[OSM-talk] OSM as Map Publishers (was Re: TomTom acqures TeleAltas)

[David Earl]

On 23/07/2007 15:20, 80n wrote:
> I've been pondering for some time whether OSM should be hosting our own 
> slippy maps or whether our role should be to *only* provide raw data.  
> Leaving it to others to render and publish slippy maps etc.


I think it would be very hard for a new visitor to get their head around 
a site that claims to be making a map that doesn't actually have any 
maps you can look at directly. I think it would be crazy to take visible 
maps away from the OSM domain.

That doesn't mean OSM has to store the tiles - for example, the 
distributed system that has been discussed recently for tiles at home. But 
I think a map must be among the first things you see when you visit 
openstreetmap.org

If the approach is that OSM shows a partner's map instead of it being 
actuall under openstreetmap.org (e.g. if osmarender split off and 
starting having its own domain, tile index (assuming distributed tiles) 
etc., I don't think most people would understand the difference and 
would attribute it to OSM; that kind of division would be for internal 
convenience/politics/whatever.

David