Intergeo 2008

The recent annual trade show in Bremen – Intergeo2008 – highlighted the rapid growth in demand for geographic data, and in particular the need for more flexible solutions in the future.

Amongst the new technology on show were a large range of vertical and oblique survey cameras, web-based data services, and a growing number of ground based image acquisition systems.

However, a common theme of all of these was the need to set them in a real geographic context, and in particular to have good up to data mapping to support them – such as the People’s Map.

Many were interested in the People’s Map concept, and were impressed by the way it strikes the right balance between open access, flexible licensing and a sound commercial framework (to maintain consistency, accuracy and continuity in the data). They also agreed this was the best way to meet the needs of a changing market.

It was encouraging to see so many new pioneering technologies on show, and to realize that the People’s Map is not just a geographic information source in its own right, but will also become a platform on which the developers of tomorrow can build new and innovative solutions in an environment free from concerns over copyright infringement and uncertainty regarding data maintenance.

Working with the Swindon Link!

We are excited to announce that Peoples Map is now working with the Swindon Link newspaper to get Swindon mapped.

The Swindon Link is a community magazine that is published on a monthly basis. It was first published for the West Swindon community in December 1978 and then in North Swindon from January 1994. Swindon Link is distributed monthly free of charge over 23,000 homes in West and North Swindon. A further 3,000 are left in public places around the town.

Roger Ogle, the Swindon Link editor, realised the need for up to date maps of the Swindon when he moved there more that 30 years ago. He has been creating and publishing maps of West and North Swindon since then. These maps are free to the public as it is paid for by advertising on the brochures and is distributed in the same way as the magazine. These maps, regularly updated by Roger, is still the most up to date maps of this area as he receives the details of new developments direct from the Local Council. Towns like Swindon have undergone major development over the past 30 years as illustrated by the two Getmapping aerial images below. These show how North Swindon has developed in 6 years from 1999 to 2005.

Image 1: 1999 Getmapping Aerial Image of North Swindon

Image 2: 2005 Getmapping Aerial Image of North Swindon

Conventional Map companies are struggling to keep up with rapidly expanding towns and that is why collaboration such as this between Peoples Map and Swindon Link (the public) are so important. I asked Roger what his reason was for creating these maps and he mentioned that Swindon was expanding rapidly, and still is, and because of the layout of the modern day developments, it was very easy to get lost. He was local to the area and felt the need for a up to date map of his local area. A example of one of these maps he created for North Swindon is illustrated in Image 3 below.

Image 3: North Swindon Map by Swindon Link

The Peoples Map is now working with the Swindon Link to involve the Swindon community to get mapping. Together, we want to excite Link readers in the People’s Map and get them actively involved as users and contributors. The two parties will work closely together over the coming years to develop a relevant and up to date map of Swindon. The Swindon Link recently published this article regarding the collaboration between Peoples Map and Swindon Link: http://www.swindonlink.com/features/show/84

Swindon is still ‘virgin territory’ in the People’s Map. We hope that the people of Swindon will react to Roger's article and join in to help keep the map of Swindon up to date. Over the coming months the Peoples Map Blog and the Swindon Link will be keeping you informed on the map progress, so watch this space - and get mapping for yourself and your community.

If you think the Peoples Map can contribute to your community in the same way as we do with Swindon Link, and you have any ideas on how, we would like to hear from you. Please contact us at info@peoplesmap.com and we can discuss this in further detail.

Rasterization Issue Resolved!

The rasterization issue has now been resolved. The map renderer is currently running through the entire Peoples Map database to re-render all the maps. This process has now been running for the past three days and you will notice a significant improvement to the data displayed in the Peoples Map and Unverified map layers, especially on the small scales.

The Peoples Map team wants to thank you for your patience and again apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Rasterization disruption

We are currently fixing a bug in our rasterization process which has caused us to temporarily suspend rendering your modifications to the People's Map.

You may have noticed that gaps have started to appear in the road network and features appear on the rendered layer, but the vector data is absent in edit mode. The patch will fix these problems and others, but force us to re-render amost the entire map at each scale, which will take some time to complete.

We will keep you informed and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.