Whatamap.com

1. GENERAL

Q1.1 Hey, it's my first time here. What is this Whatamap.com all about?

Answer: Our mission is to enable creating, finding and sharing any kind of maps, and to bring them to your mobile phone.

Actually, we just kind of got bored with the ordinary street maps offered by everybody. As the technology lets us create cooler maps than those, easily and for free, why not do it? Proprietary map databases are very cumbersome and expensive to collect, so why not bring some freedom to the maps domain.

Besides, the coming of GPS phones makes the timing right for community-based, open map services.

Q1.2 But I don't have a phone with integrated GPS?

Answer: We bet that you will soon have. Major handset manufacturers have already claimed to have “dozens” of GPS-enabled models in the market in 2008. GPS is going to be in every single mobile phone soon.

Anyway, as we can't bring the GPS into your phone, we are at least making sure that you can get the most out of the maps in your phone anyway. Without GPS you are still able to browse the maps, see your friends on the map and even report your own position.

And, it's still a lot better map than the printed ones, which don't let you see your friends, attach dynamic information from the web or call directly to that hotel there.

Q1.3 Ok, the service looks promising but where's the catch? How do you get your money?

Answer: The only catch here is that the maps created and used by you, completely free, contain a few sponsored, targeted but very unobtrusive advertisements. Don't worry, you won't have to ever click on them – you won't ever even see them if you don't want to.

Additionally, we make business by licencing mobile destination maps for commercial entities like skiing resorts, amusement parks, tourist attractions and so on. For the general public, it's free. If you happen to find a commercial use for our maps – there are plenty – just inform us at sales@whatamap.com, and we will give you a very competitive and easy offer on how to make it happen.

Q1.4 Hey, it has to cost something. What does it cost to me?

Answer: We don't bill you absolutely anything for using Whatamap.com website.

However, when installing the mobile application into your mobile phone, your operator may charge you something for the download traffic and/or the SMS. If you want to make sure it doesn't cost you anything at all, just download the mobile application to your computer and transfer it into your mobile phone using e.g. a USB cable or bluetooth.

The data transfer costs and SMS costs depend on your plan and carrier. Consult your carrier for these prices.

Q1.5 Ok, I would like to give it a try. What should I do?

Answer: It couldn't be easier. In the front page, upload an image of your own, or search the Internet by entering any location or search word into the “Find Maps” box, and our service displays you images it found. Click on your favorite one, and voilá, you have created the map. You are greeted with instructions on how to get the map into your mobile phone. Follow them – for details, see question Q3.1 How to get the map in my mobile phone.

2. CREATING AND FINDING MAPS

Q2.1 How should I create maps of my own?

Answer: It's very easy. Just grab your map image from somewhere: you could draw it yourself using a drawing application, draw it by hand and scan it, or retrieve it from anywhere you find a suitable one. However, make sure that you don't infringe anybody's copyrights.

After getting the image, just choose it in the “Create a Map of Your Own” image file box and press “Map It!”. Done!

Q2.2How about finding other maps than mine?

Answer: Gets even easier. Just type the name of the place you are looking for in the “Find Maps” search box and click “Search”. You will be displayed a selection of maps from the place.

However, especially with these maps you must be careful with copyrights. The copyright to all of these images is probably held by someone, and that someone has probably not given you permission to use his map. However, in most countries the copyright law allows you to still use that map, as long as you do it for your personal, private and non-commercial purposes. If you are unsure about the copyright law in your country, better make sure and only upload content that has been created by you or is in the public domain.

Q2.3 How can I modify the maps I have created?

Answer: After creating the map, you are taken to a page that has instructions on how to use map in your mobile phone in the top, and at the bottom of the page is a map editor. Just drag content from the palette onto the map, and it gets included in the mobile map application automatically.

Important: as the map you have created is private to you, we won't include any links to it on our public webpages. That means that you have to bookmark the page to be able to find it again. Make sure that you don't distribute the secret web address your map resides at, because otherwise somebody else may be able to modify and/or download the map.

Q2.4 How can I distribute the map to my friends?

Answer: Your map resides on our webpage at two different locations. First one is the page you were directed at when you created the map, and that is the page where you can modify the map.

Second place is a webpage that allows only seeing and downloading the map, but not modifying it. You can distribute this web address to your friends and they can see the instructions on how to download the application there.

You can also just download the application files yourself and send them to your friends in email, post them to your webpage, or distribute them any way you ever want – however, remember that when you distribute the map, you are fully and personally responsible for any legal issues that might arise if you distribute copyrighted or otherwise else illegal material.

Again, please make sure that that you only distribute your maps in ways that don't infringe anybody's copyrights.

Q2.5 What are these Points of Interest in the map editor?

Answer: They are just any points on the map that are somehow interesting to you regarding to the purpose you are creating the map for.

For example, when creating a tourist map of a city centre, interesting points are probably hotels, restaurants, tourist information centers, tourist attractions and so on. Just drag the points onto the map, and on the right hand side you can define their names, phone numbers and so on.

Q2.6 What are these GPS Locations in the map editor?

Answer: They are points that define how your map is related to the real world. If your map doesn't have any GPS Locations, you cannot take advantage of a GPS receiver in your phone.

However, don't be afraid: this is also very easy. Just drag a GPS Location onto the map, and on the right hand side a map view opens. Find the real-world location of the GPS Location on the map view, click there, and that's it. Now the map knows that these two points, one on the map image and the second on the map view, correspond to each other.

To make the GPS receiver in your phone work with the map, just drag at least three three GPS locations onto the map. For best accuracy, choose locations that are far apart but that you can accurately place on both maps, for example on top of landmarks.

If your map happens to be illustrative, non-uniform or otherwise weird, it may be that you have to add more than three GPS locations to make the GPS work properly. In that case, try to put the points somewhat uniformly over the area, avoiding tight clusters.

Q2.7 How can I publish the maps I have created?

Answer: Go to the web page where you can modify your map. There, in the Map Options box, you can see “Map Visibility”. Just choose “Public” from the drop-down menu, accept the disclaimer that is shown and you're done.

Now your map is visible to all visitors of Whatamap.com, and they can download and use the map.

However, as emphasized already earlier, be extra careful to check that the content is in the public domain or that you have permission from the copyright holder to distribute the map. After you publicise anything, it is in your responsibility to make sure that you're not doing it illegally.

3. USING MAPS IN MOBILE PHONES

Q3.1 How to get the map into my mobile phone?

Answer: Just find a map from Whatamap.com, and click on it. You will see on the top of the following page detailed instructions on how you can do it. At its simplest, just send an SMS to our number with the code of the map as a message.

Q3.2 How do these different installation methods differ?

Answer: When you send an SMS to our number with a map code in it, our system replies to you with a service message that contains a link to the map application. When your phone receives the message, you only need to click “Yes” to begin downloading it into your phone.

After the software has been installed, your phone may ask you whether you want to launch the application right now. If it doesn't, you must go to the Applications menu in your phone, and you will see the map icon there. (The name and place of Applications menu varies by phone model and manufacturer).

All the other methods are just different ways of delivering the application into your phone. Sending the SMS costs you what your operator bills you for an ordinary SMS, plus the downloading of the application may cost you again something your operator charges you for the traffic (this cost depends on your plan and carrier).

Q3.3 The map fails to install into my phone. What went wrong?

Answer: There are probably three possibilities as to why it failed:

1. Your phone's settings are incorrect and the downloading failed. Please contact your operator for instructions on how to fix this.
2. Your phone does not have enough memory to make the map application fit in. You can remove unused stuff from the phone memory to make room for the map. The map application typically takes some 300 – 1500 kilobytes of memory.
3. Your phone does not support the map application at all. The map application should work in all Java MIDP 2.0 enabled devices – if the acronym does not say anything to you, it means basically all modern smartphones. You can check the compatibility from your phone specifications, or see an informal list of supported devices here.

If you think that the problem why the software fails even though your phone should support it, please drop us email at support@whatamap.com.

Q3.4 My mobile phone model X is not supported. Will it ever be?

Answer: Our device coverage of Java-enabled phones is pretty good, but most notably Windows-based smartphones are not too eager to support Java applications. We are working to enable the service also on Windows smartphones. (Some Windows smartphones also support Java applications, but not all.)

If you would like to make your voice heard, just drop us email at support@whatamap.com and tell us what your phone model is. We will follow the requests and try to include support for it in our future versions.

Q3.5 Help! I installed but don't know how to use the mobile application in my phone!

Answer: Here's a quick guide:

• Use the phone joypad to move the map around. If your phone does not have a joypad, use number keys 2 – up, 6 – right, 8 – down, 4 – left.
• Use * and # keys to zoom the map in and out, respectively. Please note that how far you are able to zoom depends on the screen resolution of your phone.
• Click on any objects with the joypad or number key 5 to see more about it.
• Use your phone's soft keys to access menus.

That's all!

4. COPYRIGHT ISSUES

Q4.1 I'm going to upload content into Whatamap.com, but I'm not sure of its copyright status. What should I do?

Answer: Better play it safe and not upload it into our service, or, if you are only going to use the map for your private and personal use, upload it privately and make sure that you don't distribute it to anybody else.

Q4.2 There is content on Whatamap.com that I hold copyright of, and have not given permission to put it there!

Answer: If somebody uploads copyrighted content to our site, without adhering to the Terms of Use of our site, we will remove the content as soon as we receive notification from the copyright holder.

However, it is the uploader of the content who is actually responsible for any inconvenience that may have been caused to the copyright holder.

We at Whatamap.com Ltd. are very committed to making sure that our site honors all applicable copyright laws.

However, as the copyright holder has all the power to decide against distributing the map on Whatamap.com, we would like to emphasize that the distribution is most probably also in the interests of the copyright holder. If a copyrighted piece of map ends up being published at Whatamap.com, it has probably already been publicly available somewhere in the web – and most probably distributing the map is only positive advertisement to the place whose map is in question.

Q4.3 I want to find out who put some content on your site. Please tell it to me!

Answer: Our privacy policy prohibits us from telling anything about our users to anybody, except if a Finnish legal authority forces us to.

However, as our site does not require registration, we don't even know who it was.