[OpenLayers-Users] Just discovered OpenLayers -> free data sources for businesses?

[Christopher Schmidt]

On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 08:31:43AM -0600, David Raasch wrote:
> Then, this morning, I stumbled upon the OpenLayers site.   
> 
> At first, I was quite excited that it seemed somebody was offering a mapping
> API for free!  But then, I started reading a bit more and it looks like,
> although the application is free, some of the various layer data sources are
> free for business use and some are not ????  Is that correct?

OpenLayers does not provide any data. It is the equivilant of the
"Javascript"/"API" portion of the Google Maps API -- the part without
the tiles. However, because it allows you to use different data
providers quickly and easily, you can start by using free, low quality
data sources -- and if the budget comes through next year, you can just
swap in a Google Layer later.

> With regards to what sort of layers I'm looking for, well, I think we'd just
> like some sort of terrain / satellite view and then accurate street maps. 

"Accurate street maps" can cost a lot of money. However,
http://openstreetmap.org/ is making a freely usable world map that you
could use for this purpose. Depending on how crucial it is that you have
the same quality as something like Google has, OSM may be a free
alternative -- and if it's not, well, it is a wiki after all. Get those
clients to go out and map their town.

NASA provides 15m satellite data for the world that is relatively
usable, called "Landsat", which may be sufficient if all you want is a
high level overview.

Regards,
-- 
Christopher Schmidt
MetaCarta