[Osmf-talk] Release - OpenLitterMap.com Paper now Published Online [ OPEN ACCESS ]

Thu Jun 14 09:17:53 UTC 2018

Hey Chris,

I appreciate that.

1. You do not need to register to access data.

For example, to download data for a Country, State, or City simply visit

<goog_854867402>
openlittermap.com/maps/Ireland/download

<goog_854867405>
openlittermap.com/maps/Australia/NSW/download

<goog_854867407>
openlittermap.com/maps/UK/England/London/download

You are welcome to download any data from anywhere where data exists using
this syntax. I do not track who is downloading data.

2. The Open Database License is available at openlittermap.com/terms - all
data is also mapped by space, time, location, and behaviour/type by design.
This also includes the products of a handful of global corporations.

<goog_854867412>
https://openlittermap.com/maps/Ireland/County%20Cork/Cork/map

Check out this incredible stretch of free and open data on the pollution
being caused by the products of a handful of global corporations, turn on
the brands category -
https://openlittermap.com/maps/The%20Netherlands/Zuid-Holland/Wassenaar/map

I do not know how I can make the data more open than that. If you have any
advice I would love to hear it.

3. The paid tiers are there to support the project- something not many
people are interested in. You might notice there is a "free" account that
enables anyone to participate and share up to 1,000 images a day which is
many more than anyone currently needs. Currently OpenLitterMap is surviving
thanks to a $1,000 AWS startup credit grant. Once this runs out, and if
many more people sign up and don't support, then I have no choice but to
limit data upload allowances to keep the project alive. I am in the early
stages of this project and still trying to find a balance between income
and expenditure. I want to maximize upload capacity, but without letting
costs spiral out of control. I am currently experimenting with and trying
to find that balance. There will always be a free account, and users can
map an entire beach or street clean in a single geotagged photo. If litter
is incalculable, there is also a simple index that can be used to rate an
image from 1-100.

Ultimately the entire platform is in its infancy and needs to be redesigned
entirely. I would like to move the cost towards data consumers. I am trying
to meet with Local Authorities in Ireland this summer and try to get them
interested in helping to finance open data, which would be significantly
cheaper than paid closed-data alternatives. However, despite having
advanced mapping capabilities not many publicly funded institutions are
interested in mapping the pollution caused by the products and economic
activity of a handful of global corporations in a detailed, open and
accessible manner.

I welcome the criticism and hope that it can lead to greater openness and
transparency of the data and the platform. Yes, the site needs to
communicate it a lot better. If anyone thinks that is important then that
is why the crowdfunding exists.

Cheers,

Seán

On 14 June 2018 at 09:51, Christoph Hormann <chris_hormann at gmx.de> wrote:

> On Thursday 14 June 2018, Seán Lynch wrote:
> > [...]
> >
> > I honestly thought that people in this group would have been
> > delighted to see some initiative in trying to produce new forms of
> > Open Geographic Maps and data that can also be used to fill gaps in
> > OSM. The response overall, not limited to any group, has been
> > profoundly disappointing [...]
>
> I think what you need to understand is that the relatively cold reaction
> you get in the OSM community is not due to you not complying with some
> formal policy.  Most people in the OSM context do not really care that
> much about it but you can expect to get a relatively strong reaction
> here since this is the official OSMF list.
>
> The general reaction is due to your use of the terms 'open' and 'open
> data' in a way that is very different from how OpenStreetMap uses these
> terms.
>
> To many of us your project looks very much like countless commercial
> attention economy projects that use openwashing (i.e. advertising what
> they do to be 'open' in some way to be more appealing to potential
> contributors/user).  The following aspects to me very much support this
> impression:
>
> * that you apparently need to register to access the data
> * that there are no license terms mentioned for the data anywhere, in
> fact the "all data is free to view and download" indicates that the
> data is probably the garden variety "you may look at it but nothing
> else" kind which has nothing in common with the Open Data idea we have
> in OSM with the freedoms to use, modify and redistribute.
> * that the registration page offers you the the typical paid
> subscription options of commercial services that try to get people
> hooked with a free service but later limits it to get people to choose
> the paid options.
>
> In short: Except for the Open'X'Map title there appears to be absolutely
> nothing on your site that indicates that this has anything to do with
> the philosophy of data openness we value in OSM.  And this is why you
> get the underwhelmed and critical reactions here.
>
> --
> Christoph Hormann
> http://www.imagico.de/
>
> _______________________________________________
> osmf-talk mailing list
> osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/osmf-talk
>

-- 
https://openlittermap.com @OpenLitterMap (Fb, Tw, Ig)
M.Sc. Coastal & Marine Environments (NUIG, 2015)
M.Sc. GIS & Remote Sensing (UCC, 2014)
B.A. Geography & Economics (UCC, 2011)
ie.linkedin.com/in/seanlynchgis
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/osmf-talk/attachments/20180614/253adaba/attachment.html>