Microsoft-backed foundation releases open map data sets to rival Google
The Overture Maps Foundation (OMF), supported by tech industry leaders Microsoft, AWS, and Meta, has unveiled its first open map data sets. This initiative was launched in December 2022 to challenge Google's dominance in online mapping, and is hosted by the Linux Foundation. The OMF has released four open data sets: Buildings, Places, Divisions, as well as Base.
Details of the open map data sets
The Buildings dataset includes 2.3 billion global building "footprints." The Places dataset features 54 million notable places of interest. Divisions serve as a visual overlay denoting "boundaries" separating countries, regions, cities, or neighborhoods. Finally, the Base covers land and water features such as physical infrastructure.
Ongoing projects and challenges
The OMF's Transportation dataset remains in beta, while a new Addresses set supporting 200 million addresses across 14 countries, has been introduced in alpha. Marc Prioleau, Executive Director of OMF, highlighted the challenges of combining different datasets, a process known as conflation. He explained, "One of the real challenges when you start combining data coming from different places is how do you know that this record of a building or an address is the same as this other record?"
Data sources and key contributors to the foundation
Members of the OMF, including Microsoft, AWS, Meta, TomTom, Esri, Hyundai, Niantic, and TripAdvisor, are pooling data from projects like OpenStreetMap, government sources, and their own proprietary data. Some data from Google has also been utilized because it has released some datasets under an open-access license. Corporate members are contributing their in-house data. For instance, Meta has shared its Facebook places data with the project.
Leadership and support structure
Prioleau, who has a long history in mapping and location roles, left his position at Meta last May, to lead the OMF. He was joined by Amy Rose as technical director in November. The organization currently has two full-time employees, around 10 contractors, and receives some engineering support from the Linux Foundation. Member companies contribute around 100 people across engineering and product management.
