[OSM-talk] will we be nuked from orbit?

[Stefan Baebler]

On 7/25/07, Iván Sánchez Ortega <ivansanchez at escomposlinux.org> wrote:
> > Hypothetically, what if Google started accepting GPS data and making
> > their own map tomorrow? Without license problems or flaky servers,
> > clearly they would be able to attract a lot of potential OSMers.
>
> It's a win-win situation; either:
> - Google doesn't release the data under a "free enough" license: the OSM use
> cases still apply.
> - Google do release the data under a "free enough" license: we import it.

The Google's only way to halt us would be to release googolplex bytes
of extremely precise data (road incline, pavement width, asphalt load
limitation, turn radius, streetview, 3d building models with
texture...) under a friendly enough license.
- OSM servers would choke on the amount of data fed to them during
import (once we figure out how to do it)
- if we do manage to import (and handle) most important portions of it
people would still prefer to use the feature-rich google maps ...
except in cases when such data would need to be available offline,
carried in a space-constrained (navigation) gadgets.

We can call this a win-no_need_to_compete_anymore situation :)

Similar has happened before with revolutionary big mailboxes in gmail,
blowing away unprepared competition at that time.

Stefan