[talk-ph] Google Map Maker Power Users Launch

Eugene Alvin Villar seav80 at gmail.com
Wed Oct 8 16:42:14 BST 2008


Hello OSMers (what *do* we call OSM contributors?),

I was invited to the Google Map Maker Power Users Launch in Makati
Shangri-la yesterday night (October 7).

As a background, I've blogged about Google Map Maker vis-a-vis OpenStreetMap
a couple of times before:

http://vaes9.codedgraphic.com/posts/google_map_maker_osm
http://vaes9.codedgraphic.com/posts/google_dumps_navteq_opens_map_maker

Anyway, I was able to talk to a couple of Google guys, though they are in
the marketing side of things, not the development side. One is from Google
SG and the other from Google HK. I basically asked the usual questions
OSMers have. It's expected that they will offer the Map Maker data to the
public but through the Google Maps API alone as prerendered map tiles and
possibly routing information and local business directory search.

There's no definite word about offering to the public the actual raw data
and if so whether it will be under an open license or not. But they
supposedly are planning to create a Map Maker API (which is different from
the Maps API). I have no clear idea what this API is supposed to do, but the
Google HK guy said that this is supposed to "give back" to the contributors
the data that they have contributed.

I am planning to write an in-depth post about the event within the week or
by this weekend.


Regards,
Eugene

-- 
http://vaes9.codedgraphic.com
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