Facebook Is Mapping the World's Buildings

Tara Golsham shares news about a big data project underway at Facebook with tongue in cheek: "Facebook is making a map of every human-occupied building on Earth so that one day, people in the most remote areas of the world can also worry about what to do when their mom friends them on Facebook."

The mapping project is the work of Facebook's Connectivity Lab, "a group tasked with using drones, satellites, and lasers to improve internet access in developing countries," according to Golsham. For the mapping project, Connectivity Lab "has analyzed 21.6 million square kilometers' worth of satellite imagery — about 350 terabytes of data" to develop a much clearer picture of where buildings and structures are located in remote parts of world. That information is the first step in delivering Internet services to those remote areas. 

The Connectivity Lab team has also created a post explaining the technical details of the mapping project.