Slashgeo

Steve Coast writes "OpenStreetMap is an effort to create free maps of the world, mainly in areas like Europe where national mapping agencies have a monopoly on mapping data. The maps are created by annotating GPS traces or using photography. There is an active mailing list and wiki as well as a ever-growing code base and coders hacking away. We're also trying to raise a little money by selling some stunning posters."

Ben from the Virtual Terrain Project stumbled into serious limitations with DigitalGlobe, owners Quickbird, of one of the only three civil 1-meter remote sensing satellites. Ben's explanation: "It appears that Google licensed ALL of DigitalGlobe's imagery on an _exclusive_ basis for online presentation. So if i wanted to do something on a website, with DigitalGlobe's hi-res imagery, for example if the Google Maps framework isn't flexible enough, i cannot legally go around Google to license the image myself! I can imagine why Google did this - to prevent Microsoft,Mapquest etc. from licensing the same imagery in their webmapping frameworks - but the net effect is that ordinary people, NGOs and small companies are also cut off." See the official DigitalGlobe reply below from the complete thread.

Following last week's story of Digital Globe's deal with Google, many voices pointed to the importance of data in the industry. From this short O'Reilly Radar entry: "As Microsoft's acquisition of Vexcel earlier this year also confirms, this is unlikely to be the only or last case of landgrabbing and does a good job in reminding us of Tim's argument that Data is the next Intel Inside -- a source of competitive advantage." There's a link to Jo Walsh's excellent post named "Why open geodata in an open source software foundation?" See also the numerous related stories below.

The Into The Pudding blog discuss why isn’t collaborative geodata a big deal already? From the introduction: "So if by Weber’s criteria geospatial data has a high chance for a true architecture of participation to form around, then why don’t we see more collaboratively built maps? Why do governments and commercial ventures dominate the landscape of geospatial data? Though there are several emerging examples, shouldn’t they be a bigger deal?" They are multiple projects on data collaboration, but Chris Holmes makes good points. The OpenStreetMap project (working on Bath right now) is one good example, wikimapia is another (Chris lists more examples).

Following this previous story, Chris Holmes summarize the feedback he got on why isn’t collaborative geodata a bigger deal. From the post: "I believe the point when mapping data will snowball is when it makes economic sense for a company to invest in a collaboratively built map, improving it for their needs, instead of licensing a proprietary map. And yes, this too will be different for each company - some only need general context to overlay their specific geospatial information, others need exact info and routing and the like."

Lisa Campbell, Autodesk's VP of the Infrastructure Solutions Division, gave the Keynote speech at the Geomatics 2006 event this morning. The speech emphasized on data as key to geospatial business (see previous stories). With Autodesk's backing of the OSGeo, I wasn't surprised to see her focus on open source geospatial software, including MapGuide, with mentions of geospatial standards and the OGC. The Feature Data Objects library was also on the menu. She additionally told us about landxml.org, an initiative I wasn't aware of. On a personal note, in my speech (which took place right after Lisa!), I underlined the fact that the project I was presenting is extensively using GDAL/OGR open source libraries. On another personal note, I was surprised to meet several Slashgeo readers that came to say hello during the day (thanks :-).

All Points Blog links to a Reuters article telling us DigitalGlobe is to acquire GlobeXplorer. From the press release: "Together, DigitalGlobe's industry-leading archive and high-resolution, high-capacity satellite and GlobeXplorer's effective Web-based search and delivery applications create the commercial remote sensing (CRS) industry's most extensive, complete and easy-to-use solution for acquiring, integrating and distributing all types of high-quality digital Earth imagery and data." See the numerous relevant related stories below.

GeoPlace run an interesting and long interview with John Curlander, general manager of Microsoft’s Virtual Earth Business Unit, on the subject of data ownership and web services. From the interview: "Web services aren’t going to replace the desktop GIS of today, like the ESRI tools or tools from some of the other vendors, but a big percentage of the work can be done with the Web-service model. We may have some ups and downs figuring out how to best address the more custom needs of this community, but we’ll get there. [...] I would call the Virtual Earth system a work in progress, and that’s the whole value of taking a Web-services approach. Being a Web service, as opposed to a downloadable application, we can continue to update the functionality without burdening the user." Related, APB links to Bill Gates few comments on Microsoft's mapping future: "When it is finished, Mr. Gates said a person will be able to pull up a 3-D map of Ottawa and the Parliament buildings will jut out of the scenery as if they were part of a pop-up book."

Participating at GeoTec 2007, Calgary, here's my summary of Ed Parsons' Keynote, which was one hour of pure geowisdom. Read more below for my summary.