5 replies to this topic

[SaultDon]

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...-map-maker.html

Google wants Canadian users to add their data to enhance the product that google maps offers.

What do you think about contributing to closed source? Pros and cons...

This is a one-way street when it comes to data. Yes you can view it, but you can't use it as per google's policy because a majority of the data is not theirs but contributed from various sources.

Unlike OpenStreetMap which has a more flexible license; where would you find your time better spent?

[rudy]

Would you - or anyone - help out a bank for free? Or any other corporation? Why would Google be any different? Particularly when they claim ownership to all your suggestions and corrections!!

[natcase]

Depends whether it's going to affect how people get to something I care about. I'll send in corrections if their map is going to get people frustrated and lost getting to something I want people to get to, like a business or park I like. But I'm not going to spend my Saturday afternoon doing a survey for them... Same thing applies to any commercially produced map I'm not directly competing with.

[Nick Springer]

I agree with Nat. I am not going to do wholesale cleanup for Google, but I have fixed somethings in my small town to make it easier for people to find things I feel are important. I have done this in OSM as well.

[Charles Syrett]

There's a long standing tradition for street map publishers to invite, and accept, corrections to their works. Usually this invitation is within some sort of disclaimer about content. My guess is that Google is simply doing the same thing here. Of course, it makes a lot more sense for consumers to send in bits of data here and there than it does for in-business cartographers to do it without compensation or credit.

Charles Syrett
Map Graphics
http://www.mapgraphics.com

[David Medeiros]

Ditto what Nat , Nick and Charles are saying. Although they'd probably love it if you error checked huge swaths of their product they are really just after small pieces of user input. As it aggregates they see a much greater benefit of course but on the users end the may individually only contribute one or two pieces of personally relevant information. And since you go in with your eyes wide open, knowing the restrictions on use once the data are in their system, its not a deception.

This really is very similar to how we used to operate at AAA with members contributing their corrections and updates directly to the cart department. Or our sending maps out for review to various public agencies. Because these people used the maps we produced they felt some benefit from being part of the process but of course we benefited the most by having all that free help!