<html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- DIV {margin:0px;} --></style></head><body><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:12pt">Here's the email that touched off the issue of tile layers....<br><div> </div>== Mikel Maron ==<br>+254(0)724899738 @mikel s:mikelmaron<br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://mapkibera.org/">http://mapkibera.org/</a></span><br><span><a target="_blank" href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Haiti">http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Haiti</a></span><div><br></div><div style="font-family: times new roman,new york,times,serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><font face="Tahoma" size="2">----- Forwarded Message ----<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> Kai Krueger <kakrueger@gmail.com><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> board@osmfoundation.org<br><b><span style="font-weight:
bold;">Sent:</span></b> Wed, October 27, 2010 11:16:19 PM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Adding additional tile layers to the osm.org website (e.g. the MapQuest ones)<br></font><br>
Dear OSMF board,<br><br>I would like to write to you to ask if there is a policy under which conditions additional tile layers can be added to the layer switcher of the main page on <a target="_blank" href="http://openstreetmap.org">openstreetmap.org</a>? Currently there are 4 layers available, the "mapnik", "osmrender", "opencyclemap", and "noname" maps.<br><br><span>As OpenStreetMap is a lot about the diversity of things one can do with the data, it would be nice if more of this diversity could be show cased on the main page. Of cause, OSM is a lot more than map tiles and as such there have been various attempts to redesign the front page to enhance this (the most recent one currently ongoing on talk-de starting somewhere in the long thread <a target="_blank" href="http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-de/2010-October/077632.html">http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-de/2010-October/077632.html</a> <a target="_blank"
href="http://osmtools.de/portal/">http://osmtools.de/portal/</a>), however short of a full redesign of the frontpage, adding a few more tile layers would be a great start to show case the diversity and the potential within OSM.</span><br><br><span>There are already many great (specialist) map-styles that would have been nice to include, like e.g. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.%C3%B6pnvkarte.de/">http://www.öpnvkarte.de/</a> ,<a target="_blank" href="http://openseamap.org/">http://openseamap.org/</a> or <a target="_blank" href="http://hikebikemap.de/">http://hikebikemap.de/</a> . So far the main concern with these has been of technical nature, i.e. can the servers that host these styles handle the load? Are they reliable enough? Are they world wide?</span><br><br>However with big organisations / companies like MapQuest, Wikimedia or CloudMade with their infrastructure now offering OSM tiles, the technical aspects are less of a concern for some and
it is more of a policy question of who and under what conditions their tiles can be added into the layer switcher.<br><br>More directly, my question is would it be acceptable to include the MapQuest tiles as a fifth layer into the layer chooser on <a target="_blank" href="http://osm.org">osm.org</a>?<br><br>I have briefly spoken to TomH on irc and my understanding is that he sees no technical reason not to include them, however understandably he does not want to make the decision to include them, as it is one of policy and not of technical administration. Hence my question to you as the OSMF board if they can be included?<br><br>I think the MapQuest tiles would be, for the reasons listed below, a good addition to the main site. I have emailed Hurricane Coast, to ask if MapQuest would be OK with the tiles being included and the response has so far been positive. Including a (commercial) third party hosted tile set is not unprecedented either, as both the
OpenCycleMap (sponsored by CloudMade) and the NoName layer (hosted by CloudMade), each with closed source style-sheets, has been on the main site for a while.<br><br>Imho, some of the advantages of including the MapQuest tiles that I can think of are<br><br>a) More diversity: The more styles new visitors get exposed to on the main site, the better they will hopefully understand that OSM is not about a single map, but about the data and the variation that can be done with it. (it also highlights why "tagging for the renderer doesn't work)<br>b) "localisation": The OSM-mapnik style is very nice, but has a distinct british touch to it. The MapQuest tiles instead use different styles in different countries giving a more localised feel to them. They show case the possibilities of localisation like the various US highway shields and that it is possible both with the mapnik tool set and the OSM data.<br>c) Speed of serving: Although the single OSMF tile server
copes quite well with the load and is often blindingly fast if you are connected with a 1Gbit/s connection to the London academic network, for distant networks such as in America, Australia or Africa the latency might add up. MapQuest with its global Akamai CDN might provide a more pleasant and speedier experience.<br><br><br>On the other hand, there are also valid concerns, some of which were raised during the irc discussion.<br><br>Can anyone come and ask for their styles to be included? Could e.g. CloudMade come along and ask for all their styles to be included? Apart from that they might not want that, the current layer chooser would clearly be inappropriate for so many styles. Does it show (commercial) favouritism to include some and not others? Should the OSM main page contain any form of commercial aspects at all? Do styles have to be opensourced? Does it have to come "from the community"? Does the hosting have to be worldwide?
Up-to-date?<br><br>So far, I think there are so few examples that meet the technical criteria that having too many styles isn't an issue yet, but having a clear set of policies under what condition new tile sets may be added would hopefully prevent bias in the future and counter any potential conspiracy theories that may emerge by adding tiles of companies like MapQuest.<br><br><br><br>Thank you and looking forward to your responses,<br><br>Kai<br></div></div>
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