The trend in mapping at the moment is to use the word 'Open', which is of course is a good thing as it normally means free access to data and a community driven initiative. Which brings us to the latest to hit our radar - Open Green Map, see the video above for an overview.
Open Green Map interactively charts natural, cultural and green living sites at a community and global scale. The Green Map System promotes inclusive participation in sustainable development and is currently engaging communities in 55 countries.
As they say, 'Think Global, Map Local!, Think Global, Map Social!' More information at GreenMap.org
Good point about the "Open". Unfortunately as compelling as OpenGreenMap is, they don't yet provide a way to actually get the data. So "open" is currently marketing more than factual. Hoping they expose the KML soon.
ReplyDeleteYes, the KML is on our list, with the upgrade to Drupal 6 coming first to make sharing easier. Already though, the platform is open to public comments, ratings, images, videos and impacts - share your thoughts in any language or suggest new sites anytime.
ReplyDeleteWe invite all to join the global launch celebration this friday, which is World Environment Day - details of events in 5 continents at http://GreenMap.org/ogm-launch, including by Twitter.
The use and definition of the word Open is interesting. I think Open until recently meant Open Source, but now almost no one who uses the word is Open Source.
ReplyDeleteLooks like GreenMap.org uses it to mean that they take community, crowd-sourced data submissions, there are comments and ratings, and that the site is free. But this would mean YouTube, Flickr, and lots of other sites would be 'Open' and I'm not sure that's the case.
Adding KML download support (like on GeoCommons' Maker) would help. Maybe adding an API (like on my site, YourMapper.com) would also help. But even then, is that really Open?
Every Block maps city data, but even they don't let you download the data or the KML. But in one month they are releasing all their source code to the public. When they do that, then they are really Open!
But maybe I'm just too tied into the concept of Open meaning Open Source. I think the meaning of 'Open' has changed, and at this point could be used to mean whatever the site wants it to mean.
There are two URL - greenmap.org and opengreenmap.org. Do you mean the latter, rather than the former to be the link?
ReplyDeleteThere are two URLs greenmap.org and opengreenmap.org. Greenmap.org look to be an old school paper map service. I think you meant to provide a link to opengreenmap.org, a very webby 2.0 site.
ReplyDeleteNot sure why OpenGreenMap is better than google mymaps with public edits enabled?
ReplyDelete