[Talk-ca] New OpenSkiMaps service, and OpenStreetMap API bandwidth limits

[Richard Weait]

On Wed, Feb 9, 2011 at 2:00 AM, Russell <skiinfobc at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I just launched a new service on my website Skimap.org, which allows
> people to get OpenStreetMap data rendered in KML format (and other
> formats coming soon of course for skiing), and already (after a day!)
> using the OSM API I am getting bandwidth exceeded (from my database,
> it seems like users have requested about 40 maps spread over the day -
> because there weren't any maps yesterday, more need to be generated
> right now).. :( I definitely don't have the resources to host my own
> server with a planet.osm and then use osmosis to extract, so what is
> everyone's suggestion? It seems to me like OSM needs a solid backend
> for it to really be usable for most developers (that don't have a
> fancy server to keep up with the constantly growing database)

I'm sorry that your new application is too popular for your hardware
to manage.  OpenStreetMap will continue to provide data via planet and
update diffs, and OpenStreetMap will continue to provide renderings to
help data contributors to map.

But over-use by developers of the API and tile servers make these
scarce resources unavailable for mappers who are improving the very
data that you want to consume.  OSM can't support that.  Developer use
is substantially different from mapper use.  Nobody gets blocked for
an extended and detailed mapping session.  They only get blocked for
consuming orders of magnitude more resources than a mapper.

OSM is thrilled to see new uses of OSM data.  And we all have to use
our collective resources in a way that does not hurt other project
participants.

> Also is the ODBL final adoption day still April 1st? I looked on the
> ODBL coverage website and saw that most of North Vancouver, Surrey,
> Port Moody, Abbotsford.... are still totally in the red and most
> everything else in the yellow.. Will all this hard work just
> disappear?

Some folks have misunderstood the next step of the ODbL implementation
plan.  The next step, which the board has asked to be implemented by
31 March, is phase 3.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Open_Database_License/Implementation_Plan#PHASE_3_-_Existing_Contributor_Mandatory_Re-licensing_.28Phase_2_.2B_5_or_10_weeks.29