Facebook and Esri Provide New and Free Geographic Database
Google Maps have been an extensive resource for geographical data. Though it’s productive, privacy activists call against it since it needs a Google account, allowing the maker to lodge your interests. Besides Google, there are other maps similar to it which also provide the same datasets, but restrict users for certain uses. Since users are demanded commercial licenses for using geographical data, OpenStreetMap, a non-profit organization from the UK started pooling data from the public and supplying it to the world for free. Since this license-less work is crowdsourced and still resourceful, many companies have used its databases to integrate on their platforms under a free license. The list includes Craigslist, Facebook, Foursquare, etc. And now, it’s getting an upgrade. Esri, a geographic information system provider from California, has partnered with Facebook to release a new OpenStreetMap database for ArcGIS Hub, a product of Esri. ArcGIS Online is a cloud-based mapping service, which is now sourcing OpenStreetMap’s new database under the OSM Open Source Database license. This development came in an interesting time since many data executives are aggressively working on data applications amidst Coronavirus. They’re all filling the gaps by composing new geographic information related apps to help people to navigate and know their surroundings better.
