Alexander Zipf, Chair of GIScience, Department of Geography, University of Heidelberg, Germany shared news of an article comparing OSM and TomTom data in Germany.
A new study by the GIScience Research Group of the University of Heidelberg (
http://giscience.uni-hd.de) that compares the evolution of the crowdsourcing project OpenStreetMap (OSM) with the commercial dataset from TomTom/Teleatlas has just been published. It is available fulltext as Open Access at
http://www.mdpi.com/1999-5903/4/1/1/ and covers the years 2009 to 2011 in Germany.
As shown earlier the data contributions to OSM show a geographically heterogeneous pattern around the globe. Germany counts as one of the most active countries in OSM; thus, the German street network has undergone an extensive development in recent years. The question that remains is this: How does the street network perform in a relative comparison with a commercial dataset? By means of a variety of studies, the authors show that the difference between the OSM street network for car navigation in Germany and a comparable proprietary dataset was only 9% in June 2011. The results of the analysis regarding the entire street network showed that OSM even exceeds the information provided by the proprietary dataset by 27%. Further analyses show on what scale errors can be reckoned with in the topology of the street network, and the completeness of turn restrictions and street name information. In addition to the analyses conducted over the past few years, projections have additionally been made about the point in time by which the OSM dataset for Germany can be considered “complete” in relative comparison to a commercial dataset.
Neis, Pascal; Zielstra, Dennis; Zipf, Alexander. 2012. "The Street Network Evolution of Crowdsourced Maps: OpenStreetMap in Germany 2007–2011." Future Internet 4, no. 1: 1-21.
doi:10.3390/fi4010001
by Adena Schutzberg on 12/30 at 05:25 AM |
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When you have only two major players in a market, the competitive differences are magnified. And if one coughs, the other sneezes. Such is the case with TomTom and NAVTEQ. Both companies have acquired or been acquired; experienced layoffs, and refocused their business model. The disruption can be directly tied to an explosion in the mobile device market. You would think this would be good for both companies? But in a market where everyone has a navigation device, and you are competing with a company that is both a client and a competitor (i.e. Google), what do you do?
Reorg
Today, TomTom issued a statement regarding the company's reorganization and we've posted the important news items; see the company's press release and All Points Blog about the layoff of 10% of their workforce. When I spoke with company executives this morning, they reiterated that the change to their business model would focus on faster time to market of products and the ability to leverage core assets that include traffic data and an adherence to the Navigation Data Standard (NDS). The NDS has been identified by TomTom as a means to help standardize how maps go into navigation devices. Charles Cautley, managing director of the Automotive, Enterprise & Government Business unit (AEG) for TomTom said, "NDS is hugely strategic for TomTom." Cautley believes that this simplifies content accessibility and the map compilation process.
TomTom sees that there is still lots of growth in maps, POIs and especially traffic products. In the traditional GIS and enterprise market, the company sees growth in various site selection applications as well as real-time information to engineers and city planners. TomTom wants to combine their map products, traffic information and geocoder, essentially a bundle of their strategic assets, and offer them to industry segments.
A focus on Dynamic Traffic Data
Late last year, TomTom released their Traffic Manifesto thereby attempting to stake a unique selling proposition in the navigation market. On a webinar yesterday (December 7), the company announced that they had captured 5 trillion anonymous GPS traffic measurements since 2007 and used the data to create a rich database of historical traffic profiles. The data goes into TomTom's HD Traffic products.
Why the upheaval in digital navigation? What's Changed?
Navigation is becoming pervasive," said Cautley. "Everyone can have navigation; more devices; in car units; or web at home. "[TomTom is] rethinking how you take advantage of navigation." TomTom wants to leverage both crowdsourced and probe data to create more accuracy in maps. "[These] new data are giving us tremendous information," said Cautley. "The strategy is a move to provide more dynamic content … Better quality and more value to our customers."
by Joe Francica on 12/08 at 01:35 PM |
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TomTom NV announced Thursday a plan to cut 10% of its global workforce (457 jobs, 255 of which are redundant) and reorganize its research and development program. R&D activities will be organized into 10 product units to improve ROI, and increase the control its salesforce has over what's being developed based on customer feedback, and speed time to market.
The company will take a EUR14 million charge in the fourth quarter, mainly related to the job cuts. The big loser for TomTom is the PND arena, which saw a 19% decline in sales on an annual basis in the third quarter.
- WSJ
by Adena Schutzberg on 12/08 at 04:44 AM |
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In Suffolk County, NY, library budget allocations are tied to library card registrations, so it is important that residents (a) register and (b) do it in the right library. However, in Suffolk County, point "b" is not always so straightforward, because a library's service area is defined by school districts, township boundaries, and other confusing lines.
So, a federal libaray grant was used to develop a site to help people find their library and apply for a card. I'm so glad my city has a single library system (with three branches).
- Libaray Journal
Plows will have TomTom GPS devices, just like those sold in stores, programmed with each of the 217 snow plow routes, meaning all drivers will have to do is punch in the specific route number and just follow the voice commands.
Keith Compton, the head of the county's [Montgomery County, MD] snow removal team, says the 300 or so TomToms were far less expensive than the automated vehicle locator system they contemplated buying: "These things are about $250 a piece. A full-blown AVL system is about $800,000."
- WAMU
The Data.Illinois.gov site will soon post more than 4,000 additional sets of data. Currently there are just several hundred sets.
The Illinois governor's office says it recently received federal government approval to post the new data that offers information related to Illinois compiled by several U.S. agencies.
Among the data are those from Census and EPA.
- WBEZ via @storm7
by Adena Schutzberg on 11/07 at 03:00 AM |
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Narrow your search further:
census,
epa,
federal grant,
illinois,
library locator,
maryland,
montgomery county,
open data,
snow plow routing,
state and local government,
tomtom,
tracking
TomTom, the Dutch navigation equipment and digital map maker, said it will cut 50 million euros ($69.7 million) in costs, including jobs, to help improve profitability as it posted a dip in quarterly sales on lower demand and falling prices.
An increase of 50% in net revenue over Q3 last year was mostly due to currency exchange rates and lower interest rates as debt declines; sales were in fact down 10%.
“We have started a restructuring program which will focus our organization on the areas where we see the greatest potential for growth, of which Automotive and Content & Services are clear examples,” said Chief Executive Harold Goddijn in a statement.
He did not details exactly where job cuts would be.
- Reuters
- WSJ
by Adena Schutzberg on 10/24 at 03:56 AM |
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