"Jaakko Helleranta.com" <jaa...@helleranta.com> writes: > Does someone know if there is some sort of relationship between OSM and > Garmin? > > The reason I'm asking is that > 1) as you may know OSM is the only good enough map (data) for Haiti that > e.g. makes routing possible -- now or in the foreseeable future (and most > probably beyond). > 2) Without GPS+good map finding one's way around in Haiti is difficult even > for people who are pretty good in navigation (says me who did good chunk of > my military service in Navy/navigation) > 3) My understanding is that Garmin is the only stand-along navigator that > works (at least somewhat well) with OSM data (which my testing in the last > months has "proven") > 4) Someone who was/is interested in bringing Garmin (or any other > functioning navigators) to Haitian market contacted Garmin and got a > response from Someone there who said that Garmin is not supporting OSM and > does not recommend it due to "warranty reasons" (what ever on earth that > would be!). They instead referred the guy asking about Garmin's interest in > Haiti to Navteq. > ... Of which I can only think that the person at Garmin didn't know what > s/he was talking about. Or then, Garmin Really doesn't like OSM + don't > understand and/or care about Haiti / other similar areas. Or I don't > understand something. > > Any ideas / alternatives? > > The way I see this is that getting devices that use OSM data to > peoples'/organizations' use in Haiti would not only make their > lives/operations easier/ more efficient and through that help boost the > development of Haiti but also increase the "organic" need and hence > possibilities for resources to improving the Haiti OSM data further.
As far as I can tell, the mkgmap effort and other efforts to build garmin-format maps have not been officially aided by Garmin, and Garmin does not seem to publish technical specs. I would guess that the 'warranty' comment is just the typical corporate reaction to questions of liability, perhaps combined with a lack of understanding of open data. If the goal is to get working GPS navigation receivers to people Haiti, rather than to form a business to do that, then I would suggest finding contacts in the Haitian government/UN/etc. to request that Garmin openly publish specifications for the file formats. It may be easier to get them to do that than to "support" OSM, because of differing perceptions of liability exposure. But with real specs (without strings attached), I'm sure the mkgmap crowd would make even more rapid progress in producing garmin-format maps from OSM data.
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