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> a lot of early OSM data came from enthusiasts digitizing old US Army maps because, indeed, they were public domain But that's the rub, we the taxpayers have
by malandrew 6y ago
> a lot of early OSM data came from enthusiasts digitizing old US Army maps because, indeed, they were public domain
But that's the rub, we the taxpayers have paid for all the map creation, even the new high resolution ones with far greater accuracy, yet we're stuck with these older, lower resolution and likely out-of-date maps. Even the new maps should be public domain.
- mc32 6y ago?? Some countries don’t have the resources for high precision maps. They have old maps from whenever they were commissioned.
- paxswill 6y agoIf you're referring to maps produced by the US government, they are in the public domain. Early on it sounds like there wasn't an easy way to transfer "raw" map data around (hence the tracing), but it's pretty easy now to access official maps in full resolution: * US Geological Survey: https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/ngp/tnm-delivery https://www.usgs.gov/core-science-systems/ngp/tnm-delivery * National Park Service: https://mapservices.nps.gov/arcgis/rest/services https://mapservices.nps.gov/arcgis/rest/services * US Forest Service: https://www.fs.usda.gov/visit/maps https://www.fs.usda.gov/visit/maps (the API access is further down that page). Those linked above typically available through a standard API (Tile Map Service), as well as ESRI's moderately well documented REST API for accessing shapefiles and features. My one complaint about this data is how the USFS manages their data. In that case it seems each service region defines how data should be made available, so you have a pile of different methods for accessing things like road/trail features, or points of interest (in many cases, it comes down to "fetch this pile of ZIP files").