Boris Mann's Link Blog

This is related to the big news from last week that Foursquare is using OpenStreetMaps (away from Google Maps) and is in part powered by MapBox.

If you need to do maps on the web or mobile, talk to my friends at MapBox.

Instead, the current agreement allows Google to use local citizens to collect information for free and make exclusive profit. The agreement, specifically the general Map Maker terms or special ODbL terms for the World Bank project, should be rewritten as Patrick Meier*** suggests, to “allow citizens themselves to use the data in whatever platform they so choose to improve citizen feedback in project planning, implementation and monitoring & evaluation.”

This kind of stuff drives me crazy. I won’t contribute to anything crowdsourced unless there is open data agreements in place to re-use that data. I don’t understand why people keep falling into this trap.

Overview of all the major location / place APIs.