Seminar held on online Bangalore maps

If you thought there is no such thing as a mapping enthusiast, you would have been proven wrong at the geospatial data technology and applications seminar organised by HasGeek at The Energy and Resources Institute on Saturday.

The one-day seminar saw a mix of mapping enthusiasts and people working at creating online city maps and addresses coming together and discussing the various problems and solutions pertaining to location services and maps in the country.

“The conference is a larger part of bringing a standardised map system online. When you look at Yahoo! Maps and Google Maps, the data is not consistent and the street names are not consistent. Obviously, the government of India is not doing anything to help come up with data that can help the society. So, we are taking it into our own hands,” said Kiran Jonnalagdda, founder of HasGeek.

The conference saw about 10 speakers and panelists discuss how people in the country use geospatial data in everyday scenarios. Jonnalagdda, however, says that private parties have to step in to create city maps because the government is not completely equipped to handle the task of making maps available for public consumption.

“Bhuvan is a great initiative by the Indian government. They have sent this satellite to take high-quality pictures of the country, but the data is not shared with the public. So, how is it useful? They say the data is withheld for security reasons. But that is why private parties and mapping enthusiasts come together and bring about initiatives such as this,” he added.

The conference will also act as a platform for various groups to network with one another.