Earth:Panoramax

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Panoramax is a project to collect and display street-level imagery. The project is implemented as free/open source software and allows the crowdsourcing of images, which are then openly licensed. The project was started in 2022 by the French National Geographic Institute (Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière, IGN) and the French OpenStreetMap (OSM) chapter. It was designed and developed by a state-owned start-up and is updated and maintained by a community of volunteers and IGN staff. As a free & open source alternative to Google Street View, Panoramax is a federated system that allows individuals and organizations to host their own instances for image hosting.

History

In 2021, the IGN launched a consultation on "geocommons".[1] Initially, the project was designed to respond to the problems encountered by local authorities and other French stakeholders.[2][3]

OpenStreetMap France responded to this consultation, proposing the creation of an open database for street-level images.[4]

In April 2022, the IGN launched their call for participation for three "geocommons"[2][5] including the proposal of OSM France.[6][7] In October 2022, Panoramax was launched as part of the "Geocommons Factory".[8]

In June 2024, Panoramax won a grant by the NLNet Foundation as part of the NGI0 Commons Fund, which is supported by the European Commission as part of the Next Generation Internet program.[9] In the same year, the project also gained more media attention, especially in public and private French-speaking media, including Franceinfo,[10] France Bleu,[11] Europe 1[12] and ZDNet.[13]

In October 2025, 6 Panoramax instances were online, beyond the initial ones by IGN & OSM France, this included instances for Taiwan and Wales.

Name

The name "Panoramax" was decided after a proposal phase and vote by 48 community members.[14][15][16][17]

Budget and Team

The project's budget is €500,000, and 6 people work on the project.[18]

Number of photos

In April 2024, 17.7 million photos were contributed by 284 contributors.[19] As of October 15, 2025, over 74 million images have been added by 1613 contributors, spread across 6 instances.[20]

Taking pictures from a boat.

In April 2024, 284 contributors took part, including citizen volunteers, companies (Suez & Véolia) and local communities such as Greater Lyon, Strasbourg.[19][21][22][23]

Open source & data

All components of the Panoramax infrastructure are openly licensed.[24] Furthermore, images published using the software are openly licensed and allow the free re-use of the images,[18] unlike proprietary projects such as Google Street View, which are controlled by Google and thus largely prevent the re-use of images.[25][26]

Images are hosted and published under open licenses. The Panoramax instance of OSM France publishes images under a Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0, with an added authorization to generate non-photographic data under an open database license (ODbL).[14][27][18][19] The French IGN instance publishes images using the etalab-2.0 license ("Licence Ouverte").[14][18][19]

Contributing to Panoramax

There are multiple ways to contribute and access images, including the website, a command-line interface and API, as well as a mobile application that is currently in development.[28] During the import, each uploaded photo is subjected to image recognition to identify parts of the image that should be anonymized (i.e. blurring faces and license plates), to comply with the privacy regulations such as the French CNIL.[29]

API

An API allows downloading and searching for images, for example to distribute them to tools such as viewers. It is based on the STAC standard, to ensure interoperability with existing tools.[30]

Use cases

Use cases include being able to monitor conditions of the roads and street furniture, signs, trees, overhead cables, or to verify compliance with regulations on advertising displays.[18][23][22][25] The departmental fire and rescue service ("service départemental d’incendie et de secours) uses Panoramax to map fire hydrants and tracks that can be used in cases of wildfires.[18][31]

References

  1. ↑ IGN (4 May 2021). "L'IGN lance une consultation publique sur les « communs »" (pdf). https://www.ign.fr/files/default/2021-05/cp_ign_geocommuns.pdf. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Marzolf, Emile (2024-01-29). "Pour s'affranchir de Google Street View, l'État joue collectif" (in fr). https://acteurspublics.fr/articles/pour-saffranchir-de-google-street-view-letat-joue-collectif. 
  3. ↑ "Panoramax - Base vues immersives libres" (in fr). https://beta.gouv.fr/startups/vues-immersives-libres.html. 
  4. ↑ OpenStreetMap France (2021-06-28). "Géo-communs ? Chiche !" (in fr-FR). https://www.openstreetmap.fr/geo-communs-chiche/. 
  5. ↑ DINUM. "Géocommuns" (in fr). https://www.eig.numerique.gouv.fr/defis/geocommuns/. 
  6. ↑ "La démarche géocommuns - Institut - IGN" (in fr). 2023-02-27. https://www.ign.fr/institut/la-demarche-geocommuns. 
  7. ↑ "Article Banque des Territoires". https://www.banquedesterritoires.fr/lign-lance-un-appel-participation-pour-trois-geocommuns. 
  8. ↑ "Comment les usages de Panoramax se dessinent dans les territoires" (in fr). 2024-03-27. https://www.banquedesterritoires.fr/comment-les-usages-de-panoramax-se-dessinent-dans-les-territoires. 
  9. ↑ "NLnet; Panoramax". https://nlnet.nl/project/Panoramax/. 
  10. ↑ "Panoramax : le projet citoyen initié par l'Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN) pour ne plus dépendre de Google Street View" (in fr-FR). 2024-09-14. https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-radio/nouveau-monde/panoramax-le-projet-citoyen-initie-par-l-institut-national-de-l-information-geographique-et-forestiere-ign-pour-ne-plus-dependre-de-google-street-view_6754240.html. 
  11. ↑ "Bayonne participe à Panoramax, sorte de Google Street View pour cartographier en 3D les rues de la ville - France Bleu" (in fr). https://www.francebleu.fr/emissions/l-eco-d-ici-au-pays-basque/bayonne-participe-a-panoramax-sorte-de-google-street-view-pour-cartographier-en-3d-les-rues-de-la-ville-7233158. 
  12. ↑ "Panoramax, l'alternative libre et souveraine à Street View" (in fr). https://www.europe1.fr/emissions/initiative-a-impact/panoramax-lalternative-libre-et-souveraine-a-street-view-4229690. 
  13. ↑ Thierry Noisette (2024-04-20). "Commun numérique: Panoramax, une base de photos de vues de terrain immersives" (in fr-FR). https://www.zdnet.fr/blogs/l-esprit-libre/commun-numerique-panoramax-une-base-de-photos-de-vues-de-terrain-immersives-390872.htm. 
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Manach, Jean-Marc (2024-01-30). "Panoramax, l'alternative libre et française à Google Street View" (in fr-FR). https://next.ink/125818/panoramax-lalternative-libre-et-francaise-a-google-street-view/. 
  15. ↑ "Des noms pour le projet". 11 October 2022. https://forum.geocommuns.fr/t/des-noms-pour-le-projet/48. 
  16. ↑ "Vote pour le nom du projet". 17 October 2022. https://forum.geocommuns.fr/t/des-noms-pour-le-projet/48/13. 
  17. ↑ "Panoramax - Base vues immersives libres". https://beta.gouv.fr/startups/vues-immersives-libres.html. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 géolocalisée, Conseil national de l’information (2023-01-23). "Groupe de travail vues immersives et vues de terrain issues d'acquisition terrestre" (in fr). https://cnig.gouv.fr/gt-panoramax-a26051.html. 
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 Noisette, Thierry (2024-04-20). "Commun numérique: Panoramax, une base de photos de vues de terrain immersives" (in fr-FR). https://www.zdnet.fr/blogs/l-esprit-libre/commun-numerique-panoramax-une-base-de-photos-de-vues-de-terrain-immersives-390872.htm. 
  20. ↑ "Panoramax statistics". https://panoramax.fr/stats. 
  21. ↑ rédaction, La (2024-01-29). "Panoramax : alternative libre pour cartographier le territoire" (in fr-FR). https://goodtech.info/panoramax-alternative-libre-a-street-view/. 
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 "Panoramax, l'alternative libre et souveraine à Street View" (in fr). https://www.europe1.fr/emissions/initiative-a-impact/panoramax-lalternative-libre-et-souveraine-a-street-view-4229690#about. 
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "Avec ses vues 3D, Val Parisis agglo ajuste sa carte au territoire (95)" (in fr). 2024-10-10. https://www.banquedesterritoires.fr/experience/avec-ses-vues-3d-val-parisis-agglo-ajuste-sa-carte-au-territoire-95. 
  24. ↑ "Panoramax · GitLab" (in en). https://gitlab.com/panoramax/. 
  25. ↑ 25.0 25.1 "Panoramax : le projet citoyen initié par l'Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN) pour ne plus dépendre de Google Street View" (in fr-FR). 2024-09-14. https://www.francetvinfo.fr/replay-radio/nouveau-monde/panoramax-le-projet-citoyen-initie-par-l-institut-national-de-l-information-geographique-et-forestiere-ign-pour-ne-plus-dependre-de-google-street-view_6754240.html. 
  26. ↑ "Bayonne adopte Panoramax, une alternative à Google" (in fr). 2024-11-27. https://presselib.com/article/bayonne-adopte-panoramax-une-alternative-a-google. 
  27. ↑ "Panoramax : choix de licence, motion pour AG OSM-FR". 12 June 2023. https://forum.openstreetmap.fr/t/panoramax-choix-de-licence-motion-pour-ag-osmfr/15475. 
  28. ↑ géolocalisée, Conseil national de l’information (2023-01-23). "GT vues immersives et vues de terrain issues d'acquisition terrestre" (in fr). https://cnig.gouv.fr/gt-panoramax-a26051.html?lang=fr. 
  29. ↑ Noisette, Thierry (2024-04-20). "Commun numérique: Panoramax, une base de photos de vues de terrain immersives" (in fr-FR). https://www.zdnet.fr/blogs/l-esprit-libre/commun-numerique-panoramax-une-base-de-photos-de-vues-de-terrain-immersives-390872.htm. 
  30. ↑ source primaire "API documentation" (in en). https://docs.panoramax.fr/api/. 
  31. ↑ "23 - Panoramax : retour d'expérience du SDIS34 sur ses prises de vue RTK/360°" (in fr). https://peertube.openstreetmap.fr/w/2X4Z6NNWiYaT3CH48w4kWw. 



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