

MapGive - Open Mapping from the US State Dept. - chippy
http://mapgive.state.gov/the-cause/

======
joshwd
This looks like a great project, and nice to see them supporting OSM. Google
gets (rightfully) lauded for offering quite good maps[1] of much of the
developing world, but I recently checked out the OSM map[2] of the city I live
in (Dakar, Senegal) and it's just as good, if not better. Bing Maps[3], by
comparison, thinks there are 2 roads in the entire city.

[1][https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!data=!1m4!1m3!1d104828!...](https://www.google.com/maps/preview#!data=!1m4!1m3!1d104828!2d-17.3959701!3d14.7291303)

[2][http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/14.7286/-17.4508](http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=12/14.7286/-17.4508)

[3][http://binged.it/1iUjAGi](http://binged.it/1iUjAGi)

~~~
milliams
I often use
[http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/?lon=-17.41738&lat=14.73861&zoo...](http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/?lon=-17.41738&lat=14.73861&zoom=12&num=3&mt0=mapnik&mt1=google-
map&mt2=bing-map) when comparing between the different map providers.

~~~
51Cards
Of the three initial examples, only Bing marked the Atlantic Ocean. At least
they had that detail.

(though they do have a road running right through the airport... win some,
lose some)

~~~
saraid216
> Of the three initial examples, only Bing marked the Atlantic Ocean.

Start zooming out. At one tick out, _none_ of the maps mark the Atlantic
Ocean. Because the label isn't in the viewport.

~~~
chatman
Perhaps you didn't get the sarcasm. ;-)

~~~
saraid216
I'll just start assuming everything people say on HN is sarcasm.

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davexunit
What a nice project. This is the kind of thing that I like to see the US
government supporting. Now to find the time to learn to map something.

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welder
I wonder if there is a way to automate this using Google maps and places
data...

~~~
welder
Why so many downvotes? Can't ask legitimate questions on HN anymore?

~~~
chippy
Agreed - we really should encourage contributions to the discussions, rather
than "i disagree points".

(I cannot downvote, all I see is the comment in a lighter shade of grey. If I
could, would I be able to see the number of downvotes?)

~~~
saraid216
> If I could, would I be able to see the number of downvotes?

The only person who can see number of upvotes/downvotes is the person who made
the comment. I am pretty sure this is to prevent making leaderboards out of
trolling, but I could be wrong.

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31reasons
So the problem of converting Satellite data to Maps is still not possible with
algorithms ? Google is able to find all Cat photos in the youtube videos, how
about finding streets ?

~~~
chippy
From what I gather there is a number of algorithms that work pretty well, but
only on certain datasets and for certain parts of the world. For example, one
approach could be flawless to extract highways and on and off ramps in the US,
but the same algorithm may struggle with French roads.

What I am excited about within the context of open data and crowdsourcing is
using machines to do a rough first pass over the imagery, and get people to
rate or fix the results.

A wonderful example of this is the New York Public Library's Building
Inspector:
[http://buildinginspector.nypl.org/](http://buildinginspector.nypl.org/)

------
joelgrus
"Quality geographic data helps empower killing drones ... I mean,
organizations and communities!"

~~~
SEJeff
Certainly not from this. The military most def (via the NRO) has their own
"classified" maps for all of these sorts of things. If you think the US
military is using google maps or OSM data for this, you are sadly mistaken. I
know this first hand having flown a non-weaponized drone ~12ish hours per day
for a year overseas.

\- Former Shadow 200 TUAV Operator with 482 combat flight hours in Operation
Iraqi Freedom 2003-2004.

