Two hours ago Steve Coast from OSM contacted us to let us know one of the OSM community members found what he thought was OSM data in our Chile database without attribution. Steve’s crew and Waze’s started investigating IMMEDIATELY across 3 continents and we had answers in 30 minutes.

What we found was a huge disappointment.; we indeed had OSM data which was not from a common base source and was clearly copied.

We have fantastic partners around the world who we partner with for local data. Unfortunately, our LATAM partner Location World had acquired data from an unreliable source who seems to have infringed on OSM, and Location World is now pursuing legal options against them.  While we sort this out, we have pulled all of the Chile data from Waze.  The data has been deleted from the database and should be gone from the Cartouche (our web editing interface) already.  It will take 24-48 hours for the deletion to propagate through the system and down to the clients (sorry Chilean Wazers).

To be on the safe side, we are pulling all the data from this source, in other countries as well: Peru, Uruguay and parts of Argentina, and it should be removed shortly.

The data will be back up again soon, after we have confirmed NO OTHER infringements are there. We are also embarking on a process to more closely review partner data around the world. It’s sad that this happens. We are huge fans of OSM and hope to collaborate with OSM through the new license transition.

So thanks to the OSM members; Ivan Sanchez in Spain and Julio Costa in Chile who identified the problem and we commit to deal with any other suspicion just as fast.  Thanks for Steve for knowing we would never do this willfully and letting us know this has happened in the past.

To map providers around the world, infringement is not only a crime but there is a large community out there monitoring your actions who will work together to find you.

And mostly to the OSM community, we are truly sorry.  We work with our partners to protect their data rights and will now be more vigilant on evaluating their sources.  We value your help and commit to protect your data rights as vigilantly as we protect our partner’s data, removing any infringement on your rights.

Noam Bardin
CEO Waze

In our last post we told you about how we cooperated with the Burning Man folks to help their festival participants navigate to base camp, Black Rock City, using waze. Well, today when we woke up, we saw the caravan begin, and what a thrill it was to see! We hope you burners (and now wazers, too) had a bunch of fun out there on the road using waze to get to the Playa (don’t forget to use us on the way back!) and we wish you a truly unforgettable experience with The Man, and with eachother…:)

This may very well be the largest caravan ever! We shall see ladies and gentlemen, we shall see. Mark your calendar for August 30th and start your engines! We are Black Rock City bound.
Join the Burning Man group on Waze and watch everyone converge on Black Rock City. Use Waze to carpool, ping each other, organize stops etc. We’re so stoked and want to give uber props to ActionGirl at BurningMan HQ for getting Burners to group it up on Waze!

Jack Rabbit Speaks just sent out their newsletter last night and they already have over 266 members of their group w/more joining every few minutes!

Follow the fun with the LIVE Burning Man group widget on the Burning Man site!

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Overall, we just crossed 3000 groups! Ding, ding, ding from Rome to Kuala Lampur to DFW and Atlanta. Waze on!

Feel free to send us stories about your group! We want to know what your group is up to and how its shaping up! In the meantime, see you on the Playa!

Already you can see a few early birds making their way to BRC!

One minute you’re ‘peaceful’, but then you might be ‘hungry’, or get ‘bored’, or start ‘wondering’…we know how it goes…we ‘wonder’ a lot on the road, too…but back to the point: one of the funnest parts about wazing is how often you can change your mood to reflect how you’re feeling at any given moment out there on the road. We love driving around our city and seeing the different spectrum emotions wazing along side of us, don’t you? Just lately, though, we thought that it might be about time to implement a few new options, and who better to turn to for new moods than all of you out there for some help?

Take a second and leave a few suggestions in the comments section below listing the moods that you’d like to see on waze and some time real soon we’ll do a poll and let you guys pick the top 2 or 3 to implement into an upcoming version. No, ‘drunk’ probably won’t fly, you lushes, but feel free to use your creativity and humor to come up with a few good options that you think others will want to get on board with…

The best way to use waze is to turn it on, automatically, every time you get into the car. Whether you’re navigating to a new destination, or traveling to a place you already know the way to, as you’ve probably seen by now, waze is a pretty handy tool to have by your side. Waze will tell you about traffic reports, alert you to speed traps ahead, gives you the chance to have a little fun chit chatting at long red lights, etc., but it’s gotta be comfortable to use, right?

Most of us around the office use window mounts in our cars, drop our phones in them when we get into the car, and then start waze, and you should, too. Take a quick minute to visit this online store – we think that they’re pretty much the least expensive mounts we’ve seen out there, most are just around $5.00. They have all kinds of other inexpensive gadgets, too, so take a look around after you put a new window mount in your shopping cart and get yourself something nice

If you’re living in the Greater Los Angeles area and love KIIS-FM’s DJ Skee, then check out and participate in our “Monster Skeetox Giveaway!”

Starting Sunday, LA wazers will see Skeetox road goodies (like the one above) distributed all over the map. Make sure to munch as many of these road goodies as you can before midnight on Tuesday to get a chance to win a pair of tickets to the upcoming Skeetox event – the official Sunset Strip Music Festival Kick-off Party featuring Xzibit, Paul Wall and other special guests at the Roxy this Wednesday. We’ll be giving out 3 sets of tickets to the top 3 road munchers.

In addition, prior to midnight on Tuesday, keep your eyes peeled for one prize-filled treasure chest distributed somewhere on the map, too. When you drive over this chest you’ll get a Skeetox Survival Kit filled with all kinds of Skeetox swag, plus two tickets to Wednesday’s event, to boot. Sweet!

But don’t let the road munching stop there – the Skeetox icons will be up on the map through next Sunday and munching them automatically enters you into a raffle to win a brand new iPad! Note that munching one Skeetox road goodie will enter you into the draw, but the more you eat, the better your chances are to win…so get out there and munch all you can!

Ok, how about a recap?

To participate in the ‘Monster Skeetox Giveaway’ you have to:

1 – Download waze if you haven’t already

2 – Make sure to register with a working email address. If you’re an unregistered existing user, you can register yourself under ‘Settings’

3 – Munch as many Skeetox road goodies as you can *and* keep your eyes open for the grand prize-filled treasure chest to win the grand prize or tickets for Wednesday’s event – and keep munching throughout the weekend for your chance to win the iPad!

4 – Wait by your email. Treasure chest winners will get a notification by email before Wednesday and the iPad winner will be notified early next week.

***Good luck, Angelenos!***

And now the fine print…

ELIGIBILITY:You must be a 18 years of age or older to enter the Waze Inc. (Hereby “Waze”) contest.  CONTEST PERIOD: Waze contest begins at 09:00 EST on August 22, 2010 and ends on August 29, 2010 23:59 EST PRIZE RESTRICTIONS: Each winner is responsible for any applicable taxes. Prizes listed are subject to its general availability on the market. In the event of non-availability on the market, Waze will provide a similar or equal compensation. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: By participating, participants agree to release, discharge and hold harmless Waze and its partners, affiliates, subsidiaries, agents and their employees, officers, directors, and representatives from any claims, losses, and damages arising out of their participation in this contest or any contest related activities and the acceptance and use, misuse, or possession of any prize awarded hereunder. Waze reserves the right under its sole discretion, to cancel, suspend or modify the terms of the contest, in whole or in part; and the right to disqualify any participant in the event of tempering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failures or any other causes which in Waze sole opinion corrupt or effect the fairness, integrity, legality or proper conduct of the contest.  CONDITIONS: This contest is subject to federal, state, provincial, territorial and local laws and regulations. Certain restrictions may apply. Void where prohibited. Waze makes no warranty of any kind, express or implied, directly or indirectly, regarding the prize delivery and Waze is not responsible for prize delivery being late, lost, stolen, damaged, mutilated, incomplete, illegible, misdirected, or postage-due. Participants also agree (a) to be bound by these Official Rules; (b) that the decisions of the judges are final on all matters relating to the contest; and (c) In the event that the selected winner(s) of any prize are/is ineligible or refuses the prize, the prize will be forfeited and Sponsor, in its sole discretion, may choose whether to award the prize to another winner. GOVERNING LAW/DISPUTE RESOLUTION: This contest shall be governed by and interpreted under the laws of the State of California without regard to the conflict of laws doctrine of any jurisdiction; and any disputes, claims or causes of action shall be resolved only in a state or federal court located in the County of Los Angeles, State of California.

Man, you kids are crazy… Less than a day after the launch of the new waze driving groups and already there are about 450 groups set up and ready to go (200 stateside, 250 around the globe) – you guys never fail to amaze us! So far, we see the groups broken up in these three categories: location-based, brand-orientated, and socially-driven groupings. Take a look at a tiny sampling of the driving groups that have popped up so far…Respect!

Location–Based Driving Groups

Mississippi Road Warriors
Wazer da bologna italy
Sherwood to west Little Rock Commute
Poland Wazers
East Bay to SF
New Jersey Commuters                          

Brand–Orientated Driving Groups

BMW Bimmer Group Atlanta
Mustangs Just for Mustang drivers with Waze on board
Subaru Lovers
Honda Wazers
Subaru Enthusiasts
Mini Cooper Wazers

Social Driving Groups (!)

Retro Gamers of Los Angeles
Sexy while driving!!
Pasadena Nightlife
Art Center Students
Final Fantasy XIV Wazers
New lesbian friends in mass

You iPhone users with the new version ready to pimp out your waze car with some branded goodies? Well, all you have to do is get a few friends onto the ‘Friends’ tab of your scoreboard.  Two friends on the scoreboard will get you a waze-branded car freshener, and five friends will get you a waze-branded sun shade and a car freshener, too. Score!

So, how to do this?

1 – Connect your waze account to your Facebook account. You can do that here: Settings>Profile>Facebook.

2 – Invite your other friends who have iPhones and tell them the steps that they need complete to help you get your stuff (they need to download waze and connect their Facebook account to waze, as explained above – encourage them to try out the app a bit, as well!)

3 – Once they complete these steps, your friends will appear on your scoreboard and you’re good to go. At that point, just fill in the fields found on this form and after we verify the information you input as accurate, we’ll send out your goodies! Please allow at least 6-8 weeks for delivery.

We’ll have other promos soon for everyone on all platforms to participate in, so stay tuned to the blog for more info…

All sorts of press coming out about waze in Italy in recent weeks, but one of the ones that we like best is a feature on Riccardo Bigi’s website. He’s one of our most active users in Italy and decided to take to his blog to tell the (Italian speaking) world what he loves about waze. Thanks, Rikki! The rest of you are welcome to do the same – just let us know if you need any graphics and we’re happy to send some screenshots/logos over…

Another nice coup in Italy was being featured on Nokia’s Play Italy portal. Lots of new users came in from that feature and we hope that you guys over there noticed the bump of new wazers around you!

By the way, we’re starting to think about cooking up something special for you Italians, so stay tuned to the blog for more details as we have them. Ciao for now…