(Israeli company) Waze is taking off in countries that don't already have good digital maps, such as Costa Rica and Malaysia. Entire portions of the global street map are being filled in not by professionals, but by ordinary citizens with smart phones. If maps are subject to the same forces that have affected online encyclopedias, then the arc of history is clear: crowdsourcing isn't just cheaper than expert-driven data, it's also potentially faster and more accurate.
MIT Technology Review
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