Amazon Web Services (AWS), Meta, Microsoft, and TomTom have combined their map-making capabilities with the Linux Foundation and announced the Overture Maps Foundation, a new collaborative effort to develop interoperable open map data as a shared asset.
The step is seen as a combined effort against the might of Alphabet-owned Google, which is the biggest player in online mapping. It sells its services to other companies or platforms and uses location and navigation capabilities to enhance its other offerings, including online advertising.
The Overture Maps Foundation will make data sets freely available for map features to be built into online offerings. The reliable, easy-to-use, and interoperable open map data will facilitate an ecosystem of users and contributors to share map data in an efficient way.
The Linux Foundation is a global non-profit organisation enabling innovation through open source.
Overture’s interoperable map is the basis for extensibility, enabling companies to contribute their own data. Members will combine resources to build map data that is complete, accurate, and refreshed as the physical world changes. Map data will be open and extensible by all under an open data license.
Jim Zemlin, executive director for the Linux Foundation, said: “Mapping the physical environment and every community in the world, even as they grow and change, is a massively complex challenge that no one organisation can manage. The industry needs to come together to do this for the benefit of all.
“We are excited to facilitate this open collaboration among leading technology companies to develop high quality, open map data that will enable untold innovations for the benefit of people, companies, and communities.”
With metaverse becoming a major force on the web, Jan Erik Solem, engineering director, Maps at Meta, believes open-sourcing is crucial for new developments and said: “Immersive experiences, which understand and blend into your physical environment, are critical to the embodied internet of the future. By delivering interoperable open map data, Overture provides the foundation for an open metaverse built by creators, developers, and businesses alike.”
Today, developers delivering map services face many challenges. Sourcing and curating high-quality, current, and comprehensive data from disparate sources are difficult and expensive. Multiple datasets reference the same real-world entities using their own conventions and vocabulary, which can make them difficult to combine. Map data is vulnerable to errors and inconsistencies. Open map data can also lack the structure needed to easily build commercial map products and services on top.
The contributions to Overture Maps Foundation will address many of these concerns and complement existing open geospatial data.
Michael Kopenec, General Manager for AWS Geospatial, added: “Map data plays an increasingly important role both internally and for our customers across AWS. However, maintaining accurate and comprehensive map data is cost prohibitive and complex, which can put it out of reach for many customers and stifle innovation.
“Through Overture, we are facilitating greater cooperation across the industry to make comprehensive, high-quality map data available to more end users. This will allow everyone to take advantage of the same underlying data to power a wide range of established and emerging mapping use cases.”
Overture expects to release its first datasets in the first half of 2023. Initially, this release will include basic layers including buildings, road, and administrative information. To support next-generation map products, Overture will steadily improve the coverage, resolution and accuracy of existing data, as well as introduce new layers such as places, routing or 3D building data.
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