The Overture Maps Foundation, a collaboration between big tech companies Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, is working to challenge Google’s dominance in the online mapping space. Launched in December 2022, the foundation aims to develop interoperable and open map data. While the first beta version of the project was released in April, the foundation has now launched its first set of open datasets in general availability.
These datasets include buildings, constituting 2.3 billion building “footprints” globally; places, which includes 54 million notable places of interest; divisions, which denote boundaries such as those separating countries, regions, cities, or neighborhoods; and base, which covers land and water features. The transportation dataset will remain in beta for now, while an alpha version of the addresses dataset has been introduced with support for 200 million addresses across 14 countries.
The Overture Maps Foundation boasts high-profile members like Microsoft, Amazon’s AWS, and Meta (formerly known as Facebook). The core steering committee also includes location technology company TomTom and other general and contributor members such as Esri, Hyundai, Niantic, and TripAdvisor. Notably absent from the group is Google, which aligns with the project’s goal of challenging Google’s mapping data empire.
To create these datasets, the members of the foundation are pooling various data sources. This includes open datasets from projects like OpenStreetMap and government sources, as well as their own internal proprietary data. Surprisingly, even Google’s data is being used, despite its predominantly proprietary nature. Google has released some datasets under an open access license, such as Open Buildings. The Overture Maps Foundation has incorporated data from OpenStreetMap, Esri, Microsoft, and Google in its maps.
However, combining these datasets is not a straightforward task. They often have different formats, structures, and standards. The process of bringing them together is called conflation and involves checking and de-duplication. Ensuring that records of buildings, addresses, and places are accurately matched can be challenging due to misspellings, different names, or slight geographical misalignments. Community mapping project OpenStreetMap and open datasets from governments and municipalities play a crucial role in providing data for the foundation. Additionally, corporate members contribute their in-house data, such as Meta sharing its Facebook places data.
The Overture Maps Foundation is led by executive director Marc Prioleau, who has a background in the mapping and location industry. The foundation has just two full-time employees but also relies on around 10 contractors and engineering support from the Linux Foundation. Member companies contribute approximately 100 people across engineering and product management to help with various tasks.
The foundation encourages active participation from its member companies, emphasizing that it is not a spectator sport but a participation sport. Members are encouraged to work on different aspects of the project, with a focus on their areas of expertise. For example, a logistics company might be interested in contributing to the road network data.
By leveraging the collective resources and expertise of its member companies, the Overture Maps Foundation aims to provide a viable alternative to Google’s online mapping dominance. The collaboration between Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and other industry leaders demonstrates the significance of this initiative and the potential impact it could have on the mapping landscape.