[OSM-talk] Admin boundaries - data consumers

[Jochen Topf]

On Sat, Nov 09, 2013 at 03:25:35PM +0000, Rob Nickerson wrote:
> A few days ago there was a thread about the pros/cons of moving admin
> boundaries to a new database. I'm not going to give my opinion on this as
> the thread has now fizzled out, but I will suggest that decisions like this
> should involve as many of our end data users as possible (we have moved
> beyond a small isolated project).
> 
> One such user is mySoicety. Check out the video of their MapIt Global talk
> at http://lanyrd.com/2013/sotm/scpkhg/ to see how they use boundaries from
> OSM.
> 
> Perhaps some way of tracking our data consumers would be useful. Or maybe
> we need a way for them to say which tags they are interested in so that
> they can receive mail just about these.

That's the wrong way around. If you are using OSM data it is your job to keep
abreast of developments in OSM. A volunteer project like OSM can't keep track
of all their "customers" the way a commercial company might. That's not to
say that we should change things willy-nilly, we should announce changes
beforehand etc. But we do that on our mailing lists etc. And yes, that puts
a lot of burden on the users of OSM data, but they get it for free, so there.
(Of course there are companies who will do this job for you, ie follow OSM
development while maintaining stable data formats etc. to their customers.)

Jochen
-- 
Jochen Topf  jochen at remote.org  http://www.jochentopf.com/  +49-721-388298