Logiball on OpenStreetMap
Interview with Dr. Roger Müller, Managing Director of LOGIBALL, founded in 1994
During the State of the Map 2010, we had a talk with Dr. Roger Mueller, Managing Director of LOGIBALL GmbH. The German-based LOGIBALL, specialist for navigation maps and solutions in the B2B segment, was platinum sponsor of the conference.
Please tell us a little bit about LOGIBALL
Since 2000, LOGIBALL has been developing customized navigation solutions and offers a broad range of services both nationally and internationally. This is what we call “engineering the world’s navigation maps”. LOGIBALL’s engineering know-how allows for individually customizing each and every digital navigation map according to the specific field of business or consumer interest.
LOGIBALL takes even one step further. With our own developed software: the Global Navigation Data Suite (GND SUITE), we provide our clients with the flexibility of having the perfect tool for processing navigation data. This way, our clients can manage, quality assure, convert, etc. their own volume of navigation data themselves, however they want, whenever they want.
LOGIBALL solutions are found in the products of prominent automobile and telecommunications enterprises, in large utility companies as well as in the retail and logistics sectors.
On the business day of the conference, you presented the LOGIBALL Quality Grid, a tool for the performance evaluation of navigation data. Can you please explain what exactly this tool can do for OSM data?
The Quality Grid is an extension of the LOGIBALL GND SUITE, a software capable of processing navigation maps in various formats. With this extension, it is now possible to effectively analyze OSM and compare it to commercial data. This gives OSM the opportunity to prove its strength
as well as become aware of the gaps and how improvements can be made. This is the first step to analyzing OSM data for potential business opportunities.
Is the OpenStreeMap data complete enough and of such high-quality that businesses can use it for complex navigation solutions?
LOGIBALL’s Quality Grid shows a detailed analysis of the OpenStreetMap in comparison to a traditional map. With the help of the GND SUITE, critical elements within the database can be viewed automatically, examined qualitatively and transformed into the GDF standard – a requirement for the integration of the data and important for business applications such as navigation or complex intelligent transportation system solutions. As a result, detailed OpenStreetMap data is available for many areas. However, there are still regions with deficits, such as in Spain for example.
What can we do to make OSM more attractive to the business community?
It is quite interesting to witness how fast the OpenStreetMap community has developed an alternative map. The high actuality and the depth of information make the OpenStreetMap more and more attractive for business applications. We notice this on the increasing number of client requests. A further standardization in data collection as well as offering suitable tools for quality assurance such as the GND SUITE makes the OSM data an interesting option. And that in the short-term rather than long-term.
How do you evaluate the response from the OSM community after your presentation?
Highly positive. Immediately, we saw an increase in activity within other communities, ie. Twitter or on our own website statistics. The OSM community is very fast, enthusiastic and eager to move forward.
For more information, please visit www.en.logiball.de
