I am pleased to announce that we have now completed the data capture of all roads in Central London for an area stretching from Hampton Court in the south west to Stratford in the north east. This means that we now have complete data sets for Central London, including all roads, land use, railways, drainage and place names. This data can currently be viewed in the Unverified Map Layer of the People's Map and will be transferred to the verified People's map layer when the data has been verified by our team of professional cartographers. Below is a image of the existing raw data inside the M25.
We have now started with the next phase that is to capture all the roads within the M25. I should rather say, all minor roads, in between the current Central London area and the M25 as all the classified roads have already been captured and now it is just a question of filling in the gaps.
We estimate to complete this phase of the project by spring this year and look forward to have a complete data set for the Greater London area.
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3 comments:
I like the border where the Central London data stops and gets less dense :) Curious though, why would I want to contribute to the People’s Map instead of OpenStreetMap (http://openstreetmap.org/). The licence seems much better IMO, and the coverage in the UK generally seems better too.
Thank you commenting on this article.
The London project is a work in progress and the neat Central London border is a result of good planning. . We are excited to see London and other parts of the country growing. Apart from other complete cities like Edinburgh, Glasgow and Birmingham, we are looking forward to complete Greater London so that the data and maps can be used by the private users, non profit organizations as well as to all our commercial partners.
Now you have asked the question of why contribute to Peoples Map and not OSM? I will try and keep my answer as short as possible. Although the People’s Map are striving to achieve similar objectives than OSM, which is completing an independent mapping dataset of the UK, the big difference comes in the business logic.
The People’s Map is built around a commercial model striving to create free out of crown copyright mapping for the UK, allowing users and partners to control and manage their own mapping. We believe creating maps according to this business model is the only way to sustain and develop such a community project in the long run as investment will be ploughed back into the People’s Map product and services. This insures that we do not have to rely on donations to keep the “map” going.
We intend for the People’s Map to be used by private, non commercial as well as commercial partners and would expect that these various parties, with different uses for the maps and data, will want verified and quality assured data. That brings me to a big difference in the operational processes of the People’s Map vs OSM. All our data is checked and verified by a team of professional cartographers. All data that are entered into the PM will run under the eyes of these experienced cartographers. All incorrect data, that will jeopardize the accuracy and quality of the maps, are deleted. If the data is not verified, then you run a danger of becoming a Wikipedia type product were not all information, that is stated as fact, are 100% accurate. I think Wikipedia is great, but you always have to take al the information with a pinch of salt. People, with commercial or non commercial intentions, want to be sure that they are making use of correct and verified mapping, and yes they can change the data themselves if incorrect, but not all map users are interested in adjusting the mapping themselves. Some just want a verified and correct of the shelve product. We therefore cater for a wide range of users, partners and clients.
Another major difference is that the People’s Map has a complete UK Aerial Photography dataset which is updated on a more frequent basis. These regular updates, flown by a well known UK Aerial Imagery Company (www.getmapping.com), allows for the editor, as well as the general map browsers, to have access to these regular updated imagery. In many parts of the country, this is the latest and most up to date imagery that exists and remember that this Imagery is not free!
The People’s Map licensing, contrary to your believe, is actually very straight forward, as all data is free for private use and licensing are negotiated with commercial partners on a case by case basis. This approach actually makes our licensing very flexible and accommodating to a variety of users.
Hope this answers your question. Otherwise, please feel free to keep the debate going.
NB: Keep a look out for the new and improved Peoplesmap.com to be launched in February some time.
Congratulations of completion of Central London. Power to the people!
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