[ambiguity]

Arguing that Google stole the idea of 'Mapping Parties' seems a bit silly. Claiming that OSM invented the idea of 'Mapping Parties' is even more ridiculous than claiming that Apple invented the term 'App Store'.

The argument that MapMaker is harmful to open source efforts has a bit more merit. With MapMaker users contribute mapping information for free without the ability to actually make use of that data later on. OpenStreetMaps on the other hand provides a Creative Commons license for all of the map data.

[yellowbkpk]

Regardless of who actually invented mapping parties, I felt that Google grabbing the idea and using it to promote it's closed community was really an example of his main thesis.

Imagine if Google held code sprints for it's commercial products and enticed people with t-shirts and bottled water, keeping their work for commercial use? Wouldn't you rather have those people participate in an open source project so that their volunteered time could be used by all rather than just Google?