NZ Open GPS Maps Project wins award!
I had the pleasure to see a project that I’ve watched since inception win an award on Wednesday night. The NZ Open GPS Maps Project was the winner for the Open Source Software Project.
This award recognises an outstanding project to develop open source software. The project must be either based in New Zealand or have substantial contribution from New Zealanders living here or overseas.
For those that aren’t aware, the Open GPS Maps Project started a number of years ago out of a desire to produce freely available maps for Garmin GPS receivers, and it has grown to be a fairly significant project supported by a wide community of users and ‘regional mappers’. Graeme Williams has done a fantastic job in growing and maintaining this project, and it has been very well received by members of the NZ Recreational GPS Society of which I’m the current President. Many of our members are active contributors to the project. Back in the early days of the project, I produced the original ocean to give the map a more realistic look.
This is fantastic recognition for the tens and hundreds of people that have, and continue to, contribute to this project.
Another parallel project that has been gaining momentum, and has been working with the Open GPS Map Project is Zenbu. Zenbu is Japanese for ‘everything’, and has been producing a community driven directory service, including georeferenced service stations, ATM’s, where I can find curries etc. The symbiotic relationship between these two projects is really starting to come to the fore now that Zenbu’s point-of-interest database is being distributed with the Open GPS maps. Zenbu was also a finalist in the NZ Open Source Awards for Open Source Use in Business.
It is really exciting to see these open and collaborative projects gaining such recognition and momentum.