Pakistani users outdo all others in contributing data to Google MapMaker
Lahore is now fully mapped! A cold coffee at Palmer's Cafe at the Royal Palm, anyone?
Here at TechLahore, we’ve covered GIS in Pakistan a few times in the past. We’ve even reviewed indigenous Pakistan mapping services, such as Naqsha.net. Google is obviously still the undisputed champion of open source GIS/mapping and satellite imagery. But where they have been found lacking in the past is the paucity of street maps and location data for the world’s 7th largest country, Pakistan. The good news, ofcourse, is that ever since Google opened up MapMaker allowing users to post location information and map data, individuals from Pakistan have outdone all others in volume and quality! Through the power of crowdsourcing, Pakistani users have corrected Google’s oversight themselves!
Google’s Aaron Stein demo’d the site and the user-uploaded data for Pakistan to The Nation’s Afzal Bajwa, who covers the interview here. MapMaker can be found at mapmaker.google.com Check it out and, yes, feel free to contribute!
May 30th, 2009 at 11:06 am
I wonder when they’re going to integrate Google MapMaker’s data on Pakistan, into their mainstream mapping services, like Google Maps or Earth.
It would be neat to be able to use their mobile Google Maps application to get directions and stuff around here.
May 31st, 2009 at 3:25 am
what the hell are people doing? do they have nothing better to do than giving a gigantic multinational corporation free service to maintain its monopoly over a market. there are Pakistani mapmakers, why not help them out for free instead of helping out a multinational corporation that barely invests in Pakistan. goodness, Pakistani youth need to engage in activities besides chatting and hanging out in internet cafe’s, try sports for goodness sake.
May 31st, 2009 at 3:37 am
Nautilus, come ON. The maps entered into the MapMaker database are available to everyone for free. Anyone can leverage the API and create their own mashups… which, by the way, many Pakistani companies have done. A software company out of Lahore has developed a Google Earth mashup as a proof of concept for the Punjab Police. Pakistani mapmakers, as you call them, can pull data from Google Maps and Google Earth, so all of this data is out there to be used by anyone who has the basic skills required.
And by the way, what do chatting and internet cafe’s have to do with MapMaker?
May 31st, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I actually know some of the people working for mapmakers such as TumharaKarachi or DigiMap. They aren’t just pulling up maps and data from Google Earth or Google Maps, rather they are spending their own time and effort to produce more accurate maps even with all the illegal housing and streets.
why are people freely contributing their services to Google, it’s because they have nothing better to do in their free time!
May 31st, 2009 at 4:32 pm
instead of giving information to Google for free-information they will own-in your spare time, post on OpenStreetMap ( http://www.openstreetmap.org/ )
July 13th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
[...] map maker is making this better in this respect, allowing user generated content. As TechLahore puts it:Ever since Google opened up Map Maker allowing users to post location information and map data, [...]
July 13th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
[...] map maker is making this better in this respect, allowing user generated content. As TechLahore puts it:Ever since Google opened up Map Maker allowing users to post location information and map data, [...]
January 12th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
[...] is available and is reliable to a certain degree, it is ported onto Google maps. Google maps has grown at a high speed both in terms of users as well as contributors on [...]
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:46 am
nautilus is right and openstreetmap is the solution only. google does not give businesses this data for free. free is only restrictions