Breaking Google's map monopoly: Fast custom open source maps with node

radar.oreilly.com

32 points·kkaefer··9 comments

Article doesn't say anything about a "monopoly" - can we avoid this kind of editorializing?

Speaking of what the article does not say, the real monopoly in GIS is ESRI and not Google.

And the national mapping agencies that own all the data

The article states that node.js has seen high-profile adoption at Google and Yahoo. I know of some Yahoo people in the community, but does anyone know what Google is using it for?

If you are interested in open alternatives to Google Maps, try Open Street Map, its a wiki for maps. All data is available under an open licence

what about satellite images, are there any comparable resolutions available under open licenses?

There's Landsat data, that requires a bit of processing, and some low-res Blue Marble GeoTIFFs. For very small subsets, we're also really interested in kite mapping by grassrootsmapping: http://grassrootsmapping.org

If you are thinking of high detail imagery common for major cities in the US then most of that is from flights and not from satellites. Some states have Aerial imagery as a state wide coverage available to the public.

I know that Montana has these layers and many others available on the NRIS.mt.gov website as actual GIS data services which are free for people to use.

Yahoo and Bing (Microsoft) allow OpenStreetMap volunteers to trace from their aerial/satilite imagery. You cant use the images yourself, but they can be used to make a good open source map.

Notably Google do not allow this.

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