[OSM-talk] Cloudmade: "We are the Wikipedia of maps"

[Lars Aronsson]

Frederik Ramm wrote:

>     as an OSM community member, I'm taking offence at the 
> following article:

That article can indeed generate some unfortunate 
misinterpretations, but as you admit, it's hard to control what 
journalists write about you.  Still, your first instinct is to 
attack Steve and Cloudmade.  Unfortunately, this matches a pattern 
of your previous posts.  What is the outcome you expect?  That 
Steve should step down and leave you as heir of OpenStreetMap?  
That doesn't sound very likely. Do you have a goal, a strategy?

Or is your frustration based on Geofabrik being a competitor to 
Cloudmade that has been far less successful in its marketing?

If you asked the same journalist to interview you about Geofabrik, 
that would have a much better effect for the public understanding 
of OpenStreetMap's role than your current rants.  It would 
immediately become clear that there is more than one company that 
can make money out of OpenStreetMap's data.

How should Wikipedia explain to the public that uploaded photos 
may be reused commercially?  The French Wikipedia has the answer: 
They made a contract with a printer, so you can order prints for a 
fee and have them mailed ot your home, http://wikiposter.fr/

A commercial offering says more than a thousand words.

> "Coast says the goal is to give away the mapping data for free 
> and charge for services."

This indeed seems to be Steve's goal.  He uses OpenStreetMap for 
the first part and Cloudmade for the second. If the journalist had 
only changed from Cloudmade to Steve's name in the second 
sentence, the article would have been much better: Steve Coast 
hopes to do the same (that Wikipedia has done) for maps.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se