[OSM-talk] Simple improvement(s) to openstreetmap.org

[Paul Johnson]

On Wednesday, January 9, 2013, Joseph Reeves wrote:

> Ok, I'll bite...
>
> >I think this would be missing our audience.  If you're illiterate (a
> group Twitter caters specifically to), what are the >odds you're going to
> be able to make use of a map, much less contribute constructively to OSM?
>
> How do illiterate people use Twitter?
> Do illiterate people have no spatial knowledge that could be of use to the
> wider world? Is there no way that Open spatial data could help illiterate
> people?
>

It's nearly impossible, in the English-speaking world, to express an
intelligent thought in 140 characters or less.  It's writing system just
doesn't work that way.  And you lose characters to tags or links.  It's
like Google+ without the intelligence, or Facebook without any
functionality.


>
In my opinion OSM is going to really take off once we start making more use
> of social media, or other means of participation, such as SMS messaging
> (the sorts of things you couldn't do with closed spatial data, such as
> GMaps), and start thinking less of pixels on osm.org
>

So pick social media that doesn't cater exclusively to a crowd whose
education stopped midway through Grade 2.
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