[OSM-dev] Notes - OSM improvements BoF at SOTM PDX

[Andy Allan]

On 16 October 2012 11:02, Jochen Topf <jochen at remote.org> wrote:

> I don't think we can bring all of this into a single "export tab". In fact, if
> we reduce all of this into a single "export tab" we risk alienating people who
> try out whats offered, find it lacking and then go away not understanding that
> they tried the wrong approach.

We can take the existing situation concerns osm formatted extracts and
make it more sensible.

If you choose a small area, you (might) get it from the export tab.
If you choose a medium sized area, you should be directed to a list of
appropriate third-party extracts
If you choose a giant area, you should be directed to the planet file.

Given that's exactly what happens when you either know it all already,
spend hours reading wikis, ask on help.openstreetmap.org or phone your
nearest OSM consultant, I really don't see what stops us from just
doing it on the export tab in the first place. Other than programming,
of course.

We already have policies and procedures for choosing third-party
layers on the front page, so linking off to third-party extracts
shouldn't be a showstopper, especially given planet.osm will always be
there as a fallback. Distributing our data in a non-confusing fashion
is pretty important.

Cheers,
Andy