25 Oct 2010 / 09:21
Volunteers are using an open-source online map service to plot Kosovo in detail for the first time.
Lawrence Marzouk
Until recently, detailed and accurate maps of Kosovo were almost impossible to find, in hard copy or online, and you could forget about using a satellite navigations to locate your destination.
But a group of volunteers and IT experts have been quietly but steadily filling the void in decent cartography. The online Open Street Map, www.openstreetmap.org, forms one prong of a movement for open source programmes, which are copyright free and allow everyone from computer programmers to complete novices to access the programme code and update information.
Just two years ago, Kosovo was virtually a blank slate on the Open Street website, as it was everywhere on the internet, with just a few major towns and roads marked, now thousands of cafes, restaurants, places of interest and new roads have been plotted thanks to the work of a small team of volunteers.
This work was outlined at last month’s conference Software Freedom Kosova 2010, organized by local group Kosovar Association for Free/Libre and Open Source Software, Known as FLOSSK and the University of Pristina.
James Michael DuPont, one of the driving forces behind FLOSSK and the improvements to Open Street Map, said that better maps would boost investments in Kosovo and help businesses.
He said that his group had collected information ranging from municipal cadastral records to onthe- ground photos to plot the map, and had even used the Global Positioning System data from a local logistics firm. FLOSSK has now returned data to the company with the new, improved information.
DuPont said: “There is a huge community set up around this database. It’s not some bureaucrat running around with a clipboard, it is not a government that creates this – it is you and me.”
While Google Maps, the best known commercial offer, has improved drastically in recent months from a very low base, Open Street Map remains streets’ ahead in terms of the quantity of information available.
“Kosovo is a beautiful country with beautiful places to visit but no-one knows where these things are,” DuPont added. “If you come off a place you will not find these places.
“Investors want to know where property is available and what the value of that property is, but at the moment they can’t. “Map,” he said, “means money.”
Lawrence Marzouk
Until recently, detailed and accurate maps of Kosovo were almost impossible to find, in hard copy or online, and you could forget about using a satellite navigations to locate your destination.
But a group of volunteers and IT experts have been quietly but steadily filling the void in decent cartography. The online Open Street Map, www.openstreetmap.org, forms one prong of a movement for open source programmes, which are copyright free and allow everyone from computer programmers to complete novices to access the programme code and update information.
Just two years ago, Kosovo was virtually a blank slate on the Open Street website, as it was everywhere on the internet, with just a few major towns and roads marked, now thousands of cafes, restaurants, places of interest and new roads have been plotted thanks to the work of a small team of volunteers.
This work was outlined at last month’s conference Software Freedom Kosova 2010, organized by local group Kosovar Association for Free/Libre and Open Source Software, Known as FLOSSK and the University of Pristina.
James Michael DuPont, one of the driving forces behind FLOSSK and the improvements to Open Street Map, said that better maps would boost investments in Kosovo and help businesses.
He said that his group had collected information ranging from municipal cadastral records to onthe- ground photos to plot the map, and had even used the Global Positioning System data from a local logistics firm. FLOSSK has now returned data to the company with the new, improved information.
DuPont said: “There is a huge community set up around this database. It’s not some bureaucrat running around with a clipboard, it is not a government that creates this – it is you and me.”
While Google Maps, the best known commercial offer, has improved drastically in recent months from a very low base, Open Street Map remains streets’ ahead in terms of the quantity of information available.
“Kosovo is a beautiful country with beautiful places to visit but no-one knows where these things are,” DuPont added. “If you come off a place you will not find these places.
“Investors want to know where property is available and what the value of that property is, but at the moment they can’t. “Map,” he said, “means money.”
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