[OSM-talk] advertising

[Immanuel Scholz]

Just for the records:

I agree with all of Federick's statements. I hope the London guys will
remove the ads soon.


And I want to rerequest the whole database information from Steve.
It might be necessary to fork the project, if it continues in a
direction some of the user base cannot identify themself with.

Ciao, Imi.


Frederik Ramm wrotes:
> Hi,
> 
>> Commercial services very clearly add value to maps used by car  
>> drivers: A road atlas without ferry links, toll bridges, motorway  
>> service stations, petrol stations isn't as valuable (to drivers) as  
>> one with this information.
> 
> Yes, and one that only has "Shell" petrol stations because only  
> "Shell" forked out money is not really information any longer.
> 
> Yes, I want information about commercial entities on the map. But  
> either I select them myself, or the map provider selects based on  
> information value ("all petrol stations", "all petrol stations along  
> motorways", whatever) - but not based on who pays. This distorts the  
> information and reduces the value.
> 
>> If BP offered to mark every petrol station in the world on OSM  
>> would that be a problem?
> 
> We would probably import their data and strive to add all other  
> petrol stations as well.
> 
>> If HSBC offered to mark everyone of their ATMs? Sounds like a  
>> useful idea - but how about people who bank with Fortis or BBVA?  
>> Are they being disadvantaged?
> 
> They/we can add the ATMs.
> 
>> If McDonalds offered to mark every one of their restaurants? NO!!!  
>> Bad!!!...
> 
> They could do it today. The problems start when they offer us money  
> to force these "markings" down the throat of our users - this is  
> something that we will not do.
> 
>> So let's agree commercial information needs to integrate with maps  
>> but not be "in the map" - Layers of services make total sense -  
>> want hotels? show hotels. Want to see restaurants? show restaurants.
> 
> Yes, and handle that information the Wiki way: If someone wants to  
> add a hotel, then log in, use the editor, and tag the hotel. NOT "go  
> to mappam, set up a campaign, fork out money".
> 
>> If, having added every petrol station, BP wanted to add information  
>> about opening hours... another useful idea... and the price of petrol?
> 
> Sure. If an unhappy user then wants to add information about the  
> unfriendly clerk... another useful idea... but something that BP will  
> probably not want to pay for. So it has to be made clear: Dear BP,  
> yes we'd like to have your stations in our data base, but you must  
> understand taht this is a Wiki map, and all your competitors have the  
> same options, and if you give us the data, you lose control of it. It  
> is not in the hands of your marketing people any more. Agree with  
> that, or go away.
> 
>> This is the commercial reality of the world we are mapping.
> 
> No problem with that. Problems only start when money changes hands in  
> order to make us show things to people that they don't want to see  
> (mappam ads cannot be disabled anymore...), or when we don't show  
> information about company A because we're exclusively featuring its  
> competitor company B.
> 
>> It seems to me that what Mappam are doing on OSM is testing their  
>> technology to see how it can add value to users
> 
> The technology to add value - all kinds of value that you mentioned -  
> is already there. Having amenity layers could be interesting, but  
> mappam isn't providing that.
> 
>> It is early days and clearly it needs refining. But if you want to  
>> buy a house in the UK Mappam's advert for Nestoria does add value  
>> to the map.
> 
> A very weak argument. The same is being put by spammers all over the  
> Usenet: But if someone is looking for Penis enlargement pills, then  
> this email adds value for him!
> 
>> As a group we should be helping Mappam get it right
> 
> Why should we? We could also help someone else. Why do we have an  
> obligation vis a vis one of hundreds of thousands of Web 2.0 startups  
> in the world?
> 
> Bye
> Frederik
>