[OSM-talk] [OSM-dev] The Mapper's Plight

[Richard Fairhurst]

Robert (Jamie) Munro wrote:

> It might be worth it for the publicity value, that's true. Perhaps we
> can raise more like £1000, and tell QinetiQ that we want copies of any
> images that happen to be over major towns/cities, with permission to
> redistribute under the creative commons license we use. QinetiQ can then
> say "We'll give you £1000 off if you agree to non-exclusive use of your
> images" to their customers. The only problem is that 2.5m may not be
> enough resolution to be useful.

Yahoo is (AIUI?) 1m in CONUS and a handful of urban areas across the  
world, 15m everywhere else. 15m is ok for railway lines and motorways  
but limited use for much else. 2.5m (or even 5m) would be a vast  
improvement.

I have to admit I've not really thought through the specifics, I  
simply think the idea of an OSM satellite is über-cool, even if just  
for a week. I'd pay for the coolness factor alone.

On a wider point, the thought of completely copyright-free hi-res  
satellite imagery is mouthwatering in itself. Never mind the impact on  
OSM alone, think of what it'd do for the wider world of hackers and  
mappers. Free US low-res data has enabled so much good stuff: what  
could people do with high-res?

cheers
Richard