We had the story earlier in June last year:
Google Mapping Nairobi inhouse ... what's next?
Ed Parsons has a story based on news from NetworkWorld.
Googles' recently opened Nairobi office suspectedly didn't find its own location on Google Maps - and kick-started a new Nairobi city map that didn't exist before. (...)
In June 2008, our open question was: "Will Google follow the OpenStreetMap or is this a one-timer?"
Yesterday, the Mapping News Blog reports (via Slashgeo, kudos!):
"Google are now allowing you to download the vector data (Kenya only so far) in either Keyhole Markup Language (KML) or in ESRI Shapefile format.
Google seems to now return data from Google Map Maker contributors to the public. It's only those datasets that can be released because bindings with Tele Atlas permit for only this. Anything else effectively would kick TA out of business. As the idea behind Map Maker was to engage users to map areas of the World where the duopol is limited or non existent has proven to work regionally and in Nairobi.
Anyway, only non-commercial-non-profit entities seem to be legally entitled to use the data. The fundamental issue of "Who owns the data?" isn't solved - just shifted.
Visit the original site as it has a lot of more information.
update: Mikel Maron at Brain Off has a deeper analysis and insight: "First Thoughts on Google MapMaker Download"
