[HOT] Pakistan Anti-Mapping Legislation: Implications for HOT/OSM

[Faisal Chohan]

I agree with the Alex suggestions. I Iike the idea to write about enefits
of Openstreetmap data in disaster, transparency, business use, social
issues ( that we are trying to do with sanitation in Rawalpindi), fighting
corruption etc and then publish this in International and local media. We
can also take good examples from other countries. I am happy to be part of
this.

We tried to enhance and use Openstreetmap for the first time in Pakistan,
resisting the use of Google maps that are in much better shape in Pakistan
than Openstreetmap, but do not provide any Open Data. Google may comply
with Government of Pakistan laws and then can continue improving its maps.
But for Opnstreetmap, every individual and group  registering with  GOP
will not be possible. Hence, improving and use of the the openstreetmap
will be very limited after this law and will discourage innovation in this
domain.

On the case of starting the Rawalpindi mapping, I had one personal bad
experience turned into tragedy in the past and that is one of the personal
reasons to be careful. But once i have my emotions in control, I am of the
point of view to accelerate the project instead of stopping it.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/hot/attachments/20121129/43e41233/attachment.html>