[Talk-GB] Cycling between capitals

[Andy Robinson (blackadder-lists)]

Andy Allan wrote:
>Sent: 19 May 2008 10:44 AM
>To: OJ W; Talk GB
>Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] Cycling between capitals
>
>On Sat, May 17, 2008 at 3:20 PM, OJ W <ojwlists at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> Would it be worth including the cycle map as a layer on the front-page
>map?
>
>It's a request I've heard from a few people, but I don't know what
>everyone else thinks of the idea.
>
>* It's not got global coverage. Not by a long way. I do my best to
>render everywhere that people might look at, but there's only 20 GB of
>tiles and it's very heavily skewed towards the UK and even London. I
>bet some people would complain.
>* It would work better if it ran with mod_tile, so that anywhere could
>be rendered on the fly. But it doesn't. Not yet, anyway.
>* It can't handle contours for the whole world without a
>MegaServerOfDoom. It's only the lack of global coverage that means I
>can get away with it :-)
>* It might open the floodgates as everyone clamours for their custom
>map to go on the front page
>* If we were to put it on the front page today, I'm not sure if my
>server would survive. It's doing fine, but I just don't know how much
>traffic osm.org would throw at it.
>
>In saying that, I think the cycle map explains better than any
>catchphrase exactly why OpenStreetMap is way better than anything else
>out there, and it's also a really cool and useful map in itself. So I
>wouldn't be opposed to it if other people want it to happen.

Personally I think this raises the question of what the project is and how
it best supports and links to external content. The core function of the
project is its data and therefore our main www page links should focus on
that, however I accept that the one of the best ways to promote the project
and encourage more activity (all aspects) is to show what the data is being
used for.

I see the simplest way to achieve this is to make the "view" tab a portal
that gives a one line description of "approved" links. A link would only be
added to the portal if the community thinks it would be worthwhile. The
cyclemap in my view fits the criteria, as does mapnik default and T at H that
we have now. Hosted and external links might get displayed separately, but I
don't have a strong feeling on that.

The text info alongside the link would explain the coverage and limitations.

Cheers

Andy