[OSM-talk] OSM book in English published

Dave F. davefox at madasafish.com
Thu Sep 16 01:54:13 BST 2010


  On 16/09/2010 01:08, Joseph Reeves wrote:
> I've not seen the book, but I have bought books before on subjects
> that were covered by free resources online. Books, I'm sure, are a
> good idea:
>
> 1: There is a lot of free stuff available out there on the Internet -
> a printed book, by an author or three, provides a handy reference to
> the most relevant material. This is something you can pick up and use.
> The wiki, on the other hand, has a lot of good stuff, but also a great
> deal of cruft. If it's not on the wiki, you may find yourself managing
> reams of bookmarks to the thing you need. A book can provide an edited
> relief to this.

There appears to be a couple of unproven assumptions in that point.

> 2: A book provides a historiography: It says something about the
> opinions of the people that wrote it. If you value the opinions of the
> authors, you should consider buying the book.

Personally, I want facts on how to use OSM, not opinions (Lord, as if i 
don't get enough of those on this forum :-) ).

> 3: A printed book on a subject that "is available online" will
> invariably teach you something new about the subject. The thing it
> teaches you may be online, for free, already, but I would bet money
> that there's something "new" in the book that you haven't seen.

I bet there's something in the wiki I haven't discovered yet, but I'm 
not going to have to fork out £$ to find it.

> 4: Books can go into University libraries and onto GIS course reading
> lists. A big one, I would imagine, for OSM.

Really? Apart from some really old fashion kudos, why?
Who thinks, "Hmm... i need to learn about OSM, so I'm off to my Local 
Uni library."
Who, apart from the students, is actually allowed to enter said library?

Anyway, surely Universities have online library reading lists? If not 
then they're a bit out dated.

> Perhaps we should ask why, in this Internet age, do we need newpapers,
> TV,

We don't. Have you not seen the declining viewing/reading figures?

> radio and pubs?

Radio figures are stable or even increasing due to internet usage.

> Can't all these things be replaced by Google News,
> YouTube, Spotify and IRC?

IRC is selling alcohol? Wow, when did that happen?


> Books are a massively positive thing - they demonstrate a healthy and
> productive OSM ecosystem and a growth in adoption. More books please!

I fail to see how charging for regurgitated data (as confirmed by 
Frederik) is positive or productive.

Cheers
Dave F.





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