[OSM-talk] Things People Say

[Thomas Davie]

On 30 Dec 2011, at 14:23, Frederik Ramm wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On 12/30/11 11:26, Kai Krueger wrote:
>> There is a second aspect to this too though, motivation. If every time
>> someone suggests some improvements into the consumer side of things, they
>> get shot down by the "oldtimers" and other people who decide what happens in
>> the project, because they want to stay as geeky as possible and not adapt to
>> becoming more consumer oriented, then the motivation to code any feature in
>> that direction is close to zero.
> 
> There's a lot of untrue statements in that long sentence, but I would like to concentrate on the overall untrue-ness:
> 
> "If <OSM doesn't want to be what I would like it to be> then <the motivation to code ... is close to zero>."
> 
> This couldn't be more wrong. If *I* had a great idea for a map platform, and I suggested that to OSM, and those grey-haired conservative OSM oldtimer geek bastards said "no thanks we'd rather remain small and unknown", then of course the first thing I would do is set it up myself, attract all the consumers to *my* site and then smile at OSM when for every 1000 visitors they get, I get a million!

You make it sound so easy to run a site getting a million visitors each loading a good few thousand (relatively) large data files.

> As I said in one of my earlier postings; if you want to make a consumer map platform based on OSM, what's to stop you? OSM delivers data, you package it and make a great experience out of it. It doesn't even have to be you alone, or a MapQuest-like enterprise. Start a project - the "open cartography project" or the "open map portal" or the "free map network" or whatever. Gather UI whizkids, cartography buffs, build a nice consumer-oriented site; team up with naturalearthdata.com... all this is possible *today*, and is possible *with* (not against!) OpenStreetMap.

The point is that the understanding that OSM is about *only* map data is *incorrect.  The hint is in the name – it's OpenStreet *Map*, not OpenMapDatabase.  Yes, the database is a *very* important part of the project, and indeed should be our main focus, but we shouldn't forget that the goal of the process is to provide high quality maps for people to use.  I doubt SteveC (and he can correct me if I'm wrong), set out thinking "hey, you know what would be cool?  A huge database of map data that we don't show to anyone!  That we I can be really useless without a third party making something interesting out of it!"

Bob