Nixta Rolls

If you watch the BBC flight-sim commissioned video that Gizmodo refers to, one thing is glaringly obvious: the data used in the flight simulator model is sparse. As the plane reaches water level and the camera points east-south-east to give a view of Manhattan, you see a Manhattan from 1830 with some skyscrapers thrown on top. I’d love to live in such a green and sparse Manhattan, where deer still roam free. OK, perhaps not if they came with their own large predators too…

Compare and contrast with the current Google Earth 3D buildings shown below, recently spectacularly updated. But actually, this is a problem that the GIS/neogeo/today’s-geo-buzzword profession has to struggle with on a daily basis. To Google, this data costs nothing. Gathering, buying, normalising, correcting, integrating, it all costs nothing but perhaps a little time to them. For most clients and/or providers, such an enterprise would be at least cost-noticeable and most likely cost-prohibitive.