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Google doesn’t do open geodata: they’re the only major internet company not to be invested in OSM in some way, preferring instead to build up their own propriet
by Doctor_Fegg 9y ago
Google doesn’t do open geodata: they’re the only major internet company not to be invested in OSM in some way, preferring instead to build up their own proprietary geo database.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 9y agoHow do Bing (Microsoft) and Apple invest in OSM respectively? Also I am guessing you are not including Facebook? Or do they contribute as well?
- freyfogle 9y agoFacebook and Bing were both Gold sponsors of the most recent State of the Map US: https://2017.stateofthemap.us https://2017.stateofthemap.us though in fairness Google was a bronze sponsor Bing was a gold sponsor of the most recent State of the Map (global conference) in Japan, Facebook silver: http://2017.stateofthemap.org http://2017.stateofthemap.org Bing has for years allowed the use of their sat images for OSM tracing.
- Doctor_Fegg 9y agoFacebook is doing a lot of ML work on automated tracing from aerial imagery, which has great potential for mapping terra incognita in OSM. There are several bumps to be ironed out with the community but they're engaging well. Bing has given OSM tracing rights over its aerial imagery for several years now - it's hard to overestimate how significant that is. Apple (as you'd expect) has been much more private about its OSM work, but it has numerous people working on it and has been surfacing OSM data in Apple Maps in several parts of the world.
- rmc 9y agoBing has allowed OSMers to trace from their aerial imagery for years. Having proper aerial imagery is like night and day for mapping. It used to be Yahoo aerial in the early days.