[Osmf-talk] a receding opportunity

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 10/01/12 11:52, Christian Quest wrote:
> We have been posting additional comments to explain that almost no OSM
> data was used in France... so blaming OSM was inappropriate.

In Japan, a commercial map provider has tried to cash in on the PR by 
saying how their own mapping product was so much better than Apple's 
because Apple used "incorrect and outdated OSM data". This was reported 
in a NYT article

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/25/technology/apple-maps-errors-send-japanese-to-homegrown-app.html

This also appeared in the print edition. A follow-on piece, online only, 
later said that

(quote)

"Meanwhile, contributors to the crowd-sourced service OpenStreetMap 
Japan reacted angrily to suggestions by Mapion, a local Japanese map 
provider, that the crowdsourcing may have been behind errors in Apple’s 
maps.

“From what I have seen, it appears that the majority of the data is not 
coming from OSM,” Woll Newall, a contributor to the service, said in an 
e-mail. “From the reported errors that I have looked at, it appears 
that, in all cases, OpenStreetMap is more accurate than the data that 
Apple is displaying and does not have the reported problems.”

(end quote)

It is of course unfortunate to have the misinformation uncorrected in 
the print issue, but personally I love it when (ideally local) 
contributors take such issues up with the press because it is a ton more 
authentic to have "a contributor to the service" complain than OSMF 
headquarters issuing a press release. Everyone is a cynic when it comes 
to press releases, and rightly so; but OSM has real people out there.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"