[OSM-talk] Revert requests in general

Nick Black nickblack1 at gmail.com
Fri Aug 6 13:04:05 BST 2010


Hi Guys,

The current mechanism by which Mapzen and Mapzen POI Collector users
authenticate against OSM is horrible for users.  In each user test we
do this is the main area where users fall down.  We have several one
star reviews on the App Store for Mapzen POI-C where users have got
lost half way through the Auth process and ended up on the OSM site,
thinking its Mapzen.  We do user tests of Mapzen web every couple of
months - we test on a range of people, from engineers to people off
the street - and they all get confused about the account creation and
auth process.  There are a few things that CloudMade can do to make
the process easier for the user and there are also things that could
be done from the OSM side to  make things easier.

Please don't hold Mapzen up as a good example here - we have a
technically spot on implementation of something that makes new users'
lives hell and limits the ability of people to contribute to OSM.

IMO, this is one of the most pressing issues that needs to be solved
in order to reverse the stagnation of OSM monthly active contributors.
  The % of users actively contributing to OSM each month has fallen
from 5.7% in March 2010 (13,675 / 238,985) to 4.7% in June (297,041 /
14,018).

Of the 7,000 Mapzen POI Collector downloads so far, we see only a
fraction get through the OAuth procedure (we have around 350 active
contributors each month using POI-C).  That equates to a massive
missed opportunity in my book.

I also appreciate the concerns and problems associated with using a
single OSM account - that's why we supported OAuth from the beginning.

How would the people voicing opinions in this thread feel about a hack
/ planning day when editor developers, OSM-F and the OSM server admin
team can get together to talk through each side's concerns and come up
with a plan that is good for everyone - OSM-F, OSM admin team, editor
developers, and most importantly for mappers?

--
Nick
nick at cloudmade.com




On Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 8:48 AM, Kai Krueger <kakrueger at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> David Earl wrote:
>>
>> Are you going to take the email address on trust? It is really very easy
>> to set up an OpenID provider which supplies any old email address on
>> request. (There are some I think you can trust in principle - we know
>> for example that Google and Yahoo provide verified email addresses, but
>> in general I think it needs the round trip with the verification link in
>> the email to be trustworthy).
>>
> Yes, it does still require the round trip to verify the email address.
> Technically, it would be no problem to remove the need for that step, even
> to selectively "white list" a few openID providers if they were deemed
> trustworthy, but both presumably would need a wider agreement and discussion
> in the community about the social implications. Hence for the moment, the
> implementation is only really a replacement for having to remember yet
> another username and password combo.
>
> Get the technical side and user interface right and deployed, and then one
> can later still see if removing additional barrieres is a good next step. So
> for the moment it is trying to solve a related, but not quite the same issue
> as the NearMap, but perhaps it would help them too.
>
>
>
> David Earl wrote:
>>
>> Also, are you able to link OpenID logins together and with existing OSM
>> accounts (i.e. keeping login identity separate from OSM identity and
>> allowing OSM identities to have multiple ways of logging in)?
>>
> You can associate an OpenID to an existing account. You can also switch your
> associated OpenID at any time (provided you are logged in) just like you can
> change your password. (The OpenID is never revealed to anyone other than the
> account holder). But as Tom sais, for the moment you can only associate a
> single OpenID with your account. If there is demand for linking multiple
> OpenIDs to a single account, it should be reasonably easy to change that in
> the future though too. Also, if you choose, you can always continue to use a
> standard password instead or in addition to the OpenID.
>
> Kai
> --
> View this message in context: http://gis.638310.n2.nabble.com/Revert-requests-in-general-tp5370633p5379621.html
> Sent from the General Discussion mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
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-- 
--
Nick Black
twitter.com/nick_b




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