[OSM-talk] openmaps.org

Jonas Krückel osm at jonas-krueckel.de
Tue Jun 16 17:53:41 BST 2009


Eric Pritchett schrieb:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I recently donated openmaps.org to the Open Street Map Foundation.
> Everyone here is doing a great job with this project and I thought you
> could make better use of the domain.  Having said that, the foundation
> owns the domain now and has full control on what to do with it and I
> trust that everyone will make great use out of it.  However, I would
> still like a discussion with everyone here on ideas on how the domain
> could be used.  Although perhaps a big change I would suggest changing
> the root domain from openstreetmap.org to openmaps.org.  I think in the
> long term this would payoff.  Several advantages would include, but
> limited to:
>
>       * There is often a misconception that OSM is a street focused
>         project.  I think this would be the most important.  It's
>         amazing what a name can do.
>       * This would allow you to have the flexibility to do things like
>         streets.openmaps.org or terrain.openmaps.org, etc without
>         sounding redundant (i.e. streets.openstreetmap.org or
>         openstreemap.org/street). 
>       * More simple, shorter domain name and easier to say and
>         remember. 
>       * Open Maps seems broader and make more sense when standardizing
>         things.  For example, this terrain follows the "open maps
>         standards" rather than "open street map standards" which may
>         leave some people (especially new people) scratching their heads
>         wondering what "streets" have to do with a just terrain map.
>   
I see you points here, but I don't like the idea of changing the domain 
name because the project is called openstreetmap and we would make a lot 
of confusion, if we would change the name.
Some of your points can also be achieved by using the new domain osm.org 
(see some brainstorming about more advanced url's here: 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:John07/short_links)
If we would want to name the project correct today, we would probably 
have to call it opengeodata because it is about the data and not about maps.

But, what came to my mind as I read the topic of your email:
What about a site with thumbnails to the best open maps based on 
openstreetmap data out there. The list is growing and with such a site 
we could give new users a fast overview. I would make the design a bit 
like the new topsites view of safari, about 4x4 thumbnails. At the 
bottom we could add links to more thumbnail pages with more maps. This 
would also fit great to your domain name.

Regards,
Jonas




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