Comments on: Why we are not using Google Maps http://theirwork.org/blog/2005/10/02/why-we-are-not-using-google-maps/ Online community mapping Sat, 19 May 2012 02:39:50 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=1.5.2 Comment on Why we are not using Google Maps by: ray http://theirwork.org/blog/2005/10/02/why-we-are-not-using-google-maps/#comment-22 Thu, 10 Nov 2005 11:32:20 +0000 http://theirwork.org/blog/2005/10/02/why-we-are-not-using-google-maps/#comment-22 The organisation I work for is engaged in a green mapping project; we purchased a licence from the Ordnance Survey for a year, and it is up for renewal. The licence is not cheap, so we are looking for other solutions. However, although Google maps have the indisputable advantage of price, we have decided not to use them because of the attached strings. Of course, Google has an agenda, not necessarily a hidden one; it would be naive to believe that an advertising company is acting on a basis of pure altruism, despite their pleas and their paradoxical reassurances to users (see apologies on ail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/about.html#ads). One of the attractions to me of Open Source software is the shift in locus of control from producer / software vendor to user. I can use what I want where I want when I want, within the wide strictures of the licence agreement, which is reassuring and reaffirming - I am more likely and more willing to give back (code, fixes, feedback) to a community of software developers than I am to give money to a company of software vendors. Google Maps doesn't provide me with the same level of ideological comfort and reassurance. The organisation I work for is engaged in a green mapping project; we purchased a licence from the Ordnance Survey for a year, and it is up for renewal. The licence is not cheap, so we are looking for other solutions. However, although Google maps have the indisputable advantage of price, we have decided not to use them because of the attached strings. Of course, Google has an agenda, not necessarily a hidden one; it would be naive to believe that an advertising company is acting on a basis of pure altruism, despite their pleas and their paradoxical reassurances to users (see apologies on ail.google.com/mail/help/intl/en/about.html#ads).

One of the attractions to me of Open Source software is the shift in locus of control from producer / software vendor to user. I can use what I want where I want when I want, within the wide strictures of the licence agreement, which is reassuring and reaffirming - I am more likely and more willing to give back (code, fixes, feedback) to a community of software developers than I am to give money to a company of software vendors. Google Maps doesn’t provide me with the same level of ideological comfort and reassurance.

]]> Comment on Why we are not using Google Maps by: TheirWork Blog » Blog Archive » Work in Galway http://theirwork.org/blog/2005/10/02/why-we-are-not-using-google-maps/#comment-20 Sat, 05 Nov 2005 00:09:18 +0000 http://theirwork.org/blog/2005/10/02/why-we-are-not-using-google-maps/#comment-20 [...] FRIDAY: focus interface - Posted to some non-profit organisations we know (such as Green Map I belong to) ‘Why we are not using Google Maps’ - Such projects are discussing whether to use Google Maps - Reviewed the content of our post and agreed, once again, that we should not take the Google Map route. - Acknowledged the fact that, ironically, Google Maps is probably going to make it more difficult for independents like us to create open source mapping projects. - I described how Green Map System works as a network, the tools the project uses and the tools that are needed. - Reviewed an initial framework built by Emmet. It merges the map and wiki into one interface. - Agreed that this framework is working and should be developed during the weekend - Discussed how Emmet could possibly adapt some of the wiki code into the map interface - Emmet explained about AJAX, and how and why he was using it for the interface - Talked about using tags in the interface - Discussed the homepage and whether it should just be the map, or whether it should be the idea of a ’shop window’ that leads you into a map page - Making the source literary, include dissertation in final distribution of source code? - Emmet explained the double meaning of ‘include’ [...] […] FRIDAY: focus interface - Posted to some non-profit organisations we know (such as Green Map I belong to) ‘Why we are not using Google Maps’ - Such projects are discussing whether to use Google Maps - Reviewed the content of our post and agreed, once again, that we should not take the Google Map route. - Acknowledged the fact that, ironically, Google Maps is probably going to make it more difficult for independents like us to create open source mapping projects. - I described how Green Map System works as a network, the tools the project uses and the tools that are needed. - Reviewed an initial framework built by Emmet. It merges the map and wiki into one interface. - Agreed that this framework is working and should be developed during the weekend - Discussed how Emmet could possibly adapt some of the wiki code into the map interface - Emmet explained about AJAX, and how and why he was using it for the interface - Talked about using tags in the interface - Discussed the homepage and whether it should just be the map, or whether it should be the idea of a ’shop window’ that leads you into a map page - Making the source literary, include dissertation in final distribution of source code? - Emmet explained the double meaning of ‘include’ […]

]]> Comment on Why we are not using Google Maps by: TheirWork Blog » Blog Archive » Looking forward http://theirwork.org/blog/2005/10/02/why-we-are-not-using-google-maps/#comment-17 Thu, 13 Oct 2005 11:39:58 +0000 http://theirwork.org/blog/2005/10/02/why-we-are-not-using-google-maps/#comment-17 [...] - Work a way of getting the walk we did off the GPS machine and onto the PC and MAC - Create a map framework, that doesn’t use Google Maps, with places to enter data. Two layers will develop - a map driven by map software and a comment area driven by wiki software [...] […] - Work a way of getting the walk we did off the GPS machine and onto the PC and MAC - Create a map framework, that doesn’t use Google Maps, with places to enter data. Two layers will develop - a map driven by map software and a comment area driven by wiki software […]

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