As an active member of the
OpenStreetMap community, I view the appearance of
Google MapMaker with a mixture of interest and apprehension. Interest, because Google frequently (although not always) does these things very well, and apprehension because I'm deeply invested in a project which without question is a direct competitor.
So what are the issues as I see them? First of all, Google keeps using the word community. This is what I think are the elements of a true online community project:
- Community contributions
- Community governance
- Community ownership
So consider these elements, decide if you agree or disagree, and then look at what Google is doing, which involves only the first of these, and decide if what Google is doing is truly a community project or not. Me, I don't think so.
A secondary issue, as I just popped into MapMaker to fix one known error in West Sand Lake (a missing chunk of Helen Lane, see here:
http://g.co/maps/d6yeb), is that I never even saw the terms and conditions, I have edited the Google Map without ever agreeing to anything. This was probably a side effect of being already logged into my Google Account. It seems to me that this isn't much different than a shrink wrap license. Oh well...
