[OSM-talk] Things People Say

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 12/30/11 16:55, Thomas Davie wrote:
> Perhaps because that's the original, and stated purpose of the
> project – to make open maps.

When I started using OSM, the project wasn't making maps; it was making 
files that you could download and feed into a renderer and then you 
could see a map.

I probably saw the potential back then; I saw that you could make maps 
right there on your computer, and quite possibly I also thought that one 
could make a slippy map - but it never occurred to me that what I was 
seeing then was somehow *not* the original purpose. A good 5000 people 
who joined OSM before me must have seen the same thing.

> Pretty much everything you say is based on the premise that the point
> of the project is to make an enormous collection of map data, and
> damn actually being able to use it.  This premise is false.

Where did you get that idea about "the original, and stated purpose" 
being to "make open maps"? From the Wiki history, I can see that on 26 
May 2005, Steve Coast added this sentence as the very first sentence on 
our main page:

"OpenStreetMap is a project aimed squarely at providing free geographic 
data such as street maps to anyone who wants them."

That was 6.5 years ago, OSM must have had about 500 members back then. I 
only joined a year later, when that sentence was still up on the Wiki, 
and today, the sentence has only slightly changed:

"OpenStreetMap creates and provides free geographic data such as street 
maps to anyone who wants them."

As I said in another message, SWG are debating core values etc., and 
before we know it that sentence may read "OpenStreetMap offers map tile 
downloads free of charge" or something, but most people who have joined 
the project in the last 6.5 years will probably have read in the very 
first sentence that OSM says about itself: "OpenStreetMap creates free 
geographic data".

If that is indeed false then where can I complain about having been 
misled for so long? ;)

Bye
Frederik