Google Map Maker

[Gregory Foster]

Google has a project which is encouraging budding cartographers from around the world to contribute information to the Google Maps & Earth product line:
http://www.google.com/mapmaker
http://support.google.com/mapmaker/?hl=en

I'm less interested in this project's applicability for PLOTS (unless this is the avenue by which we're getting PLOTS maps included in Google's imagery), and more interested in the model they are using to solicit community engagement.

In particular, take a look at their "Google MapUp Kit" which provides guidance on hosting a local Map Maker meetup including slideshow presentations, handouts, scheduling instructions, etc.:
http://support.google.com/mapmaker/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=30130&parent=1094247&ctx=topic

gf

-- 
Gregory Foster || gfo...@entersection.org
@gregoryfoster <> http://entersection.com/

[Simone Cortesi]

* cough * get the real thing * cough *

get http://www.openstreetmap.org/

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[Liz Barry]

+1

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@lizbarry

[Jeffrey Warren]

In particular, Google's interest in getting volunteers to make them more data is based on the success of OpenStreetMap's idea of *mapping parties*:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mapping_parties

Their provided documentation may be based on:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mapping_Weekend_Howto

I'm sure we can learn a lot from that page in developing our own advice: http://publiclaboratory.org/wiki/host-balloon-mapping-workshop (which still needs a lot of work)

Jeff

[Jeffrey Johnson]

I will just come out and say it. Google Map Maker is a wholesale rip
off of the OSM concept and all of its ideas. Dont get me wrong, its a
nice ripoff, it looks a lot nicer than OSM etc, but it is incompatible
with the ideas and principles of the Public Laborator as I understand
them.

Jeff

[Gregory Foster]

Wow, seem to have struck a nerve :D

gf

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@lizbarry

[Simone Cortesi]

I'm an 8 years old OSM activist.

Mapmaker is to me a good example how you can turn a powerful idea like
osm, remove the good in it, add some marketing blah blah blah,
repackage it, and sell it in a way nicer way than the original
product.

This is something every Open Movement should learn, the package is
important too. They should spend more time on embellishing it, and not
only adding new awesome features.

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[Jeffrey Warren]

I think there are just a lot of justifiably frayed nerves since Google's started pushing MapMaker. Here is some interesting commentary on the subject:

http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2012/01/25/google-inc-world-bank-empowering-citizen-cartographers/
http://brainoff.com/weblog/2011/04/11/1635
http://brainoff.com/weblog/2010/03/16/1541
http://www.globalintegrity.org/blog/google-world-bank-map-deal

and some recent good news:

http://developmentseed.org/blog/2012/mar/19/world-bank-open-geo-data/

Jeff

[hagit keysar]

Hey, Thanks Jeff for the links. very very interesting.

Simone, I think it's worth thinking about the package... but as a lay user, I love openstreetmap's package, it's a wiki based design, as I understand it, and I think this is why it works. Google's package is attracting users to want the package, instead of to open it. 

any idea why Israel is not available in google's map-maker? I'm very curious of the politics behind this...

talking about the package, here is the google machine answer for a user that asked why he can't see israel:

Hi,
 Thank you for your interest in Israel. While this country is not yet open for 

editing in Map Maker, please be assured that we are working on opening up Map Maker 
for all of the world. Please see the list of countries currently open for editing:
http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=155415

We will post an update when Israel is opened for editing.

Regards,
Map Maker Guide  

I especially love the "Thank you for your interest in Israel" :)

Hagit.

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