[diversity-talk] Anyone with an interest in history should not contribute to OSM?

[Rob Nickerson]

Hi All,

(Apologies for the provocative title)

Following up some of my recent discussions with the people I met at SOTM
2013, I recently proposed the addition of some historic maps of towns in
Scotland to OSM's main editors. So far this request has been batted away.

To me this is a shame as the National Library of Scotland has, to date, had
a good relationship with OSM. I know they are keen for us to make us of
their maps. Although the maps are old now, they may still contain some
great snippets of information for modern day mapping. Furthermore, they may
attract a wider, more diverse community to collaborative mapping. Yes, some
of these people may prefer to  contribute to the Open Historic Map
database, but others may also start mapping in the main OSM database.

Over the last year, I've come to realise that despite OSM having the
appearance of a large community (1million registered members, no paid
employees and a very hands off Foundation), it is actually controlled by a
small few people. I know these people do a heck of a lot for OSM, however
if someone has the access to our servers/ability to accept contributions
from new developers, then they should try to encourage a wide and diverse
community. At minimum they should at least reply to emails.

Anyway, rant over.

If you agree about the historic maps, then you can comment here or at:
https://github.com/osmlab/editor-imagery-index/pull/25

Best wishes,
Rob
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/diversity-talk/attachments/20131102/19071959/attachment.html>