OpenStreetMap in the News - 3/14/12

Once Apple starts using a mapping product, the media takes notice. And so, the online media have found OpenStreetMap!

Talking Point Memo (TPM) argues OpenStreetMap Aims To Become Most Popular Map On The Web.

Mashable profiles Steve Coast and How One Man’s Big Idea Changed Digital Map Making. (I think they left out the part about he works for Microsoft.)

Open source focused website The H goes legal and explains how OpenStreetMap [is] completing move to Open Database Licence

And, here's an article in the local paper about a small town in Massachusetts, Milford, putting its GIS online. It's GIS provider is no Johnny Come Lately to OSM. The app that users can tap into OSM tiles from two sources - one I'm not sure of (maybe hosted by the vendor) and the other from MapQuest. Yes, some organizations have known of OpenStreetMap for some time.

- More OSM News

Apple Changes Mapping Data In Lastest iOS Apps

Update (2;30 PM EST): The OSM Foundation Blog reports on how OSM is used and that apporpriate attribution is not yet given in the apps. (How can a huge company like Apple NOT know to do that???? Do you know how to attribute CC content? No? Time for some homework!)

- OSM Foundation Blog

--- original post 8:00 am EST ---

Wednesday night was full of excitement from the geospatial fans of Apple, which anounces its new iPad and apps easlier in the day. The upshot seems to be:

Apple's new iPhoto uses OpenStreetMap data for much of the world outside the US. How about that for #switch2osm?

-  @openstreetmap

James Fee suggests that U.S. data is simply TIGER.

Apple's been acquiring mapping companies over the last few years and its no secret that at some point the company would begin to break ties with Google which is becoming a rival on many levels.

There's still a bit of confusion on what mapping data, geocoding and other tools are used in different parts of the world and in different apps. 

- Apple Insider

- GigaOM

- Ars Technica

- 512Pixels

- (James Fee's) Spatially Adjusted (1, 2)

- Thread at OSM-Talk listserve

PanoMap Sues Apple, Google over StreetView-type Map Display Patent

PanoMap, based in Florida, filed a patent infringement case against Apple and Google last week.  It's really about the display of data, not the capture and thus the allegations are against big users of these types of display.

The patent, US No. 6,563,529, was filed back in 1999 and issued in 2003. There are a total of 28 claims in the patent, but the broadest of them essentially cover a mapping system that displays a wide map view in combination with a more detailed view of location specifics. The claims also require synchronization of the two views. 

Quote of the Week - 2/16/12

Geospatial Information Services rules in Mecklenburg County. http://t.co/PP2FvwBd Geoportal is kind of like Siri without the voice. #GIS

- @MeckCounty

Slightly Off Topic: An iPhone, an iPad and a Mac Air walk into a bar ...

So, I'm sitting at a conference last week and I look over at the guy next to me and lined up in front of him are an iPhone, iPad and a Mac Book. On the one hand, I'm fairly elated because I own some Apple stock  and I'm wondering if there is an iPod in his pocket. On the other I'm wondering if there is really a need for all three devices at once and just what can I do to get this guy some therapy.

I'm sure this may be even something you've begun to wonder as well. If I've got a phone and a laptop, do I really need a tablet as well? I don't know about you but I don't need another portable device just to answer email and play Apache Sim 3D (I can do that on my iPhone). Two is just fine for me; one in my pocket and one in my backpack. That's about all the room I have anyway.

Without a doubt, the tablet form factor is ideal for certain applications: Data gathering in the field, going lightweight for quick demos, and visualizing map-related data for meetings and presentations (although  this one is a bit dubious because a laptop could suffice just as easily).

Certainly, you need a communication device (phone) and a work device (take your pick, tablet or laptop). Would you give up your laptop for a tablet? How much do you think they are interchangeable? Have you moved everything to the cloud yet? You see where I'm going here.

The funniest thing I've seen so far is someone standing up to grab a quick photo and pointing their tablet device. It just looks so clunky! I mean, they do, still make nice digital cameras for that type of thing. Certainly, for my purposes, the 8 megapixel camera that comes with my iPhone 4S is sufficient for my needs in covering events. I leave my 10 megapixel Nikon home for family affairs.

Eventually I'll get a tablet but not before I can identify a true, personal or professional use that renders the other two devices as less than ideal.  But for now, I'm good.