Every time I tell someone about OpenStreetMap, they inevitably ask "Why not use Google Maps?" From a practical standpoint, it's a reasonable question, but ultimately this is not just a matter of practicality, but of what kind of society we want to live in. I discussed this topic in a 2008 talk on OpenStreetMap I gave at the first MappingDC meeting. Here are many of same concepts, but expanded.

In the 1800s, people were struggling with time, not how much of it they had, but what time it was. Clocks existed, but every town had its own time, "local time", which was synchronised by town clocks or, more often than not, church bells. Railway time, then eventually Greenwich mean time, supplanted all local time, and most people today don't think about time as anything but universal. This was accomplished in the US by adoption first of the railroads, and then by universities and large businesses.

Geography is big business

The modern daytime dilemma is geography, and everyone is looking to be the definitive source. Google spends $1bn annually maintaining their maps, and that does not include the $1.5bn Google spent buying the navigation company Waze. Google is far from the only company trying to own everywhere, as Nokia purchased Navteq and TomTom and Tele Atlas try to merge. All of these companies want to become the definitive source of what's on the ground.

That's because what's on the ground has become big business. With GPSes in every car, and a smartphone in every pocket, the market for telling you where you are and where to go has become fierce.

With all these companies, why do we need a project like OpenStreetMap? The answer is simply that as a society, no one company should have a monopoly on place, just as no one company had a monopoly on time in the 1800s. Place is a shared resource, and when you give all that power to a single entity, you are giving them the power not only to tell you about your location, but to shape it. In summary, there are three concerns: who decides what gets shown on the map, who decides where you are and where you should go, and personal privacy.



Who decides what gets displayed on a Google Map? The answer is, of course, that Google does. I heard this concern in a meeting with a local government in 2009: they were concerned about using Google Maps on their website because Google makes choices about which businesses to display. The people in the meeting were right to be concerned about this issue, as a government needs to remain impartial; by outsourcing their maps, they would hand the control over to a third party. It seems inevitable that Google will monetise geographic searches, with either premium results, or priority ordering, if it hasn't done so already (is it a coincidence than when I search for "breakfast" near my home, the first result is "SUBWAY® Restaurants"?). Of course Google is not the only map provider; it's just one example. The point is that when you use any map provider, you are handing them the controls - letting them determine what features get emphasised, or what features may not be displayed at all.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A road sign warning HGV drivers not to follow Satellite Navigation instructions. Photograph: Christopher Thomond