[OSM-talk] ImageInOsm: a photomapping mobile application

[Gilles Bassière]

Le 28/08/2013 22:38, Kolossos a écrit :
> Hello Gilles,

Hi Kolossos

> you can use additionally also:
>     http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:image
> So you would have links in both direction.

I am aware of this opportunity but I'm not a big fan of it. Mainly 
because there could be more than one picture documenting an object.

> Do you want to use Geocoding? All Smartphones have GPS, but you need a
> feature to adjust the position, and an camera-app with this feature
> would be very helpful.

In its current state, ImageInOsm do add geolocation data to the picture. 
See "machine tags" on this test image for example:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31379880@N05/9615798128/

We're not really clear about which position should be stored in the 
image: the osm object position? the camera position? I tend to think 
that the latter is more consistent but I've to admit that the former is 
currently implemented...

I'm not sure to understand what is a "feature to adjust the position". 
Do you mean that the user could take a picture and override GPS lat/lon 
by pointing a map? That could be fun, indeed. But our purpose is to 
better document the objects which exists in the OSM database, hence the 
OSM id.

> I'm a member of Wikimedia Commons community. I'm relatively sure that
> this community will be sad if someone uploads tons on pictures where you
> only see housenumbers. Thats what mappers doing.

Sure, a common photomapping practice is to shoot many pictures quickly, 
leading to poor quality images (a sort of "disposable" images). And I 
agree with you, sharing such pictures is pointless.

But, aside from this practice, I'm convinced that it would be desirable 
for any mapper to have access to a pool of good-quality, well-arranged 
pictures.

Suppose you are a specialist of, say, botany. You notice an area where a 
user put some natural=tree nodes. It would probably be useful for you to 
find attached pictures so that you could add species=*, denotation=*, 
etc based on your botanical knowledge.

This is the rationale of ImageInOsm: documenting OSM object in order to 
improve collaboration.

> Each picture on Commons also need a description, category and so on.
> This makes a lot of work.

I'm currently exploring Commons. I know that uploading a file is not as 
trivial as Flickr (that's one of the reason Flickr has been implemented 
first). I was about to post my technical questions on mediawiki-api 
mailing list. I'm not sure of the preferred way to contact the WM 
Commons community... Do you recommand a mailing list or a forum?

> I like the idea of a cooperation between OSM an Wikimedia, but I see
> Commons only as place for a selection of pictures that mappers make.
> Commons is also without your project on a good way to become a media
> garbage dump.
> So please give the user a chance to make a selection for an upload to
> Commons. If you want to go an other way, please discuss this with
> Commons community.

Sure, I want to discuss this with the community, don't worry about this. 
And I also see Wikimedia Commons as a well-maintained repository of good 
quality media.

But, if this WM Commons backend is implemented in ImageInOsm, we will 
not be responsible of what users upload under their own account. Keep in 
mind that it is possible to upload garbage through the regular web 
interface as well. The contributor is responsible, not the tool (and not 
the tool's maintainer either).

> Wikimedia Commons supports with over 3.5 Mio pictures also geocoding:
> https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Geocoding
> Each geocoded image gets also a link the description page to an OSM-map.
> (I'm the maintainer of this map-frontend.)
> Example map:
> https://toolserver.org/~kolossos/openlayers/commons-on-osm.php?zoom=16&lat=51.05&lon=13.73
>
> So geocoding is long-time stable, working for years and I can't see a
> benefit by using a reference to in-stable OSM-ID's. Perhaps you can
> explain the benefit you see.

Yes, unstability of OSM-id is a problem, with no simple solution 
unfortunately. But I still think that there is a value in linking a 
picture to its featured OSM objects. Geolocation (even associated with 
compass direction) is not as powerful in my opinion.

Regards
Gilles Bassière