[OSM-talk] Free the postcode maps

[Tom Carden]

On 04/07/06, Simon Hewison <simon at zymurgy.org> wrote:
>
> Talking of which, has anyone thought of asking our friends at eCourier if
> they can help? I mean, they probably already have the postcode of a pick-up
> and a delivery, and their GPS traces should pass those locations, with a
> stop of at least a minute.

Yes, we asked them (and about street data that their users had
entered).  They said no :(

Obviously I don't speak for eCourier here, but if I recall correctly
(without violating my NDA!) the problem was that they would probably
be violating the terms of their geocoder license. In essence they'd be
caching the location it gave them plus a bit of random noise added by
actually visiting the location... I know that sounds silly but that's
how it is. It's not totally out of the question, but they weren't
willing to risk it.

>
> Again, the data probably needs to be de-personalised/anonymised as even the
> fact that eCourier has a client at a particular postcode is probably
> commercially sensitive to them.
>
> That'll work for London, maybe we need to make friends with other delivery /
> collection organisation like dustmen, milkmen, live organ transplant
> delivery, or whatever, to get better coverage of tracklogs.
>

Yes, if anyone has regular dealings with a cab firm or a courier in
their town, it would be ideal to lend them a GPS for a while and grab
the logs. Also, if they don't use GPS already then it sounds like a
business opportunity to me!

Best,

Tom.