The alternative initiative to Google Maps from Amazon, Meta, TomTom and Microsoft has released a first version of its open and interoperable data set that includes nearly 60 million places around the world.
Overture Maps Foundation was born in December with the aim of developing high-quality, easy-to-use and interoperable open map data, based on the collaboration of different companies in the sector, civic organizations and open data sources.
It is currently supported by “more than a dozen” companies, including Amazon, Meta, TomTom and Microsoft, and has recently been joined by firms such as SafeGraph and Sparkgeo.
This initiative has just announced its entry into an alpha phase, which means “a significant step in establishing an open map dataset comprehensive and market-grade for our ever-changing world,” as CEO Marc Prioleau noted in a press release.
This dataset offers four unique data layers, starting with Places of Interest, which includes more than 59 million POI records that have not been previously published as open data.
Also more than 780+ million unique building footprints worldwide, a worldwide road network derived from data from the OpenStreetMap project, and a global open dataset of national and regional administrative boundaries.