[OSM-talk] Ed Parsons Blog

Mikel Maron mikel_maron at yahoo.com
Sat May 13 10:41:45 BST 2006


I'm all for leveraging OSM to open up Ordnance Survey data BUT even if that ever happened, it's only a very first small step. 
OS collects mapping data for only a few small islands in Northern Europe. There are dozens of other national mapping agencies
hoarding the gold, and myriads more places with little digital mapping presence at all -- commerical, government or free maps
are just not available over the majority of the world. This is where a distributed and free geodata collection can potentially make
the biggest impact. OpenStreetMap Sri Lanka anyone?


----- Original Message ----
From: Nick Hill <nick at nickhill.co.uk>
To: Nick Black <nickblack1 at gmail.com>
Cc: talk at openstreetmap.org
Sent: Friday, May 12, 2006 11:14:34 PM
Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] Ed Parsons Blog

It would be only marginally helpful to have OS contributing basic data 
to the dataset because as the number of contributors keeps growing, from 
an overall project perspective, it falls out from being key.

And I think the discussion and the direction Ed is coming from is 
missing the most vital ingredient.

Ed is talking about copyright free, and is talking about the effect the 
Linux kernel had. He is both wrong and looking in the wrong place.

Firstly, the open geodata is not copyright free, and IMO this is a good 
measure. For Ed to say it is copyright free is showing some lack of 
understanding. In a world with copyrights, free data ironically needs 
the protection of copyrights.

I will digress for a moment, but taking the Linux kernel as the turning 
point in the free software system is missing the point and IMO is 
incorrect. The then crude Linux kernel happened to be workable at the 
time the GNU system was at completion. GNU HURD was further from 
completion. The relatively crude Linux kernel was licensed to be 
compatible with the GNU system which happened to fill the jigsaw at the 
right time. That is focusing on the part of the free software system 
which has had the most publicity, but perhaps isn't particularly key. 
The GNU system is and has always been much bigger in terms of the amount 
of code, effort, and license lead. The linux kernel is a very small part 
of  the free software stack and it gets disproportionate publicity 
compared to other parts. Ignoring the 95% and focusing on the 5% which 
happens to be called Linux.

The key in the development of the free software is IMO the GNU general 
public license. The document, the law, written into copyright which 
makes equitable collaboration work better. Underpinning this is the 
concept and philosophy of copyleft. All this helped by the development 
of the internet.

I can't see an email address on ed's blog. Perhaps he will read this.

The biggest challenges to face OSM are to encourage and co-ordinate 
system and software development. Keep the systems able to serve demand. 
Bring in sufficient funding along the way. Establish a consensus on a 
specific geodata license. Foster understanding of how the free/open 
collaborative system works. (Ed doesn't yet know)

Any OS data would in the overall scheme of things be fairly unimportant 
compared to our scope to harness the effort of those who can contribute 
to development of the dataset. Growth rate should follow a steep upward 
line. Actual growth a fairly steep curve dependent on certain limiting 
factors.


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