[OSM-talk] Big sponsors (was: WolframAlpha uses OpenStreetMap data)

[SteveC]

On Jun 17, 2010, at 9:22 PM, Ben Last wrote:
> Just to chime in on the topic...
> 
> On Jun 17, 2010, at 7:18 PM, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> > To paraphrase (not specifically Wolfram, but the unnamed other megacorps you're chatting with):
> > 1. they'd like to link to us directly but our infrastrucutre is too weak;
> > 2. they would not want to give us a shitload of money to improve our infrastructure, but could imagine hosting something;
> > 3. there is fear that the community would view this negatively.
> 
> Most people on the talk-au list (or OSM'ing in Australia) will know about NearMap (e.g. http://www.nearmap.com/?ll=-33.857061,151.215236&z=18&t=h&nmd=20100510).  We use the OSM data as the basis of our street maps, and actively support the use of our PhotoMaps to extend OSM data (for instance, click the edit button on our map page and you'll be dropped into Potlatch with our PhotoMaps as a background to trace from).  We also use opaque map tiles generated from OSM data for our map page in StreetMap mode.
> 
> We see serving StreetMap tiles as a key part of what we do, and are happy to handle the load.  We're working hard to get our maps to be updated faster from the core OSM data, so at some point we will be a viable Big Third-Party Tile Server.
> 
> We also see it as key to OSM that we help to make editing as easy as possible for the largest number of contributors, and we're actively looking at ways to support simple edits such as adding addresses (addr:housenum, etc) and naming un-named streets directly on our site, sending the edits back to the OSM servers asap.  We're not intending to directly handle feedback... we get enough of that already by email and tend to fix up the OSM data ourselves, but of course that's not scalable.

That's super interesting though - can you give a deep feel for what the volume and content of those emails is?

Steve

stevecoast.com