Another GPS article in The Star today 24-Aug
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:43 am
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.a ... =lifefocus
Marvellous maps
By Michael Cheang
What started out as a hobby has resulted in the map that is held as the gold standard.
SEVEN years ago, Adil Othman and his Singaporean friend Allen Teoh set out to make their own GPS maps of Malaysia and Singapore compatible to the Garmin Mapping GPS unit, and uploaded them online for all to download and use.
Little did they know that their hobby would grow to include a community of almost 100,000 people, all of whom also contribute to the map that is now the de facto gold standard for GPS maps of Malaysia and Singapore.
Now called Malsingmaps, the maps have grown to cover not just Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, but also Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei as well, with an unmatched number of Points of Interest (POI).
The Singapore map is apparently so good that even the Land Transport Authority of Singapore relies on it to find out information about turn restrictions and other details of their own roads. And best of all, you can still download these maps for free on malsingmaps.com.
Considering how successful it is today, it is hard to believe that Adil started Malsingmaps as part of their hobby.
“Back then, people were not even aware that we had GPS in Malaysia. We started Malsingmaps as a hobby but the community began to grow after we were featured in StarTwo, and more users came in to contribute to the map,” he recalled. “By 2005-06, we were the leaders in Malaysian and Singaporean digital maps. And because we were giving it out for free, official mapping companies found it very difficult to get into the market.”
Malsingmaps eventually became so comprehensive that instead of trying to compete with them, GPS receiver manufacturer Garmin cut a deal with the site to provide the default maps for their GPS receivers in Malaysia and Singapore.
“At one point, we had even considered shutting down the site because we were afraid of being sued by one of the major GPS players. But to Garmin’s credit, they were willing to think out of the box and decided to work with us instead of against us,” said Adil.
The result of their deal – the new Garmin nüvi devices now come loaded with the latest Malsingmaps already installed as the default map for Malaysia and Singapore.
“We are the first bunch of hobbyists in the world to sign up with a major GPS manufacturer. After doing a market survey here, they realised that none of the buyers here wanted to use official maps, only Malsingmaps. So in the end, Garmin approached us last year to officially use our maps in their units,” said Adil, proudly showing off the Malsingmaps logo prominently displayed onscreen in the device.
GPS Foundry’s Kelvin Chua reckons that if not for Malsingmaps, the number of sales of GPS units in Malaysia or Singapore would have been virtually zero because the maps were not up-to-date. “Every dealer who sells GPS units would load Malsingmaps as the default content these days,” he said.
Points of interest
One of the key advantages Malsingmaps and MySgFreeMaps have over commercial mapmakers is the sheer number of POI in their maps – spanning thousands of interesting locations that range from leisure spots, food places and tourists attractions, to hospitals, police stations and petrol stations.
“An empty road is useless without POIs along it – they galvanise the map,” said Adil. “With Malsingmaps, we started out putting in our own POIs for the best wantan mee or nasi lemak in town. Then others would come to the site and add their personal favourite wantan mee or nasi lemak. As a result, we have an unmatched number of POIs in our maps – you can find almost anything you want!”
Malsingmaps was also light years ahead in terms of being up-to-date with the maps. They update their maps every other week, compared to commercial mapping companies which usually update the maps every six months to a year. This is thanks to the sheer number of people contributing to the map, each focusing on they own specific areas, and correcting errors on the way.
Adil gave an example of how current the maps are: “We take pride in the fact that when the Guthrie highway was officially opened, we already had people driving up the highway recording tracks the next day! Within two to three days, it was already in the map. We have also updated the map to include the (recently opened) Duke highway.”
Today, Malsingmaps has become so big that it has close to 100,000 members contributing to the maps and chatting on their online forum. And it’s not even the only kid on the block.
In fact, Malaysian and Singaporean GPS users are spoilt for choice, with not one but two comprehensive GPS map providers – Malsingmaps and MySgFreeMaps (MFM).
Community-minded
MFM founder Anthony Yong reckons that both maps have their own pros and cons, and that one should just try out both of them out. According to him, MSM has better coverage of Sabah and Sarawak, and more Singaporean POI. Nevertheless, he also reckons that MFM has better coverage of Peninsular Malaysia and better information regarding HDB flats in Singapore.
All the same, the biggest winners here are Malaysian GPS users, who not only have some of the best and most comprehensive GPS maps to upload into their devices, they can also get these maps for free.
While Malsingmaps’ successful model has been replicated around the world in countries like Argentina and Indonesia, Adil and his pals are not letting the success of the site get to their heads.
“Our motto has always been ‘built by the community for the community’,” he said. “We do this for our own pride and joy, and don’t make any money out of it. We started it as a hobby, and six to seven years down the road, we’re still keeping that spirit even though we have grown so much.”
■ To download the latest version of Malsingmaps, go to malsingmaps.com. For the MySgFreeMaps maps, go to malfreemaps.com.