The problem with Crowdflow is the way they get the data. Instead of collecting their own data using GPS, WiFi SSIDs and Cell Tower IDs they ask users to submit their iPhone location data cache. This cache is filled from Apple's own location database and from the Skyhook database. So they are, in a way, scraping data from those two databases, which will probably lead to licensing issues.<p>Now, if there were an open database (open as in I can download it for my own use, not just query it via an API) for WiFi network <-> GPS coordinates and Cell Tower ID <-> GPS coordinates that would collect its data by letting contributors run a simple iPhone or Android app, that would be awesome.
Gorgeous visualisations here: <a href="http://crowdflow.net/blog/2011/04/27/first-results/" rel="nofollow">http://crowdflow.net/blog/2011/04/27/first-results/</a><p>I wish they would make the database available right here right now. Also I would like to contribute with my Android phone.
<a href="http://geomena.org" rel="nofollow">http://geomena.org</a> does this too, with a creative commons license. Firefox can be configured to use Geomena as the geolocation provider (instead of google).
Disclaimer: I work at American Roamer.<p>We actually track the marketed patterns that the carriers around the world say they have. In my analysis a lot of these open source ones are pretty messy datasets that wouldn't really add to our products. Although there are a few datasets here in the comments I haven't been exposed to before so I'm hoping they are more useful.<p><a href="http://www.americanroamer.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.americanroamer.com/</a>
I was unable to get the Java application to create a valid gzip file on OS X -- it appeared to write the header but no data. Anyone else have any luck?
OpenSignalMaps? OpenBmap? Cellhunter? OpenCellID?<p>If you've got an android device, OpenSignalMaps and OpenBmap have clients to monitor wifi/cell towers although I prefer OpenBmap for making their data available for download again ("open"SignalMaps just makes maps for website/client).
Hey all, we do something similar on <a href="http://opensignalmaps.com" rel="nofollow">http://opensignalmaps.com</a> except by crowdsourcing the data from our Android app.<p>Yes, our name says "open" and we're not actually "open" yet...but we're working on it.
<a href="http://client0.cellmaps.com/tabs.html#cellmaps_intl_tab" rel="nofollow">http://client0.cellmaps.com/tabs.html#cellmaps_intl_tab</a> does the same