Similarly, if you never saw anyone driving across that closed of part of the street you could draw the conclusion that it’s become either a) unusable or b) non-existent, right?

It has both maps and text content – very rich. From the main page:

“Welcome to Cyclopath, the geowiki for Twin Cities bicyclists. You can use Cyclopath to find routes and share information with other cyclists.

Nobody knows where you can go, and what you will find when you get there, better than you, the bicycling community. Cyclopath enables bicyclists to harness this collective knowledge and build a comprehensive, up-to-date information resource by and for the community.”

I did call Navteq a few years ago and pointed out this error, they were the Google data provider at that time. But they didn’t have a way to accept the update.

One person did look, and did find them: me.

You should’ve knocked — or anyway, called!

It is weird, though, isn’t it, being locatable in the ways we are now. I suppose in the future — i.e. now — we’ll want to have sensors that watch out not only for mentions of our names online, but also mentions of our locations.

Google’s mapmaker http://www.google.com/mapmaker

essentially openstreetmap without the open, for countries that google does not have good data for

I love the mission statement!

“Strictly speaking it is NOT a map. It is the collective navigational experience of the T4A Data Community on countless leisure and trips to eco-destinations into remote and eco-sensitive Africa”

Or maybe it will just transform their business into something different. With millions of contributors, I can still imagine a need for a team of hundreds of paid managers/coordinators/gardeners.

From:
http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=509968

“the acquisition could strengthen TomTom’s newly introduced MapShare service, which allows users to update map data manually to increase map data accuracy and reliability.

TomTom’s strategy of stimulating user-generated content is a good example of creative innovation in the navigation market, but this concept could spell trouble for map providers once it catches on. Consumer and company awareness of navigation and Web 2.0 applications is growing, and it is likely that user-generated content efforts will eventually eliminate the need for dedicated map data providers. Additionally, large companies such as Google and Nokia could motivate user-generated content by offering free server space and applications. For example, consumers could use their GPS-enabled phones to collect traffic and road infrastructure information in real time, and this information could then be collected, managed and analyzed by the companies and shared with everyone.”

BTW: in some EU countries, there are already traffic (jam) information services based on the (anonymised) location information of moving (or not) mobile phones collected by the telco.

Would it be possible to formulate a GDOS (Geographic Denial of Service) “attack” which removed someone’s street from mapping services, thereby rendering it impossible for them to receive deliveries (at least from carriers that use electronic mapping to speed their delivery persons)?

But, I’m all in favor of community feedback too.