This webmonkey article, Multi-map with Mapstraction, about an 'open source abstracted JavaScript mapping library' called Mapstraction is perfectly on target for organisations that worry about relying on one mapping provider.
How many of these have you heard as possible concerns about using a particular mapping service?
- Current provider might change the terms of service
- Your map could become too popular and use up too many map views
- Current provider quality might get worse, or they might put ads on your map
- New provider might have prettier maps
- You might get bored of current provider, or come up with a reason that makes sense to you
They're all reasonable concerns. But look what the lovely geeks have made:
The promise of Mapstraction is to only have to change two lines of code. Imagine if you had a large map with many markers and other features. It could take a lot of work to manually convert the map code from one provider to another.
And functionality is being expanded. I liked this:
One of my favorite Mapstraction features is automatic centering and zooming. When called on a map with multiple markers, Mapstraction calculates the center point of all markers and the smallest zoom level that will contain all the markers.
Open source rocks! Not only can you grab the code and have someone maintain it for you if you ever need to, but it sounds like a labour of geek love:
Mapstraction is maintained by a group of geocode lovers who want to give developers options when creating maps.