

Mapping the World - achariam
http://nerds.airbnb.com/mapping-world/

======
freerk
Looks nice, but I am disappointed they choose Google Maps over OpenStreetMap
for this :)

~~~
jpatokal
As far as I can tell, they're only using Google Maps for the display layer,
the actual polygons are entirely theirs.

~~~
rmc
If you draw polygons based on what you see on Google Maps (or any other
copyrighted map), your polygons might be found to be a derived work of the
original Google Map.

Otherwise, you could just trace all the roads on Google Maps to make your own
$BLAH Maps, that's obviously not legal.

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alex_duf
I'm surprised they didn't even mention openstreetmap. I know airbnb is a for
profit company but most likely neighborhoods and oceans are already mapped.
(Europe is particularly well mapped)

~~~
jpatokal
OSM's convoluted licensing might expose them to the "risk" of having to
contribute back their contributions though, plus (if they try to keep in sync)
run the risk of others' changes running roughshod over their finely tuned
model. This way they retain full control.

~~~
dbaupp
It doesn't seem that they will have to contribute them back, just possibly,
use the same license (which is possibly equivalent/just as bad):

 _> You are free to copy, distribute, transmit and adapt our data, as long as
you credit OpenStreetMap and its contributors. If you alter or build upon our
data, you may distribute the result only under the same licence. The full
legal code explains your rights and responsibilities._

[http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright](http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright)

Although IANAL, and it's not clear to me if rendering an independent set of
data on top of the unchanged OSM data layer (i.e. effectively render two maps,
on with some transparent sections) counts as building on top of the OSM
database. So maybe they wouldn't even need to use the ODbL for their own data.

~~~
rmc
_it 's not clear to me if rendering an independent set of data on top of the
unchanged OSM data layer (i.e. effectively render two maps, on with some
transparent sections) counts as building on top of the OSM database_

If you render _OSM data_ with a unique map style, and produce an image, then
you have made a "Produced Work" and you only have to attribute OSM, and
nothing else. You can make it so people can't copy it if you'd like.

If you make a new database by combing OSM with something else, that new DB is
ODbL.

Just showing something on top of OSM doesn't mean it's derived from OSM.

[http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Legal_FAQ](http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Legal_FAQ)

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mtmail
Love it. I hope they're able to publish the data. If only parts of it are
generated using Google Maps data (see the 'create' feature in the screenshots)
then they wouldn't because it's derived work.

Here is Flickr equivalent [http://code.flickr.net/2008/10/30/the-shape-of-
alpha/](http://code.flickr.net/2008/10/30/the-shape-of-alpha/) (downloadable).
Foursquare also does similar work.

[edit: sorry, I thought Airbnb was analyzing listing data to find the extends
of neighborhoods. They don't seem to do that.]

~~~
meritt
Zillow provides free neighborhood creative-commons boundaries btw:
[http://www.zillow.com/howto/api/neighborhood-
boundaries.htm](http://www.zillow.com/howto/api/neighborhood-boundaries.htm)

~~~
toomuchtodo
Has this data made its way into OSM yet?

~~~
rmc
It looks like it's distributed under a CC-BY-SA licence. OSM actually changed
from CC-BY-SA licence to ODbL because it didn't look like that CC licence is
suitable for geo databases like OSM ( read more:
[http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/License/We_Are_Changing_Th...](http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/License/We_Are_Changing_The_License)
).

It would have to be relicenced (which I presume would not be a problem since
ODbL is spiritually very similar to CC-BY-SA). But as maxerikson mentions it's
not clear that it should be in OSM

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zirkonit
Nothing particularly special, every travel startup has some internal
DB/toolset to (re)create proper geoschema.

Front-end tooling is pretty nice, though; I believe content editors'
productivity using AT-AT is much higher than using some of the tools I've
written :)

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mandeepj
>When you’re exploring new places to experience, Airbnb Neighborhoods combines
local editorial content with the handy, need-to-know information alongside
professional photos to explore a place without having to leave your chair.

I see a conflict here. How can you explore a place without leaving your chair?
(pun-intended)

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rajacombinator
How about before all this NLP mumbo jumbo they do something useful like simply
let users sort by price, like every other hotel site. Or, you know, fix the
rampant bugs.

