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.
Plus, it's data that Apple shouldn't have been storing (in its current state, anyway) in the first place.
Writing code that has users doing the scraping for you is still scraping.
(To the extent that there is creative expression in the individual users' logs, it could be in their choice of travel routes, making the user the holder of some copyright interest in the time- and space-ordered paths.)
I wish they would make the database available right here right now. Also I would like to contribute with my Android phone.
Also a map would nice to see the current status of the whole database.
It uploads to WiGLE.
.. nor is it currently available from crowdflow at the moment (although it is in their stated goals). They also only accept consolidated.db uploads at the present.
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.
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).
Yes, our name says "open" and we're not actually "open" yet...but we're working on it.
Is there any other way for me to extract the data of interest and upload it myself?
