On Wed, 26 Jul 2006 15:54:26 +0300 "Nadav Har'El" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 25, 2006, Micha Feigin wrote about "Re: Israel map site that work > with firefox?": > > > > http://www.freemap.co.il/ > > > > Works with firefox, and what's more, it runs FOSS web mapping > > > > software. > > > > > > It might run FOSS and it's even community powered, but the map information > > > itself is closed and will be used in the future for commercial use by the > > > owner of the site: > > > http://freemap.co.il/forum/viewtopic.php?t=176 > > > > > > /me wonders whether it's time to start a www.really-free-map.org.il > > > site :) > > > > Mapping software is easy, the problem is that creating map information is > > VERY expensive > > Looking at this site, it appears that they believe that they can get this > map information for free, by utilizing data sent in by many volunteers. Is > this doable? I have no idea. The site claims impressive statistics (177 > towns, 4593 streets, 6613 km of roads), but I didn't really try it out myself. > The problem is much less willing (there are quite a few people willing to contribute to the thousands of free projects out there). The problem is capable. Collecting map data, streets and such, requires expertise that is not common, not only in the FOSS community, but in the general public. Try as an exercise to map your local neighborhood and then compare it to an existing map to see how well you did. > But the "moral" question is, why should these volunteers help this site > build its database, when the site doesn't gurantee that it will remain free? > A conspiracy-theorist might even say that a minute after the map is complete, > the site can start charging money for its services... An historian might say > that he doesn't know what this site will do, but other sites are known to > have done this: build a large database during free operations, and then > suddenly switching to a paid subscription, and forcing the users to pay to > access the database that they helped build; For just one example, see > CDDB [1]. There's even an Israeli example I know of, but will not mention > to avoid a flame war. > > [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDDB > > > If this site's apparent (according to my reading) assumption that a community > of volunteers can map the whole country is valid (e.g., each walking around > his neighborhood with a GPS and mapping it), then I don't see any reason why > a "www.really-free-map.org.il" like was suggested about couldn't work. Like > you admitted, the mapping software and hosting isn't a very big obstacle. > > I wonder if there is any precedent in the world for that. After all, there's > nothing specific to Israel in this idea; Are there free maps of parts of > the US, Europe, and so on, done by a community of volunteers? > > Oh, and for anyone thinking of undertaking such a project: please, before > you start, contact the "censura" and ask for guidelines on areas which must > not be mapped: I'd hate to see Hizballah choosing its targets from our free > map... > ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
