[OSM-talk] Revert requests in general

[Frederik Ramm]

Ben,

Ben Last wrote:
> Actually, you can message them, since "they" are us (NearMap).  Which
> is my point; the edits come from us, and we're the ones taking on the
> necessary responsibility.  This is us, as a company aiming to support
> OSM, trying to remove barriers from contributions; that's going to
> involve us in spending effort and money in doing so.  It's somewhat
> frustrating to find this being immediately classified in the same box
> as anonymous editing and/or vandalism.

You're trying to remove two "barriers" at the same time, both quite 
unrelated:

1. The barrier of users having to sign up to OSM;
2. The barrier of a (supposedly) complicated editing process.

Writing a good and simple to use editor, aka doing "2" in the above, is 
surely complicated, and takes a lot of effort. If we at OSM had an 
editor available that was easier than everything else we can offer, we'd 
surely have put it up on the web site some time ago - but we don't have 
one. So your effort and money on that front are surely welcome.

On the other hand, doing "1" in the above, is relatively cheap; we could 
do that ourselves at any time by, say, allowing users to log in to OSM 
with any OpenID credentials (just like we do on help.openstreetmap.org). 
  I guess we might even do that one day if we get the messaging and 
license stuff sorted out but we're not ready for that.

I think the problem with your suggestion is that you're offering your 
help only in the form of a package (1+2). If you were to do only "2", 
and link the Nearmap account with the OSM account using OAuth, nobody 
would have any problem with that; your editor would be unreservedly 
welcome. People are critical of your package only because of "1", not 
because of "2". There is no technical necessity to package them. Yes 
there would be an added burden for your users if you dropped "1", but 
would that really be such a problem? One signup page, one E-Mail 
confirmation, and then click "ok" for the OAuth page. How often does the 
modern Internet user do that every day?

If it should turn out that all the talk of "making OSM easier for a 
wider range of contributors" etc.etc. is indeed just "people cannot be 
bothered to go through a signup process", then it is not NearMap we need 
to fix this; then we need to discuss if we, as a project, can afford to 
drop the signup and use 3rd party ID in general. But this, I think, 
would a decision we'd have to take on a general level - are we happy 
with 3rd party ID - instead of doing that on a case by case basis - are 
we happy with NearMap relaying edits under a collective account.

If you were to decide to actually send your users to create an account 
with OSM, you'd also be saving time because you would no longer have to 
be the middle man in community communication. And if this is a factor 
for you, you could still retain whatever rights you want on the content 
submitted by the user, by way of their agreement with NearMap.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"