stimulant

This is what I was talking about when I said we needed more collaboration among companies. The municipal government informs the mapping service which informs the municipal government.

ZENRIN maps are widely used by local governments and public utility companies. We provide these bodies with diverse maps from fire department maps to electricity, gas, sewage and telecommunications maps that specify pertinent information. For example, the fire department maps clearly indicate the location of fire hydrants and storage facilities for dangerous materials.

Now, consider extending this to the private sector. As long as companies remain convinced that the data they’ve collected is a significant part of what makes their service valuable, the data landscape will be fractured, and we’ll continue to see the proliferation of kinda neat but underwhelming services.

There are plenty of questions when it comes to considering an open database of user and resource data, but beyond calls for Facebook to open up, I’ve heard little in this direction. Imagine if there were an open database of (optionally anonymized or otherwise secured) user information that web applications not only drew from, but added to as a byproduct of their use. Or just read about a couple possibilities and keep in mind that there are myriad more.