[OSM-talk] Response to A critique of OpenStreetMap

Colin Smale colin.smale at xs4all.nl
Fri Oct 15 11:11:55 BST 2010


  On 15/10/2010 11:49, Valent Turkovic wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:07:56 +0200, Milo van der Linden wrote:
>
>> "Making the perfectly rendered map available to the world" is *not* a
>> mission goal for the OSMF. The OSMF is primarily responsible for
>> maintaining the database and the services related to it.
> Well then OSMF should change their mission to include nice representation
> of data also, not to compete with commercial companies just to make
> defalut map not suck would be nice ;).
>
+1

If our product is the data (and not the map) we should be making more 
progress towards higher data quality, which I consider will inevitably 
require a degree of control over tagging and less of the tagging 
free-for-all which we have today. We cannot have uncontrolled data and 
simple say it is the responsibility of the renderer to sort out all the 
different ways in which things are modelled. We cannot (IMHO) achieve 
any level of data quality without some clear and effective governance of 
the data model including tagging schemes. Quality is not the same as 
correctness or any other similar attribute of the data collection, but 
it's about having stated goals for these attributes and achieving them. 
If "50% correct" is the stated goal, then we can be happy if we achieve 
51% - and our quality would be perfect. Our (potential) users will know 
what to expect because our product is exactly what it says on the tin 
(in fact it's better). If we don't meet expectations then the only way 
is down.

However you feel about the discussion about what our "product" is, the 
map presented on the home page is our calling-card and has the power to 
make a lasting impression on people.

Colin



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