[OSM-talk] Facebook mapping highways using AI in collaboration with OpenStreetMap

[Christoph Hormann]

On Friday 26 July 2019, stevea wrote:
> [...]
> However, does that mean that "nice tech" is tech which SHOULD be
> applied to OSM?  Some (Frederik, others) say no, or perhaps holds his
> nose as he watches it happen anyway.  Others, who might make an
> argument that applied AI tech has similar (economic) incentives to be
> applied to OSM in the same way that companies who rely on OSM (there
> are many) pay mappers to improve OSM's data for their corporate
> interests, have a point.  [...]
> I believe we can discuss this rationally.

I think none of the critics of corporate appropriation and exploitation 
of OSM here is opposed to rational discussion.  I have had plenty of 
valuable discussions on use of automated techniques in geodata 
analysis - both in the OSM context and outside of it.  But in the OSM 
context these never happened with corporate representatives.  Why? 
Because corporate culture tends to set extensive taboos around all the 
ethical and social questions that arise from these subjects when you 
discuss them in the context of OSM.  

If anyone could point me to any communication or writing from the 
corporate domain about use of either automated techniques or 
organized/paid mapping in OSM that seriously discusses the ethical and 
social questions that arise from it please do so.

If and when this happens then we can have a rational discussion.

-- 
Christoph Hormann
http://www.imagico.de/