The Linux Foundation, a global nonprofit organization, has announced the formation of the Overture Maps Foundation, a collaborative effort to develop interoperable open map data as a shared asset that can strengthen mapping services worldwide. The initiative was founded by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Meta, Microsoft, & TomTom, & will be open to all communities with a common interest in building open map data, said an announcement.
Overture’s mission is “to enable current & next-generation map products by creating reliable, easy-to-use, & interoperable open map data. This 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, & refreshed as the physical world changes. Map data will be open & extensible by all under an open data license, according to Linux.
Overture, along with other contributors, aim to deliver:
- Collaborative Map Building: Overture aims to incorporate data from multiple sources including Overture Members, civic organizations, & open data sources.
- Global Entity Reference System: Overture will simplify interoperability with a system that links entities from different data sets to the same real-world entities.
- Quality Assurance Processes: Overture data will undergo validation to detect map errors, breakage, & vandalism to help ensure that map data can be used in production systems.
- Structured Data Schema: Overture will define & drive adoption of a common, structured, & documented data schema to create an easy-to-use ecosystem of map data.
The contributions to Overture Maps Foundation will address many of these concerns and complement existing open geospatial data to support best-in-class map services. The open base map data will support an entity reference system & allow additional data sets to be more easily combined to support richer map experiences.