[OSM-talk] We Need to Stop Google's Exploitation of Open Communities

Kevin Peat kevin at kevinpeat.com
Mon Apr 11 20:41:25 BST 2011


On 11 April 2011 20:14, Joseph Reeves <iknowjoseph at gmail.com> wrote:

> Of course, its not about the license at all - if you appeal to fans of
> licenses you'll attract nobody. Google will take potential users by
> providing an awesome end product; the sort if thing everyone can appreciate.
> Make some awesome mapping products and you'll attract plenty of contributors
> and you'll be able to leave licensing talk to the nerds, presumably just as
> Google plans.
>
> Agreed. Most OSMers don't care about the license so why would people in the
developing world?

Being critical of Google serves no purpose. They aren't forcing people to
contribute to their products. gmaps is cool and everybody uses it so people
naturally want to see their street, business, etc. on there.

We should concentrate on making OSM a better competitor. A couple of things
I can think of:

- Why do so many people create OSM accounts but then just do a few edits or
none at all? How about a poll directed to those people to try and get to the
root of the problem? Is it the editors or the help available or something
else?

- A lot of effort has gone into making Potlatch and JOSM the powerful tools
that they are but if you are in a developing country with just a mobile
phone or a low spec laptop with a crappy internet connection they are going
to suck. How would someone in that situation contriibute to OSM?

Kevin
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