Who’s Responsible for Map Data? Portal Owner or Data Provider?

Recent allegations that websites provide imagery that might support terrorist activities or misrepresent the sovereignty of some areas prompt some interesting questions. One such question is simply this: who is responsible for the error, the mapping website or the data provider? In a recent border issue in the middle east, MapQuest determined it was their data provider who should answer the request of an e-mail campaign so it turned over the contact information for AND in The Netherlands. The team behind the effort is still awaiting an answer from AND and has asked for more e-mails to be sent to that company.

This issue will come up again and again. The only good news is that such incidents will no doubt educate the public on how these mapping websites actually work. The vast majority of mapping websites do license data from other companies at significant cost. Most research the data options with care before selecting one or more data providers. And, most work hard to provide feedback to those data vendors to insure data improves over time.

What’s really going on here is something we in the geospatial arena have been doing for some time: providing feedback on data. Back in the day we were the only ones to see this data; today its streaming all around the globe for billions of eyes to see and potentially “correct.” I hope the mapping portal operators and their data providing partners will take seriously the need for processes to receive and react to these requests. Further, they need to as transparent about their decision making as possible to help end user and mapping portal hosts to make the best choices.