[OSM-talk] New mailing list about machine learning and OSM

[Christoph Hormann]

On Thursday 27 June 2019, Felix Delattre via talk wrote:
> >
> > No problem with creating a new thematic mailing list here but the
> > above is somewhat insulting to those who have in the past discussed
> > bot mapping in OSM on a serious level.
>
> I don't think that ML = bot mapping. At least this is not what I
> would like to use ML techniques for. And I also don't think this is
> in any close to the spirit of OSM.

But it is likely the most widespread application in OSM so far and also 
probably the most widely discussed use case.

> For me "automated statistics" for most cases seems to be a good way
> to refer to what others call nowadays AI. Because it describes closer
> to what is happening there. I'm really not a big fan of hyped
> buzzwords. An Artificial Intelligence - which deserves the term - in
> my opinion has not been achieved at all.

All these terms contain a subjective high level characterization via 
analogy to other techniques or processes.  To me the term 'neural 
network' would seem the most neutral of the frequently used ones.  You 
could take this a step further by speaking of 'self-adjusting general 
purpose algorithms'.

But machine learning for the name of the mailing list is fine.  In OSM 
we know to distinguish between a label (like a tag) and its meaning.

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