Meta, Microsoft, AWS and TomTom Launch Overture Maps Foundation To Develop Interoperable Open Map Data

The Linux Foundation has partnered with some of the world's biggest technology companies to develop interoperable and open map data, in what is a clear move to counter Google's dominance in the mapping realm. From a report: The Overture Maps Foundation, as the new effort is called, is officially hosted by the Linux Foundation, but the program is driven by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Facebook's parent company Meta, Microsoft, and Dutch mapping company TomTom. The ultimate mission of the Overture Maps Foundation to power new map products through openly available datasets that can be used and reused across applications and businesses, with each member throwing their own data and resources into the mix.

'Mapping the physical environment and every community in the world, even as they grow and change, is a massively complex challenge that no one organization can manage,' noted the Linux Foundation's executive director Jim Zemlin in a press release. 'Industry needs to come together to do this for the benefit of all.' Map and location data plays such a fundamental role across society today, powering everything from IoT (internet of things) devices and self-driving cars, to logistics and big data visualization tools. Having all that data under the auspices of just one or two mega-firms can be hugely restrictive in terms of what companies can do with the data and what features they have at their disposal, not to mention the costs involved in licensing it.

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