

Google IP Vandalizing OpenStreetMap [Not a comprehensive post] - tecoholic
http://opengeodata.org/google-ip-vandalizing-openstreetmap

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robinhouston
There’s an interesting comment from Tom Hughes:

“As the person who (in my role as an OpenStreetMap system administrator) first
discovered this `incident' let me start by saying that I consider this post to
be grossly irresponsible and wholly inappropriate.

[ … ]

It seems to me that this is just an attempt to get some cheap publicity by
trying to like the project to the Mocality incident, and I cannot support such
behaviour.”

~~~
asmithmd1
If the systems admin. of a for profit company left this kind of comment on a
board members post would they expect to stay employed at that company?

It may be a non-profit but the board members are still the ultimate bosses
above the CEO. Calling your bosses behavior "grossly irresponsible" in public
forum seems like it would be career limiting.

~~~
jrockway
He's not getting paid, so I doubt he worries too much about that:

[http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Finances/Balance_Sheet_201...](http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Finances/Balance_Sheet_2010)

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Hrundi
This is the user, but I'm having a rough time trying to identify the offending
edits: <http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/kane123/edits>

Has Google released any statement beyond the one that said "We were mortified
to learn that a team of people..."?

I'm overly curious on the results from Google's investigation. I can see the
connection with Mocality being mentioned, but vandalizing seems odd.

I would venture that this is coincidental.

Pick any branch office of a large enterprise or government and run a search
for the IPs they use to access the internet. You'll find vandalism on
Wikipedia, ancient guestbook messages, mailing list postings, etc.

I'm certainly not a Google apologist, but this just seems fishy.

~~~
Natsu
If these are the same as the Mocality people, I wonder how long before Google
audits and fires them? I also wonder if we'll find out about any more
wrongdoing.

Hopefully Google shuts them down soon.

~~~
tylermenezes
I'm really suspicious of any claim that the top brass at Google honestly knew
nothing about it... (What would these employees even have to gain? It's not
like they have much to gain if Google's stock goes up, and if they're hiding
this from management, they're not getting paid for it.)

~~~
kaze
>I'm really suspicious of any claim that the top brass at

>Google honestly knew nothing about it...

If Google Management knew of this, wonder why they would let this happen from
Google IP addresses...

~~~
jrockway
Because Google employees generally have latitude to do whatever they want with
their Internet connection at work. Even bad OSM edits.

If we start blaming whoever an IP resolves to for vandalism, you're going to
find that pretty much every major corporation has vandalized Wikipedia. (When
I worked at BAC, our proxy was perma-banned for vandalism.) Not to mention the
ISPs; Comcast is a notorious Wikipedia vandal (by this logic).

------
ot
According to ReadWriteWeb [1] Google PR responded

 _We're aware of OpenStreetMap's claims that vandalism of OSM is occurring
from accounts originating at a Google IP address. We are investigating the
matter and will have more information as soon as possible_

[1]
[http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_osm_vandalism.ph...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_osm_vandalism.php)

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nostromo
The founder of OSM and author of this blog post runs Bing Maps.

I hesitate to bring this up and add to the melodrama -- but people should be
aware of the interests of the parties involved.

~~~
ot
To be completely fair, the post is signed by three people. The other two are
an OSM Sysadmin and an OSMF board member.

I'm not saying that there may not be a conflict of interest, but this post has
some support from the board of the foundation.

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chrisacky
I can understand Mocality posting on a blog their findings, but this is an
awful and not very credible way of make public your accusations.

Look forward to an explaination?... then contact them directly instead of
"sand bagging" them (borrowing a colloquialism from Family Guy).

~~~
nmridul
Just curious. How do you know the relevant person to contact in Google (or for
that matter any big company) ?

EDIT - I'm genuinely curious. Other than the sales people etc. I could'nt find
any relevant details.

~~~
dredmorbius
In a case like this, that is a bit tricky. This could be Joe (or Jabul) Random
Googler in India on a lark. Or it could be something organized, probably at a
small level.

Contacting someone in Google Maps might help -- this would at least be a
business unit that has some interest in not generating ill will. Google IO is
a conference with lot of Googlers. There's a presentation about Google Maps,
and if they aren't the right people to talk to, you could probably ask them
who a good contact would be:
[http://www.google.com/events/io/2011/sessions/designing-
maps...](http://www.google.com/events/io/2011/sessions/designing-maps-
applications-for-usability-on-mobile-and-desktop.html)

That'd be my approach.

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packetslave
From
[http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_osm_vandalism.ph...](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_osm_vandalism.php)

 _Update: Google sent the following statement to ReadWriteWeb on Tuesday
morning. "The two people who made these changes were contractors acting on
their own behalf while on the Google network. They are no longer working on
Google projects."_

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sharken
This story is a little light on details, but the fix however is easy enough:
Just rollback all edits by that user.

