[OSM-talk] Software Freedom Day

[Jonathan Bennett]

Tobias Knerr wrote:
> How about "offer reliable service with good uptimes"? After the recent
> maintenance weekend it was stated that our services are not really
> intended for the public (at least if they need them and don't just
> experiment with them) and we are only about data. If that's still the
> case, recommending the use of these services to the public doesn't seem
> like a good idea.
>   
You're right that the mapping on openstreetmap.org isn't intended to be 
a reliable, full-scale service for the general public: It's a showcase 
and a mapper's tool. The idea is to get other sites to use the data to 
create the maps they want, rather than just using one set of tiles from us.

To put it another way: We will have succeeded not when the public uses 
openstreetmap.org instead of Google Maps, but when Google Maps uses 
OpenStreetMap data instead of Navteq, Teleatlas, or other proprietary 
data sources.