works by state (and local) governments are not necessarily in the public domain. Source

Another good resource is the Copyright FAQ here, which elaborates on both of those points.

Disclaimer: These resources are for the U.S. YMMV. IANAL.