[OSM-talk] Released: OpenMaps for iOS v4.0. An idea how to increase OSM awareness.

Sun Dec 19 17:01:49 GMT 2010

Guys, thanks. I can work with this feedback.

Ken:

Currently we support only Twitter.

Serge:

The goal with this sharing, commenting, checking in to OSM places on
Twitter is to create a "buzz" about OSM there and expose it to
potential new users. With that said if you open an openmaps:// link
you will be shown the whole OSM element with all of its tags in the
iOS app (OpenMaps) where you can comment on it via Twitter, calculate
the route to there, add it to your contacts, send the link to it via
email to your friends, edit its tags, etc. You get the main idea.

Dave:

That's exactly what I wanted to hear. Feedback.

(I pasted my reply to Serge here)
The goal with this sharing, commenting, checking in to OSM places on
Twitter is to create a "buzz" about OSM there and expose it to
potential new users. With that said if you open an openmaps:// link
you will be shown the whole OSM element with all of its tags in the
iOS app (OpenMaps) where you can comment on it via Twitter, calculate
the route to there, add it to your contacts, send the link to it via
email to your friends, edit its tags, etc. You get the main idea.

Mike:

That's great.

If you find any issues during your testings then please report them
either on our support website http://openmaps.ideascale.com/ or
directly within the app at the Feedback tool - which basically is an
in app interface to the support site.

Steve:

The "see where I am right now!" is just a use case. Another use case
that I am convinced that would connect with you more is to be able to
see what people say about that OSM place where you are at that moment
of time. But if you don't care about reviews generated by users in
Yelp, Google Places, etc. then probably this use case doesn't connect
with you either.

Simone:

If you see a clickable openmaps:// link somewhere in an iOS app (e.g.
in Twitter for iPhone) and click on it then OpenMaps will launch and
show you that OSM place where (pasted text from above coming) you can
comment on it via Twitter, calculate the route to there, add it to
your contacts, send the link to it via email to your friends, edit its
tags, etc. You get the main idea.

Currently the Twitter website doesn't create clickable links for
custom URL schemes e.g.  mailto: or openmaps:, in our case, but I am
working with them to add support for this.

Tim:

1) Let me clarify. When users send out a checkin, comment, share tweet
about an _existing_ OSM place that tweet goes to Twitter. A sample
checkin tweet will look like this:
http://twitter.com/#!/zssz/statuses/7396822796476416
That tweet has an openmaps:// link in it. If you click on it OpenMaps
will launch and it will show you that place where (pasted text from
above coming) you can comment on it via Twitter, calculate the route
to there, add it to your contacts, send the link to it via email to
your friends, edit its tags, etc. You get the main idea.

2) Adding game element to this is challenging because of dependence on
services that we aren't control of. One must have access to Twitter's
full firehose to be able to achieve this. I am open to ideas, though.

Best regards,
Zsombor Szabo
IZE, Ltd. - http://izeize.com/

On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 18:25, Tim Waters <chippy2005 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Cool idea - I can see how it can help the OSM project.
>
> There are a couple of things.
>
> 1) What to do about users adding the same point, but differently. For
> example user A goes "I'm at McDonalds, it's a cafe", user B goes I'm
> at Mac Donalds, it's a fast food restaurant" for the same location.
> What one or two of the most popular chicken apps do is show these
> points one after the other. What the OSM database could see is that
> there's multiple points for the same thing.
>
> 2) The popular chicken apps are games. This is why they are popular.
> You gotta add in game mechanics for it to work, coupons, badges and
> other "fun" stuff. Without the gameplay, it becomes much like existing
> services like http://mapme.at - personal location story applications.
>
> I think the idea is great and potentially disruptive, but would need
> to be promoted to the mass market, not just loveable geo freetards :)
>
>
> Tim
>
>
>
> On 16 December 2010 20:46, Zsombor Szabó <zsombor at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Today we released OpenMaps version 4.0 in Apple's App Store. It is a free
>> map app based on OpenStreetMap and we believe it is the best. It is as slick
>> as the built-in (Google) Maps application and if you ever used Maps on an
>> iPhone you know that it's not a little thing to say.
>> But this is not the reason why I am writing this email.
>> I believe in OpenStreetMap. I really do. I want it to be the de facto map
>> that everyone uses and I think most of you feel the same way. I also believe
>> that OpenStreetMap is not getting the deserved user attention that we want
>> it to receive. I think I have a solution how we could expose it to more
>> users with OpenMaps for iOS.
>> How? Just launch OpenMaps, find your favorite bar/pub/restaurant/etc. on the
>> map, tap on it (yes, in contrast with Maps you can tap on POI icons in
>> OpenMaps without needing to search for them; innovative, isn't it?) and send
>> out a checkin tweet. A typical tweet will look like this:
>> http://twitter.com/#!/zssz/statuses/7396822796476416
>> Isn't Foursquare, Gowalla and now Facebook doing something similar you ask?
>> Exactly. And look how popular they are. I believe that tweeting (checking
>> in, commenting, etc.) about OSM POIs is a great way to increase OSM
>> awareness. And it is a great way to share places with friends as when users
>> tap on an openmaps:// link they will be shown the respective OSM element in
>> OpenMaps (if they have the app installed on their device). They can even
>> follow the recent Twitter conversation about an OSM element within the app.
>> So if they want to share with the public that they serve amazing coffee at
>> openmaps://n/957085286 then they can do that easily.
>> I am enthusiastic about this and encourage you to adopt this because I
>> really think it is a great idea to increase OSM awareness. Maybe it will
>> catch on, maybe not. It all depends on the critical mass.
>> Best regards,
>> Zsombor Szabo, CEO
>> IZE, Ltd.
>> P.S. for OSM Announce list members: If you have questions or have feedback,
>> then reply on the (cced) OSM talk list.
>> _______________________________________________
>> talk mailing list
>> talk at openstreetmap.org
>> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
>>
>>
>