Friday, October 30. 2009

OSM in Uganda

Just yesterday I noted AfricaGIS was held in the capital of Uganda, Kampala. Google had quite a presence in part because of new efforts to map the country. Today, there's word that OpenStreetMap is also active in country as part of a DevelopmentSeed effort. Locals are using QGIS for mapping and uploading data to OSM.

Ironic that the final line in Jonathan Bennett's report is: "Now imagine if some proprietary software company or mapping data provider had got involved?"

- ZDnet Blog

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google, Open Source at 07:36 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

Thursday, October 29. 2009

Quote of the Week

"27 members of Google’s staff and around 200 people from around the world and Africa (I’ve heard conflicting reports of higher numbers) descended upon the capital city of Uganda for a technology conference dedicated to the topic of geospatial data and information systems."

- Jonathan Gosier writing in his AppAfrica.Net blog about the AfricaGIS conference this week. The review covers the venue and social media participation. This effort could explain the huge number of Googlers at the event.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google at 08:02 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |

My Thoughts on Google Navigation Beta

Last I looked there some 300 news articles about Google announcement yesterday of the beta of Google Navigation for the Android (and perhaps other) platforms. Stocks of PND players like TomTom and Garmin were down (though there were other reasons for the slipping stock prices, too). Mostly, though the sentiment was "Google will be killing off another industry." Perhaps.

After a day of watching I have just a few thoughts.

Back when Tele Atlas and NAVTEQ were acquired by TomTom and Nokia the general sentiment was that no one could possibly challenge "the big two." Why? Collecting and confirming mapping datasets for the large areas they already cover (with very good, if not perfect, accuracy) was too hard and costly and they had such a big headstart. Smaller players, like AND and Germany's United Maps, have toughed it out, working to state their differentiations (better licensing for the former and feet on the ground to fill in the holes for the latter). Neither has taken on the big two, but my sense after speaking to senior company reps recently is that they are doing fine, thank you. No, no one seemed to think that Google, the company that wants to organize the world's information, was going to work to collect and conflate and update geodata. But, apparently, we were not thinking like Google. Sure Google still licenses some data (parcels and imagery and even some road data) but clearly, they've taken on the big two, the two that now have no only a headstart with data, but also a headstart in cell phone hardware and navigation, when paired with their larger owners.

My other thought as the errors in Google's dataset become the butt of James Fee's jokes and real concern by those in Canton, Ohio, is that most people are doing just fine with the data. I'm one of them. Even though we at Directions Media were the ones to contact Tele Atlas to confirm Google was using its own data in the U.S. a few weeks back, I use Google Maps exactly as I have in the past. In fact, two weeks ago I routed myself to, then printed out Google Maps of key areas in a marathon my friends were running north of Boston. No issues. In fact, until I returned home from the event, it didn't occur to me that maybe, just maybe that was not such a great choice. For most people, for most things, Google Maps seems to work fine. And, as many are pointing out, online navigation services that use NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas data have errors and sometimes route "oddly." Google has an edge that will likely get their quirks fixed better and faster: the "report a problem" button. I've written time and time again how the Yahoo and MapQuest and Ask.com (and other services) don't provide direct ways to report errors. Nor do NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas. Oh, the websites are out there (and TomTom does have MapShare). The number of people using those tools can't possibly compare to those using Google's in app "report a problem." The tools never got the buzz that Google Maps is getting, either.

Finally, on the day Google rolled out the new app NAVTEQ reported on a survey (which I guess it financed, though it was not stated in the press release) that showed that 72% of users of nav tools it powers are "ok" with ads in the apps and some 19% click on the ads. Another 6% actually visit the businesses. So, it seems Google's business model (advertising) is a good one.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google, Satellite Navigation, Tele Atlas, NAVTEQ at 06:49 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0) |

Monday, October 26. 2009

Update: Provide Feedback to Google On Map Errors

Update: I got word back yesterday (Sunday) on my requested update - but only after I re-reported it on Friday. I think the original request while logged, got lost in the "launch day" shuffle. The reply:

Hi ,

Your Google Maps problem report has been reviewed, and you were right! We'll update the map within a month and email you when you can see the change.

Report history
Problem ID: E176-3579-9E42-682D

Your report: Not a one way street. Also geocoding is backwards.

--
Thanks for your help,
The Google Maps team

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google at 06:00 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0) |

Friday, October 23. 2009

One Solution to the Authoritative Data Question

I've run into several discussions of late that basically ask the question: What is authoritative spatial data?

Google's had to address that quite a bit when country's "complain" that its maps don't have a dispute area's boundaries "right." The latest issue is in Arunachal Pradesh, a region under dispute by China and India.

The solution: "The Chinese version of Google Maps shows parts of Arunachal Pradesh as inside China's borders. In contrast, the Indian version of Google Maps depicts the state as part of India. But both of those depictions differ from the global version of Google Maps, which shows Arunachal Pradesh as disputed territory within broken lines on the map."

Clearly, the answer for different organizations involved in mapping will be different and likely, complex. And, some concerns will clearly be political rather than simply over accurate measurement.

- PC World

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google at 07:22 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0) |

Thursday, October 22. 2009

PC World: Nokia's Future All About (Indoor) Location

The article keys in on the new Booklet 3G which includes GPS and other portable devices as key to location technology. Among the interesting quotes:

"And Nokia's already off to a good start, having acquired several mapping/geolocation services, including Navteq, the world's largest mapping database."

"I [Mark Sullivan] spoke to Nokia VP of social location services Michael Halbherr about indoor location services here today, and he said Nokia will likely roll out new indoor location services on mobile devices in about two years."

"Each time a Nokia device approaches a building it will communicate with GPS satellite until the moment it gets inside the door, then it will begin communicating with the cellular and Wi-Fi base stations inside. By triangulating the device's position relative to the GPS satellite outside the building, and to all the cellular and Wi-Fi hotspots inside, Nokia will be able to associate the device with a specific cell (areas 10 meters or less) as it moves around inside the building."

The article suggests Nokia is already collecting indoor base data from its users - similar to how Google collects StreetView data. I wonder if there are legal concerns here - do I need permission to walk around in a grocery store with my cell phone and collect data on where the walls are? Especially if I don't know I'm doing that?

Oh, and, per the article, Google is apparently also doing indoor mapping.

- PC World

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Google, NAVTEQ at 07:35 | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) |