[OSM-talk] Some thoughts against remote mapping

[Arun Ganesh]

> Not at all. I'm asking a contributor who feels that his local
community is not very strong if there's anything specific he thinks
could improve things.

The very simple answer is that most people who know English and can afford
a smartphone already use Google maps which work reasonably well in India.
OSM is atleast 10 years behind in coverage and there is just a handful like
me who have the luxury of free time who can see the long term benefits of
contributing to open source. To the rest, they already have working maps,
so why bother.

What is changing the scenario is some popular classified services switching
to OSM, but they do this at a big risk, because the data is really poor.
Another is the recent open source policy approved by the government which
makes gives localized open source software the preference in new
e-governance applications. Also the education system is looking at mapping
as an activity for learning about computers and the environment.

Change is happening, but its going to take a few years till there is
visible traction in community growth.

-- 
(planemad) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Planemad>
 <http://j.mp/ArunGanesh>
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