[OSM-talk] Can Google use our buildings

[Nathan Mixter]

I'm not sure if this link has been posted before, but for those wondering
how Google got their new buildings, there is a link at PC Magazine
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2411232,00.asp. Apparently they
recently uploaded 25M buildings done through an automated image recognition
software.

I've manually added most of the buildings in the city of Gilroy (
http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/?lon=-121.56369&lat=37.00553&zoom=17) so I was
curious to find out where they got their data from. I thought maybe the
city or county had a secret source that I hadn't found. And I checked
everywhere I could to find buildings that could have been imported.

I was wondering if OSM could do the same thing. Could we buy as a group a
program like Feature Analyst, eCognition or Imagine Objective and add
buildings that way? We could combine the buildings with any existing
address points available. I checked into it earlier this year and one
program was about $2,000. But the money could be quickly raised. I know I
would be willing to donate.
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