None of the big cities except for Islamabad have street names. I am sure they do have street names on paper, but no one really knows what names most of those main roads and galis have. Only, the popular roads have names and signs.
Maybe it will work using blocks or something.
Re: How will something like Google Maps or Mapquest work in Pakistan?
They probably havent even bothered looking into making detailed maps of Pakistani cities. When you cant find detailed maps of Karachi in Karachi itself, why should we expect a foreign enterprise to invest their time and money in our city especially when the return is close to zero.
It could use some help from local initiative though. I'm sure enough information could be gathered from municipal offices, police stations, fire stations etc and can be pieced together to make sense.
The task would however be nothing short of herculian and its just a matter of who and when decides to do the public this wonderful service. Personally i dont really see any of the government bodies taking up the initiative.
Sincerely,
Captain Lota
Re: How will something like Google Maps or Mapquest work in Pakistan?
The map of Karachi is exquisite in detail...
BTW, Lota, why do all your posts have *edited by ehsan *in them?
Re: How will something like Google Maps or Mapquest work in Pakistan?
duplicate post
Re: How will something like Google Maps or Mapquest work in Pakistan?
mapquest works thru just one sense (sight). However to navigate thru karachi u need couple of other senses too, which i dont think mapquest can provide. For example, we need sense of smell; like when ur going to some part in the inner city you can easily say that due to open gutters wait for smell of feces &urine and ur there. You might also need sense of hearing. With so many cars on congested roads & donkey carts - you can tell ppl to wait for a cacaophony of honks & hee-hae hee-haw to arrive at ur destnation.
And BTW lawajab, that's just his signature..
Re: How will something like Google Maps or Mapquest work in Pakistan?
^^
Once wouod have been enough...:D
Re: How will something like Google Maps or Mapquest work in Pakistan?
research has shown that chances of posts getting read are proportional with how often they are posted. :)
Re: How will something like Google Maps or Mapquest work in Pakistan?
short answer: yes. you need a GIS database and an efficient/intelligent search algorithm. Give me the database and I can make it for you. I looked into this because I was interested in making one (not in making the database)
most of the big cities in Pakistan have already got the GIS database thanks to a couple of companies, Worldcall and Multinet I know have got detailed enough databases to be able to map addresses (they're actually said to be detailed enough to map lamp posts on streets...) and they are in use by the many car tracking companies like Trakker. Since making these databases is not trivial by any means, the companies price it much beyond the means of an individual. So until a company invests some money into acquiring the databse, or worldcall itself decides it wants to use its database for that purpose, its not going to happen.
But the infrastructure is there.
Re: How will something like Google Maps or Mapquest work in Pakistan?
Without house / street mapping it is not possible. I am working on a project where I am incharge of developing GIS in small to medium towns in Punjab (17 to date) . We are basically mapping municipal infrastructure. The road network is easy to pick from satellite maps but data from field needs a lot of effort.
areas like Defence in lahore are in process of developing some GIS applications like emergency responce etc. and shortest distance things can easily be incorporated there..
Re: How will something like Google Maps or Mapquest work in Pakistan?
Degas, as I understand it, the house/street mapping has already been done by a couple of companies, atleast for the big cities
Re: How will something like Google Maps or Mapquest work in Pakistan?
So let’s say Google maps does start using this data. At best, they will be able to show the map and the streets. But if someone uses them to provide directions, they would be useless, because there are no street signs to guide people. Might as well just say 2nd left after making first right after the chowk.
Re: How will something like Google Maps or Mapquest work in Pakistan?
they should contact the local nayeez association, A nayee *has traditionally been the source of all information (read nosey jerks) good or bad. That way not only the google people will get to make detailed maps, they would also be able to get valuable information like whose daugher is having an affair with whose son, who is a cheap **** and whoz not, who stole chickens from the village in 1974 n so on and so forth.
Re: How will something like Google Maps or Mapquest work in Pakistan?
Google's way to make mapping work is to find all the paan ki dukan, doodh-walay ki dukan, all the big signboards on roads... it'll be so easy: ultay haath pe muriye, paan ki dukan se seedhay haath muriye, do gali chhor ke teesri gali ke nukkar pe mochi ke foran baad wala ghar.