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Google just opened up a wiki-like interface MapMaker for Pakistan with which you can help draw out street maps for the country.
You can add roads, regions, landmarks or other points of interest on the map.
Anyone can get started, and by working together hopefully we can create a baseline over while many useful web apps or services can later be built. Spread the word too, folks, this is important for the next-gen of web entrepreneurs here.
You can get stated here, read how here, and even follow other collaborators from Pakistan to get going with the community.
[Via Nash]
| Written by Osama A. on 06/24/08 in PakStartup, Software & I.T., General |
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June 25th, 2008 at 1:44 am
damn it!.. i was about to launch (within next 2 months) a geo wiki for pakistan where the idea was to let the community tag and map geo locations using google maps api..
oh well.. i better make it worth it now
June 25th, 2008 at 6:55 am
http://www.wikimapia.org/
June 25th, 2008 at 9:59 am
Good! I am jumping right in.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
if ob is making one, i hope to see the latest of the images. The kind of images that google is currently having are old one..
June 25th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Ok in today’s allotted to my own self time to waste, I was able to put tons of details to only Islamabad! And it made me even wonder if I am the only guy adding information regarding to Islamabad?
Don’t we have any more geeks around?
June 25th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
kamran, my solution runs ontop of google maps. So you might end up getting the same imagery.
June 25th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Good start, no need for custom solutions anymore. We will see great stuff from fellow Pakistanis soon.
Person I knew was going to create customized cartography application, then came Google Maps, then this. Good luck everyone.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Here are few quick tips for everyone (if Greenwhite allows I can write in an article on it).
1. Use polygons for the buildings and larger structures.
2. Use points for only smaller structures or objects.
3. Make all business locations fall under “Business” instead of Establishment or something else…
4. And keep in mind though you are helping map Pakistan, you will most of the time will be helped by our Indian brothers and sisters! Sometimes I even wonder why are they hovering over Pakistani cities all the time? (no pun intended)
And about doing a custom solution, why reinvent a wheel?
June 26th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Im not a big fan of Google Map Maker. The idea behind it is that only Google can use your contributions as opposed to OSM where no one really owns the actual data. Google, however, owns all your hard work. This is just a way for them to save the money they’d otherwise pay to the map data companies.
Check out the OSM press release about Map maker
http://svn.openstreetmap.org/misc/pr_material/releases/osm_release_25062008.pdf
June 26th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
On another note, i have mapped almost all of Islamabad with some friends in OSM and that data is open for use to everyone. We are looking for more people to join us in mapping other parts of Pakistan. However, i strongly recommend that you read up on mapping before you start as we have put in a lot of time and effort in this. If you start mapping without understanding mapping conventions, there is a good chance you will ruin someone else’s hard work.
June 26th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Ujmi - Please do send me a post at osama@greenwhite.org and we’ll share it with the rest of us here…
June 27th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Osama, thanks will be shortly in touch.