When it comes to creating a digital map of the world, you may think of Google workers driving around in high-tech cars mounted with cameras — snapping photos of everything.
But Robert Scott walks the streets of London jotting down address numbers with nothing more than a pen and a piece of paper.
Scott is with OpenStreetMap, a British nonprofit that's built a digital map of the world over the past decade with the help of volunteers like himself and thousands of others around the globe.
And every month or so, a few of them get together for "mapping parties" to collect data that's later added on a computer back home.
"We've sometimes had strange looks when we're doing things like this," Scott says.
It hardly sounds like competition for Google, but Scott says if you're just starting a business, or have an idea you'd like to try, using Google's data can feel like a straightjacket.
"Google Maps are licensed to you for a very specific purpose. You're not allowed to do this. You're not allowed to do that," Scott says. "If you just want to use data, there are all kinds of restrictions about what you can do with them."
And Google charges customers that use large amounts of mapping data.
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