Does a Google-World Bank Deal On Crowdsourcing Ask Too Much of the Crowd?

A World Bank representative will meet with global transparency advocates and digital mapmakers to discuss a controversial geodata deal with Google it announced in mid-January, according to an official at the bank.

Aleem Walji, practice manager of the World Bank's innovation practice, said Thursday that he would be sitting down with people from Global Integrity, the anticorruption organization, and the open-source mapping group OpenStreetMap to discuss a partnership between the bank and Google that would see the search giant's Google Map Maker tool put to use in developing countries.

The World Bank announced that country offices in Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Zambia, Nigeria, DRC, Moldova, Mozambique, Nepal and Haiti will all pilot the Google-World Bank agreement...