[OSM-talk] Split into "map" and "data" projects, was: Re: Actually using OpenStreetMap and the usability of thecurrent maps

Richard Fairhurst richard at systemeD.net
Tue Jul 29 10:24:47 BST 2008


Henry Loenwind wrote:

> That sums it up rather nicely. OSM is only about collecting data, people
> that are interested in using the data are not really welcome very much.

Nonono. And here's another difference between OSM and Wikipedia.

OSM _is_ expressly here to encourage an ecosystem. It's here to  
collect the data and then get people to do funky things with it. We're  
not like Wikipedia where the uses are all self-contained, little  
subsections of wikipedia.org - WikiProject this and WikiProject that.  
Rather, we want people to go off and develop "creative, productive or  
unexpected ways", while continuing to interact with the OSM community  
- and that's exactly what's happening.

So when you say:

> So I propose to start a new project, that is about using OSM data only.

...feel free, just as dozens of other people are doing: but that  
needn't affect what's happening on the main site. If it's great it'll  
feed back into osm.org, just as was true for Mapnik and the cycle map  
(for example), and I'm sure will be true of, say, routing before too  
long.

cheers
Richard





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