OpenStreetMap, supporting the pretty.


I've been interested in all this for a while OpenStreetMap and today was that I began to investigate more thoroughly, directly from the cell phone and see what all this was about. It is already known that it is a cartographic platform in which anyone can edit the maps and their databases in order to create a gigantic online map full of information, this above, of course.

This whole project is interesting because it allows you to directly customize your maps, not in the sense that "Oh, I have my own map" but in the sense that we can tap and edit maps to enrich the information that exists in them.

The beauty of it all is that, as its name says, it is free, and the beautiful thing is that, unlike some situations, this project is a real competition and to be feared by great actors in this field because it is proven that OSM quality is equal to or better than its counterparts since it is not edited by a few employees or is not supported by large budgets, but is driven by small contributions from thousands of people around the world, who with a GPS or Smartphone can map almost anything, detail sites and enlarge the base of data and that (this is very important) OSM has more scope for that same issue ... more people moving in different transports, places and times generate more information.

Now, I discussed this with a die-hard fanatic friend of the Google Services and Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), (How counterproductive right?) who fights me tooth and nail that does not need OSM having already Google Maps ...

Come on, okay, we are all free to choose what we want and I choose OSM for my own reasons, but she asked a question that they answer perfectly in the Wiki of the project (in spanish, by the way) the question was Why OSM?

Why OpenStreetMap?
In many parts of the world, such as Spain, public geographic data (geodata) is not freely usable. In general, in these countries, the task of carrying out the surveys of this type of information has been delegated to various government-dependent institutions (such as the IGN in Spain) that in turn sell this cartography to people like you, obtaining a profit for it. If you live in one of these countries you are paying twice for that public information. The first when generating it, through your taxes, and the second when acquiring a copy of it.

In countries like the USA, the raw (untreated) cartographic data belonging to the government, such as TIGER files, are in the public domain, however those edited and corrected generally have copyright to be able to trade with them .

The products of these organizations that provide geographic and cartographic information contain in some cases incorrect data, the so-called Easter Eggs, in order to be able to discover and expose those who have taken a copy of them without authorization. This type of deception appears on maps in the form of non-existent elements, imaginary place names, digital watermarks, or very small control points, invisible to the naked eye by the person who consults them (or copies them) but easily locatable by those trained to search for them. If you make a map using these data as a basis, you may be copying one of these Easter eggs without knowing and discovering its fraudulent use. Likewise, the map that you purchased may be incorrect due to the fact that you bought it a year ago and currently new roads have been opened, or simply because the information gathering was wrong.

If you still accept all these terms in many places you will not be able to do anything more than a limited use right of that cartography. You cannot, for example, correct a street name, add new points of interest, or use the data in a computer program without paying a hefty price for it. Much more money than you probably have. What if you want to send it to a friend, mail the map along with an invitation, or put it on a notice board? Many of these uses are less legal than you might think.

Advances in technology have allowed us to have cheap GPS devices that allow you to create your own maps in collaboration with many other users without this data having any of the aforementioned restrictions. The possibility of carrying it out allows you to make known to the world the place where you live. If it doesn't exist on a map it won't be known!

And why am I not using Google Maps for my data?

Short answer:

Because the data is protected under copyright and property rights of institutions such as the National Geographic Institute or others. Google / anyone owns your license. If we use it, we will have to pay for it.

Long answer:

It is a matter of freedom, not price. To understand the concept, you must think of free as "freedom of speech", not as "free beer."

Google Maps mapping is free as in "beer", not as in "expression".
Both Yahoo and Bing have entered into an agreement with OpenStreetMap to allow their aerial photographs to be used.

If the needs of your cartographic project do not require more than the Google Maps API, congratulations. But that is not true of all projects. We need a free data set that allows programmers, social activists and cartographers to meet their needs without being limited, either by Google's API or its Terms of Use.

At this point, the usual reply is' Why not just have people map directly onto a Google map, then store the latitude and longitude coordinates in the OpenStreetMap database? That's free, right? ».

Unfortunately not. The data used in Google Maps is obtained from NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas, two large mapping companies. They, in turn, have obtained some of this data from national mapping agencies (such as the IGN). These companies have invested several million euros in collecting this data, so they understandably want to protect their copyright.

If you collect the data from Google Maps you are creating a "derivative work". Any of these derived data retain the copyright conditions of the original license. In practice this means that your data is subject to the licensing rights and contractual restrictions of these mapping providers. That is exactly what OpenStreetMap is trying to avoid.

Please do not be fooled by software copyright or terms of use considerations. The Google Maps API can be incorporated into open source projects, for sure. But this only regulates the way you use the software, it has no implication for the data displayed by this API, which is still copyrighted.

(It is not clear yet whether it is allowed to create a derivative work from an aerial photograph: some readings of Spanish law suggest that you can do this without 'inheriting' the copyright of the photograph. A final decision on this could open new avenues for OpenStreetMap and similar projects, but in the absence of such a decision, we continue to stick to using only our own sources, 100% free data.)

Now, although all this is quite well explained, I have my own answers to all this ...

First of all I use OSM because it is free, that is to make things clear from the beginning, but more than an obsessive desire to use only free software, something that does not apply in its entirety to me; it is a desire for quality, and in this case OSM is clearly far superior to Google Maps for being equally precise but much more customizable.

Another very important point is that, we all know very well that Google spies on us, let's not fall for it (As they say in my country), it is true and we know it, and give Google the ability to track us and know, among other things, the places we frequent, where we work and blah, blah ... well, it doesn't suit me, much less having a Android where I have disabled all the options Google Maps.

The thing is that, in my case OSM It does not have very complete maps of my city, in fact, it barely has streets and urbanizations, but no places of interest, public transport routes or anything at all, it is a blank canvas, which does not make it a disadvantage but in something very different; makes it the perfect opportunity for me to directly build the map of my city and contribute something to this project.

Doing so is too simple, if you have a Android like me, just download the API from OSM, OSMand in the Android Market Google Play and voila, you already have both an application to review ALL OSM MAPS as well as all the tools to create routes, points, descriptions, etc. Anyway, everything you need to generate your local information with luxury and details yourself and then upload it directly to the project database, so beautiful ...

If you don't have a Android but if any GPS device, then go to the wiki section of the project and check how you can do it, everything is in Spanish and well documented.

Now if you don't have anything that looks like a GPS or a SmartphoneWhat does it matter, you can still collaborate by editing the maps of your city directly within the official project page or doing what they tell you in the dedicated part of the wiki to that specific topic ... There is no fight or excuses, you can participate you can participate.

I personally, and to finish, I have put together a group with my friends to begin to thoroughly document everything we can to support the entire project of OSM and also, have fun for a long time in the car while we map or on the bike, or even on our feet when we feel like it ... The truth is, a good weekend activity, healthy, fun, that supports a free project and ... FUCKING GEEK! XD


16 comments, leave yours

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with *

*

*

  1. Responsible for the data: Miguel Ángel Gatón
  2. Purpose of the data: Control SPAM, comment management.
  3. Legitimation: Your consent
  4. Communication of the data: The data will not be communicated to third parties except by legal obligation.
  5. Data storage: Database hosted by Occentus Networks (EU)
  6. Rights: At any time you can limit, recover and delete your information.

  1.   cryotope said

    It is not to get smart but homologues is written with h.

    1.    Nonamed said

      it's not to get smart but 1 + 1 = 2

  2.   dwarf said

    I know but I wrote that entry at 12 am and in an html text editor, don't ask me for perfection

    1.    Courage said

      Say yes, with old excuses hahahaha.

      Look what I'm telling you ...

  3.   v3on said

    If you do not want to be smart then do not comment, I article so cool and I come to meet that first comment ...

    "In many parts of the world, such as Spain, public geographic data (geodata) are not freely usable."

    wtf? seriously? I do not know how INEGI treats these data in Mexico, but charge for them? no fuck hahahahahaha

    It has no relation, but it reminds me of the crazy people who wanted to patent the time zones hahaha xD

    but what a stupid thing to want to pay (twice) for information that should be free

  4.   mivare said

    Very interesting article. If many times the data of the companies are erroneous, fundamentally in small sites, and they cannot be changed and also I do not have to work for a company that makes a profit.
    However, I think it's fine to make corrections in programs like OSM, because we all collaborate and we all benefit.

  5.   Rodrigo said

    Yes, everything is very idyllic, but just take a look at the OSM maps to realize that they are light years away from those of Google Maps. In my area there is an urbanization built more than 12 years ago that has not yet appeared. I could hit the job updating them myself, but life is short and Google has already done that work for us;).

    1.    Gadi said

      If you refuse to complete them yourself, you should not complain that they are incomplete. For something it is an open and collaborative project.

      1.    Rodrigo said

        So you think it's good to work out the maps of your area in OSM and then companies like Apple or Foursquare come to benefit from your work for free, right?

        As much as you do it, it will never be able to compete with the Street View.

  6.   pandev92 said

    But there is a way to know how to get from one place to another, to know the schedules of transport, etc.

  7.   dwarf said

    And attitudes like that just don't work, it's that simple. Already this project is used by large companies like apple or fouraquare and where it is documented, it is well documented. It seems perfect to me that it is not useful to you, yes, and even as a hobby ...

    1.    Rodrigo said

      And is it okay with Apple to selflessly use OSM maps made by users and get a slice of it?

  8.   mdrvro said

    What a good article and also what good arguments about Why OpenStreetMap ?. The truth is that not long ago I started on this OpenStreetMap (in Marble to be more precise) and it seems to me a truly fascinating world. It becomes interesting how each one can contribute a grain of sand in this "world" of opensource or free software.

  9.   dwarf said

    for them and for anyone who wants to use them ... or are they the only ones? I already said it, if you want to use google maps, fine, but come to criticize and distort osm or any project just because you don't like it ... well, it won't. I cannot use streetview in my country because it has not expanded and Gmaps here is nothing more than osm ... sorry

  10.   Marco said

    I fully support Openstreetmap, it is much higher in cities where Google Maps only puts 3 lines is the case in my country, I mean Ecuador ... I will do my contribution as much as possible ... very good post nano ... Greetings ...

  11.   EdBG said

    Regards. I see that I am late to the discussion on OSM. To the information in this post I would like to first add Marble, a desktop client that allows consulting OSM, something like Google Earth. Then there is Merkaartor, a program that allows you to download sections of the maps and edit them on your computer. Finally, for Firefox OS there is a tool that also uses OSM information, it is called Lantea Maps and it is available on the Marketplace. I hope the information is useful to you.