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

[paul youlten]

... never-the-less we should start tagging lamp-posts so we can easily
find somewhere to hang those filthy cloudmade running dogs.

 ;-)

> On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 11:44 AM, 80n <80n80n at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Mark Boslet, the Editor of Techpulse360 has modified the article to "correct
>> any misimpression".
>>
>> The title is now "OpenStreetMap wants to be the Wikipedia of Maps" and the
>> body of the article now clearly distinguishes between CloudMade and us.
>>
>> 80n
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 11:14 PM, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>>    as an OSM community member, I'm taking offence at the following
>>> article:
>>>
>>>
>>> http://techpulse360.com/2009/03/10/startup-cloudmade-wants-to-be-the-wikipedia-of-maps/
>>>
>>> The article says that Cloudmade "relies on its OpenStreetMap project",
>>> and:
>>>
>>> “This is going to be the map of the future,” says founder Steve Coast of
>>> his company. “We’re the Wikipedia of maps.”
>>>
>>> This is of course wrong; OpenStreetMap is no Cloudmade's project, and
>>> Cloudmade is not the Wikipedia of maps.
>>>
>>> Further down, the article suggests that Cloudmade money was somehow
>>> related to mapping the world:
>>>
>>> "But it’s also a daunting task. The company raised $3.5 million from
>>> Sunstone Capital, but, well, the world is a large place."
>>>
>>> And:
>>>
>>> "Coast says the goal is to give away the mapping data for free and
>>> charge for services."
>>>
>>> Of course, there is no mapping data that Cloudmade could give away for
>>> free because they don't own any.
>>>
>>> I know that the press always write what they want (or what they think
>>> they understand) and not necessarily what you tell them. Also, to their
>>> credit, the Cloudmade web page clearly and correctly states that "We
>>> source our map data from OpenStreetMap, the community mapping project
>>> which is making a free map of the world".
>>>
>>> However, this is not the first time that the OpenStreetMap project has
>>> been confused with Cloudmade by the press, and I can hardly imagine that
>>>  whoever wrote that article did so without relying on Cloudmade
>>> statements that somehow pointed in that direction.
>>>
>>> I would appreciate if Cloudmade PR people, especially in the US, would
>>> take more care in explaining the situation to the press, or if that is
>>> too much to ask, then at least refrain from misrepresenting the situation.
>>>
>>> If anyone is "the Wikipedia of maps" then it is the OpenStreetMap
>>> project which exists independently of Cloudmade. A very tiny portion of
>>> OpenStreetMap data is acquired during Cloudmade-sponsored events for
>>> which the project is grateful, but that does not give Cloudmade the
>>> right to act as if they own the project.
>>>
>>> I know that in the early days of the web, some access providers touted
>>> their dial-in plans as if the web was theirs - "buy our package and get
>>> access to all these cool sites". Maybe it is hard for the public to
>>> understand, but an effort should be made to say that Cloudmade is an
>>> access provider, not a content provider.
>>>
>>> I'll try to make it a habit to point this out in the comment boxes of
>>> the relevant web pages if I see articles like that.
>>>
>>> Bye
>>> Frederik
>>>
>>> --
>>> Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> talk mailing list
>>> talk at openstreetmap.org
>>> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
>>
>>
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