F-NPM Feedbacks (Jan & Feb 2009)

[zmn_77]

Hi,

2 weeks ago, I went to my sister's place in Penang and noticed one road name is not correctly captured. The road name as marked in the gdb file is Persiaran Bayan 3. I believe Persiaran Bayan 8 ends at the corner.

In addition to that, the name for that Taman is Taman Tunas Muda.

Done! 247 - OngCC

[kaybee]

Fuji Micro Technology at N5 25.586 E100 35.613 is in fact same as Fuji Electric at N5 25.749 E100 35.510. Pls delete Fuji Micro Technology.

Also relocate Teluk Bayan Food Court from N5 20.047 E100 17.713 to N5 20.066 E100 17.741.

Thanks.

Done! 247 - OngCC

[double]

Missing street name. As in screen capture and marked in GDB file, it should read Lorong Mayang Pasir 7. Was visiting an Aunt there recently but as I was in a rush to get back to KL didn't have time to do additional tracking as I should have, as the Lorong Mayang Pasir 7 is also incomplete.

double,

You are right about the missing part of the road, but there is no sign of "Lorong Mayang Pasir 7" anywhere. I suspect this name is an Easter egg (copyright trap) put in by MapIT, the provider of Malaysia map data to Google Maps.

Anyway, I've tracked the missing roads here (and discovered another untracked portion too):
http://malfreemaps.com/viewtopic.php?f= ... 125#p22125

tympg,

Had a look at your link. Excellent tracking! Didn't expect you to actually go out and track the area. Really appreciate it.

I don't get the part you explained on the copyright trap. How does this MapIT copyright the map by putting in ficticious road names? By the way what did "Lorong Mayang Pasir 7" end up being? I mean what should I search for cause I might be heading up to Penang again soon.

[tympg]

I don't get the part you explained on the copyright trap. How does this MapIT copyright the map by putting in ficticious road names?

MapIT does not "copyright the map" by putting a non-existent roadname on the map, but in a legal dispute, may use it as proof that someone else lifted their map wholesale. I believe the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) did that successfully in the celebrated case against StreetDirectory.com.

More on Easter Eggs in maps here: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Copy ... aster_Eggs

Of course, it may be genuine mistake (hard to believe), or someone simply saw a nameless street and decided to embellish the map with his own creation .

By the way what did "Lorong Mayang Pasir 7" end up being? I mean what should I search for cause I might be heading up to Penang again soon.

Well,

• by visual inspection, I found no street nameplate at that road.
  
• using Google to research, I found that the banks along this road have addresses bearing the name of the main road they are fronting (e.g., CIMB has a Jln Mayang Pasir address, EON Bank has a Jln Tengah address, etc.). This is normal in Penang, as service roads (which is what this road is) do not usually have a name in their own right and addresses along these roads simply take on the name of the main road.
  
• all the other roads in the vicinity have their names accounted for, thus no other nearby roads would have the name "Lorong Mayang Pasir 7" as far as I can tell. Of course I may well be wrong; I might have missed it, in which case whoever spots it should feedback.

Google Maps (and Google Earth) are good references, but sometimes we have to take the data available with a pinch of salt.

Anyway, hopefully when you're back in Penang, you can spot more missing/wrong stuff in our maps. After all our goal is to make a better map.

Thanks for calling this out in the first place.

[double]

You certainly know your mapping. Read up all the links you gave me.
It's pretty selfish, this Easter Egg business throwing people off like that with non-existant road names. Gets people like me really confused. But then again that's exactly what it is, a business, so I guess it's a pretty clever trick after all. Couldn't think of a better way to protect their maps.

Thanks for enlightening me on the topic. No thanks to Penang for designing roads in such a way.. hahaha..