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[News] OpenStreeMaps Takes Planet Earth Back from Intellectual Monopolies

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OpenStreeMaps: free software's answer to Google and commercially-restricted
geo-data

,----[ Quote ]
| In a recent article on free software and the Large Hadron Collider I 
| mentioned that here in the United Kingdom The Guardian, a national British 
| newspaper, had founded a campaign called “free our data”. They objected to 
| the fact that the Ordnance Survey (and others), funded by the British 
| taxpayer, was charging business and individuals for its cartographic data 
| thus effectively making people pay for it twice. Their campaign is great but 
| until such times as it succeeds an alternative is needed. A free software 
| alternative. Enter OpenStreetMaps.       
| 
| [...]
| 
| OpenStreetMaps is a classic instance of scratching an itch and instead of 
| bleating about proprietary software going out (literally) and doing something 
| yourself. It is always so easy to ask why someone doesn’t do something until 
| you realise that you are that someone. Any participation in any free software 
| project is demanding of time and often requires a high level of technical and 
| programming skills, but the beauty of OSM is that anyone can participate and 
| contribute. It’s not everyday that you get the chance to help map the world. 
| Mark Twain said “buy land, they’re not making it anymore”. True, but you can 
| at least map what’s there.        
`----

http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/columns/openstreemaps_free_softwares_answer_google_and_commercially_restricted_geo_data


Recent:

KDE 4.1 Beta1: OpenStreetMap Support in KDE via Marble

,----[ Quote ]
| The hero of the current Marble KDE 4.1 Beta1 release is Jens-Michael
| Hoffmann: He has successfully worked on getting OpenStreetMap integrated into
| Marble and KDE 4.1!
|
| This means that once you start our free software virtual globe and
| select "OpenStreetMap" as a theme then Marble will directly start to download
| OpenStreetMap tiles from the OpenStreetMap server...
`----

http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/3475


Marble's Secrets Part III: The Earth in a Download

,----[ Quote ]
| In Part III we'll look beyond Marble's offline mode: We'll get to know how
| Marble fetches its data from the internet.
|
| [...]
|
| Actually I've met a lot of people recently who weren't aware of the fact that
| Marble downloads further texture data from the internet while browsing the
| map. On one hand the reason for this misconception is maybe the fact that we
| only provide very little additional online data right now (about 400 MB). On
| the other hand the map download is done automatically and very seamlessly in
| the background, so people will hardly notice.    
`----

http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/3275


Marble's Secrets Part II - Walking In The Shoes Of Slartibartfast ...

,----[ Quote ]
| In Part I we have seen how easy it is to create your own maps for Marble.
| We've also seen how this works down to the zoom level of aerial photos or
| OpenStreetMap. Part II will show how Marble manages to provide the biggest
| bang for the byte when it comes to providing map data. It outlines how we
| managed to get the default map squeezed into the 10MB package that the
| Marble-Qt version gets shipped with. We basically show ...    
|
| Why Marble is the perfect choice for Asus EeePC, OLPC & Co and some Embedded
| Devices ...  
`----

http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/3272


Marble's Secrets Part I: Behind the Scenes of Marble...

,----[ Quote ]
| If you've ever followed KDE 4 development then you've probably heard about
| Marble. Marble is a virtual globe which displays the earth. So Marble can be
| used as a nice digital replacement for your desktop globe at home where you
| can look up places.  
`----

http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/3269


Marble: 'Googe Earth Lite' Comes Free With KDE 4

,----[ Quote ]
| And, finally, probably the best thing of all the good things about Marble: It
| is Free/Open Source Software, promotes the use of free maps...
`----

http://reddevil62-techhead.blogspot.com/2008/10/marble-googe-earth-lite-comes-free-with.html
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