[Osmf-talk] ArcGIS Online & OSM

[Kate Chapman]

Unfortunately here is an example from Todd Huffman who does work in
the field in Afghanistan, I suspect related to that one application:

>> > Heya
>> >
>> > Bittersweet story...
>> >
>> > I met another OSM user in the field in Afghanistan, which is way cool.
>> > He's used streets I've mapped to navigate, and thanked me for the
>> > mapping I did.  He has been advocating OSM use amongst NGO's here.  He
>> > interviews civilians injured in the war and coordinates the grants for
>> > them to get medical care, prosthetics, etc...
>> >
>> > Problem is he uses Navicomputer on his smartphone, and literally while
>> > we were talking Navicomputers access to OSM got dropped.  "Access
>> > blocked We suspect this client downloading maps in unauthorised
>> > manner. Please ask at irc.openstreetmaps.org"  And then redirected to
>> > http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tile_Abuse
>> >
>> > Suuuuuuper awkward, and made it hard to advocate use.
>> >
>> > I totally get the abuse problem, but yanking maps for users is pretty
>> > lame.  I'm not sure what the best way to handle OSM abuse is... but
>> > unceremoniously dropping the connection doesn't impress the end users.
>> > I don't necessarily expect you to individually do anything about it,
>> > mostly I just wanted to complain so if there's an OSM policy
>> > discussion it can be said that users end up with the short end of the
>> > stick.
>> >

Should people not be encouraged to use the tiles at all?  Ideally
instead of starting with the OSM tiles, maybe they would use the tiles
of a commercial provider first or set-up their own.

-Kate
user:wonderchook

On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 8:06 AM, Tom Hughes <tom at compton.nu> wrote:
> On 05/05/10 15:51, Kate Chapman wrote:
>
>> I think that the tile usage policy is a bit unclear though.  Meaning
>> it does not say "download x number of tiles" and you will be blocked.
>> If I talk to ESRI and point them at it is it clear whether or not they
>> can use the tiles in the way that they are?
>
> Total number of tiles is rarely the issue - the rate of access is much more
> important.
>
> So saying 5000 per day doesn't help as that covers both the person that
> downloads 5000 between 0000 and 0001 each day and then does nothing for the
> rest of the day and the person that downloads one every 20s or so all day.
>
> The real answer is that the usage policy is "don't do anything which causes
> service to degrade and us to come looking for the cause" and everything else
> is just an attempt to provide some sort of guidance as to what pattern of
> usage is unlikely to cause a problem.
>
>> There are NGOs using OSM data with some of these apps in the field,
>> when they go down it makes us look terrible.  I realize that
>> humanitarian uses is not the only use for OSM, but in reality is
>> becoming a frequent use of OSM.
>
> Only ONE application has ever been served that special abuse tile as far as
> I am aware. That was an application (well actually a library that was mostly
> used by one application) that quite deliberately chose to ignore the usage
> policy and was actively obstructive when we attempted to contact them.
>
> Tom
>
> --
> Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
> http://compton.nu/
>