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| This note is issued by Free Software User's group , Thiruvananthapuram , in the light of the news item that appeared in mathrubhumi today.
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| Link: http://www.mathrubhumi.com/php/newFrm.php?news_id=123843&n_type=HO&category_id=3&Farc=&previous=Y | | Link: http://www.mathrubhumi.com/php/newFrm.php?news_id=123843&n_type=HO&category_id=3&Farc=&previous=Y |
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| There is a need for publicly available maps. especially ones that highlight areas of local interest. Mapping parties are community's way to generate such data. Previously such data generation was difficult and hence was not done. Since the dawn of internet and the consequent ease of use in collaboration and data sharing, it is possible now to collaborate online for the community to generate and maintain publicly accessible map data. Most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways. OpenStreetMap is a project aimed to counter this, creating and providing free geographic data which can be used anyone.
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| When a company like Google organizes such events and makes use of community resources to do so we should understand that their intentions may not be purely public service. Once the community hands over valuable mapping data to Google, it essentially becomes their property and more modifications/unrestricted public usage is not possible with that data. This goes against the intuitive attitude of shairng and empathy on which the human society is built. The Google Terms of Service says "Except where you have been specifically licensed to do so by Google, you may not use Google Maps with any products, systems, or applications installed or otherwise connected to or in communication with vehicles, capable of vehicle navigation, positioning, dispatch, real time route guidance, fleet management or similar applications. Also, you may not use Google Maps in a manner which gives you or any other person access to mass downloads or bulk feeds of numerical latitude and longitude coordinates." This expressly prohibits people from using the data in creative, productive, or unexpected ways. By willingly submitting to their terms of service we are robbing ourselves off the opportunities to use this data creatively.
| | This note is issued in light of the news item that appeared in mathrubhumi today in which the Head of the Intelligence Wing, Dr. Siby Mathews, has announced that a letter will be sent to the government demanding that the Kerala mapping project of Google has to be banned. We wish to point out that Google Maps (http://maps.google.com) already has such detailed maps of most major countries in the world and preventing such mapping is virtually impossible in a democratic country. To the best of our knowledge, no country in the world seems to have banned such mapping. Moreover, there is a need for such maps for use by the general public. |
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| There have been a series of mapping parties including:
| | Today's technology enables even mobile phones to have built-in gps and makes it possible for anyone to do mapping at a reasonably high resolution. This has resulted in detailed maps of even cities in the United States being hosted in Google Maps. It is to be noted that the perceived threat of such maps has not made these governments to ban them. Reasonably high resolution maps and satellite imageries of cities like Bengaluru and Mumbai are available on the Google site. Apparently, the police departments in these places do not have any problems with this. Moreover, such maps can be included in web sites where, for instance, participants in a conference need to be shown the location of the conference venue and the way to reach there and people can understand the route to places they are visiting for the first time. Thus, this is a technology that helps everyone to a great extent. |
| #National Institute of Technology, Calicut Mapping Party. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/NITC_mapping_party
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| #Technopark, Trivandrum Mapping Party. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Trivandrum_mapping_party_12_dec
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| #Fort Cochin Heritage Walk Mapping. http://geohackers.in/projects/fort_cochin_mapping_party
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| This is a call to share the mapping data with the openstreetmap venture and hence make the data available for anyone to use freely. By doing this we are assuring that the data can be read and modified by everyone and not locked away in Google's servers. Since there are mobiles that come with GPS technology, it would be a shame not to use them for publicly beneficial projects such as this. When there are vendors of high resolution satellite imagery providing far more detail, a move against such efforts seems farcical.
| | Further, there is a need for such publicly available maps. especially ones that highlight areas of local interest. Mapping parties are community's way to generate such data. Previously, such data generation was not done because it was difficult or impossible . Since the dawn of internet and the consequent ease in collaboration and data sharing, this is now possible. Most maps actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways. Openstreetmap is an effort to counter this and offer rights free publicly accessible data to everyone. |
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| | We, therefore, feel that the apprehensions of the police are misplaced and an infringement of the democratic rights of the citizen. |