Linux Group Shares Its First Open Dataset for Creating Real Google Maps Alternatives
https://lemmy.world/post/2194302
lemmy.worldLinux Group Shares Its First Open Dataset for Creating Real Google Maps Alternatives - Lemmy.worldgizmodo.com
[https://gizmodo.com/google-maps-alternative-overture-maps-data-linux-1850675768]
If you’re not Google (or, to a much lesser extent, Apple), map apps are damned
hard to make. Last year, several major heavy hitters in tech, including the
likes of Meta, Microsoft, TomTom, and Amazon, decided to lay down their arms and
meet under a flag of parlay held aloft by the Linux Foundation to make mapping
just a little easier, cheaper, and less dominated by two companies. Alone, none
could establish a big enough data pool to rival the likes of Google Maps, but
with their individual hoards of business location data, satellite mapping tech,
and more support from smaller tech firms, they could perhaps gather enough data
together to help create a whole new series of up-to-date map apps. On Wednesday,
this pooled initiative, called the Overture Maps Foundation, shared its first
alpha release [https://overturemaps.org/download/] for its mapping data. It
contains millions of examples for buildings, roads, and geographic boundaries.
It’s only the first large release for the planned massive dataset, but the hope
is there will be much more to come as companies sign on. Marc Prioleau, the
executive director of the Overture Maps Foundation, was named as head of the
project back in May. He’s been around mapping projects for many years, having
worked in the start of the GPS market back in 1995, and later moved on to the
likes of Meta and Uber for their location-based services. He said if there’s one
thing that strikes at the difficulty of building a high-quality app with
exacting road and place information, it’s the ephemeral nature of public
infrastructure. “The hardest thing in mapping is knowing what’s changed in the
world,” Prioleau told Gizmodo in a video chat. Essentially, map apps are some of
the hardest to design simply because of the massive amount of data required to
build the systems. Not only do they need to be accurate, but they need to be
constantly updated when businesses close and new ones open. The first Overture
release contains about 59 million points of interest that the group claims has
not yet been released as open data before. A POI could be anything—a public
landmark, a specific building, or a local business. Otherwise, the data contains
about 750 million building footprints alongside road data that’s mostly collated
from the crowdsourced OpenStreetMap project. So how much of the world does this
alpha release truly cover? Prioleau said the POI data makes up around 60 to 70%
of a worldwide dataset. In his mind, a good number to shoot for is somewhere
between 80 and 100 million places. It’s something of a Goldilocks problem. With
around 200 million POIs, Prioleau said you’d likely be hoarding a lot of “junk,”
but too little means you’re obviously missing out on locations, especially from
less represented countries. As far as the building data, he said that “feels
pretty complete” as far as laying out worldwide structures, considering that the
U.S. itself contains something around 100 million buildings. A good chunk of
that data came from Meta through businesses listing their addresses on Facebook
or Instagram. Microsoft also handed over some of its data through its work on
Bing Maps, but the two sets combined included duplicates, which cut down on
total numbers. The Overture director said the foundation has plans to add more
datasets in the future from other sources centered on different continents. The
road data is a different beast entirely. The vast majority of it is based on the
OpenStreetMap [https://gizmodo.com/why-the-world-needs-openstreetmap-1495412839]
project, an open source, wiki-style resource
[https://gizmodo.com/not-all-roads-actually-lead-to-rome-1748060034]compiled by
internet users going on nearly 18 years. Prioleau said Overture has modified the
project’s info to make it easier to attach new datapoints. The project has also
worked to standardize and fact check the data contained on the project’s site.
There’s also several benefits to using this Wikipedia-style map compared to how
Google might spend billions maintaining its map data every year (or otherwise
buying up the competition like it did with Waze). Users on the ground can
archive and modify the map to note damage during a natural disaster. “One of the
things [OpenStreetMap] does incredibly well is build richness into the map,
because what you map is no longer determined by what your commercial interest
is, it’s what the community wants to map.” Prioleau described himself as “the
only full time employee” of the Linux Foundation-based group. Otherwise, the
Foundation has depended on around 130 engineers from Meta, Microsoft, and more
of the steering companies. As far as maintaining the data, the Overture head
said that there’s no contractual agreement for companies to use the open source
resources, but they’re still heavily encouraging all those who build upon their
foundation to somehow give back to the data source with any new information they
collect. “The incentive is: if you want to fork [AKA build off] Overture, start
building your own dataset and not give stuff back, then you’re on your own to
maintain that dataset going forward.” Prioleau said. “So the incentive to giving
back is that your data remains part of this consortium.” What’s next is to
create a “global entity reference system” for attaching data points to a map,
which will then facilitate even more layers of information for new apps. Today’s
map users aren’t just looking for ways to get from place to place, but from door
to door. Delivery drivers need to know where they can pick up and drop off
items. People with disabilities want to know where they can find ramp or
elevator access. “Maps are really digitization of things that are observable,”
the Overture lead said. “We’re not mapping secret stuff. We’re mapping roads and
addresses and places—things that are observable. And as the ways of capturing
observable stuff gets better, the ability to build maps gets better.”
openstreetmap.org [https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/39.9788/-75.2467]
Links: gizmodo.com/your-phones-navigation-app-is-probably-smarter-than-you
[https://gizmodo.com/your-phones-navigation-app-is-probably-smarter-than-you-1845487003]
https://gizmodo.com/iphone-find-my-apple-maps-mistake-houston-house
[https://gizmodo.com/iphone-find-my-apple-maps-mistake-houston-house-1850312915]
gizmodo.com/linux-google-maps-meta-aws-microsoft-tomtom
[https://gizmodo.com/linux-google-maps-meta-aws-microsoft-tomtom-1849899375]
prnewswire.com/news-releases/overture-maps-foundation-names-marc-prioleau-as-executive-director
[https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/overture-maps-foundation-names-marc-prioleau-as-executive-director-301825284.html]
gizmodo.com/why-google-buying-waze-will-keep-you-out-of-gridlock
[https://gizmodo.com/why-google-buying-waze-will-keep-you-out-of-gridlock-he-512611345]
