NearMap
Encyclopedia
NearMap Pty Ltd is an Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n provider of high resolution aerial imagery
Aerial photography
Aerial photography is the taking of photographs of the ground from an elevated position. The term usually refers to images in which the camera is not supported by a ground-based structure. Cameras may be hand held or mounted, and photographs may be taken by a photographer, triggered remotely or...

 (and not satellite imaging).

NearMap currently operates a web portal which serves up its imagery and terrain (DEM
Digital elevation model
A digital elevation model is a digital model or 3-D representation of a terrain's surface — commonly for a planet , moon, or asteroid — created from terrain elevation data....

) tiles, along with OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. Two major driving forces behind the establishment and growth of OSM have been restrictions on use or availability of map information across much of the world and the advent of inexpensive portable GPS devices.The...

 map tiles, all three of which are free for the public and most commercial businesses to use. All government agencies and some commercial businesses need to apply for a licence to use the tiles.

The provider currently covers 2.26 per cent of Australia's landmass, with coverage primarily for capital cities and major regional towns. Special imagery may be flown for events such as natural disasters, for example, 2 cm resolution coverage of Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...

 and Ipswich
Ipswich, Queensland
Ipswich is a city in South-East Queensland, Australia. Situated along the Bremer River Valley approximately 40 kilometres away from the state's capital Brisbane. The suburb by the same name forms the city's Central Business District and administrative centre...

 during the 2010–2011 Queensland floods
2010–2011 Queensland floods
A series of floods hit Australia, beginning in December 2010, primarily in the state of Queensland including its capital city, Brisbane. The floods forced the evacuation of thousands of people from towns and cities. At least seventy towns and over 200,000 people were affected. Damage initially was...

. Imagery is normally updated for 60% of Australia's population every month at a 7.5 cm (3 in) resolution and an additional 15% every three months at a 10 cm (3.9 in) resolution.

On the 21st of November 2008 Ipernica acquired NearMap for A$4 million plus shares and options along with A$1 million of investment.

Free licencing

From their About page:
We specifically encourage creation of Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...

 licensed information derived from our PhotoMap content, so that everyone can share and build a greater understanding of our planet.


The OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. Two major driving forces behind the establishment and growth of OSM have been restrictions on use or availability of map information across much of the world and the advent of inexpensive portable GPS devices.The...

 project previously used NearMap provided aerial imagery, with explicit support from the company, under the CC-BY-SA license
Creative Commons licenses
Creative Commons licenses are several copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works. The licenses differ by several combinations that condition the terms of distribution. They were initially released on December 16, 2002 by Creative Commons, a U.S...

, however it is no longer used due to OpenStreetMap licencing changes making NearMap imagery incompatible.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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