

Breaking Google's map monopoly: Fast custom open source maps with node - kkaefer
http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/04/open-source-mapping-node.html

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joshu
Article doesn't say anything about a "monopoly" - can we avoid this kind of
editorializing?

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iramiller
Speaking of what the article does not say, the real monopoly in GIS is ESRI
and not Google.

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rmc
And the national mapping agencies that own all the data

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jhuckestein
The article states that node.js has seen high-profile adoption at Google and
Yahoo. I know of some Yahoo people in the community, but does anyone know what
Google is using it for?

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rmc
If you are interested in open alternatives to Google Maps, try Open Street
Map, its a wiki for maps. All data is available under an open licence

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taken11
what about satellite images, are there any comparable resolutions available
under open licenses?

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tmcw
There's Landsat data, that requires a bit of processing, and some low-res Blue
Marble GeoTIFFs. For very small subsets, we're also really interested in kite
mapping by grassrootsmapping: <http://grassrootsmapping.org>

