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OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

blog.emacsen.net

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Re: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

#241

Post by donpdonp »

This was a wonderful post, thanks for the honesty and detail, emacsen.

What I'd like to see as far as a technical overhaul, is reimagining the entire thing as a 3D dataset. Needing to model a paper map is no longer the goal, modeling space in 3 dimentions seems to be the more exciting/useful way forward.

I'd like to have a model of my town in 3D, either at mostly manual low-poly resolution (aka minecraft) thats done by hand, or (though much more data intensive) with point cloud/lidar data.

Web pages can receive the 3d data and render a 2d model, or the server can project 3d onto 2d tiles before delivery.

Re: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

#242

Post by Vinnl »

jadavies wrote: post #220
makomk wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found OSMAnd quite buggy and temperamental, plus it heavily pushes you to the paid version if you want up to date maps (so you could effectively ending up paying a third party to access your own mapping work unreliably).

I use the paid for product but, from what I remember, you get the same maps with the free version. The difference between the two is that you're limited to 10 (?) maps download in the free version.

10 downloads through the app. You can download them yourself from their website and place them in the correct directory, and it will just work (and this is allowed and even mentioned somewhere).

Re: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

#243

Post by boxed »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #189
striking wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maps.me is pretty killer, though. The only issue I see with OSM is lack of traffic data. Generally when I drive with Google Maps, I already know the route but want Google to step in when there's traffic.

Mapbox's routing API applies traffic data to an OSM base.

Is there a general purpose mapbox based iOS map app out there?

Re: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

#244

Post by GlennS »

pbowyer wrote: post #108
andrewljohnson wrote: post #18

This post seems half right, half wrong. Wrong that OSM should be a service provider and not a database - I think it should be a database, and corporations are good for OSM. The post calls for OSM to essentially become Mapbox. It's insanely expensive to be Mapbox, and Mapzen just failed trying to be a less corporate version of Mapbox. And then the usage policy part of the article is moot or at least not that consequen…

> Probably right: OSM needs layers, or even a more sweeping re-architecture to allow better versioning, moderation, better tooling, and easier understanding of the data. I have a hobby site about railways [0] I'm picking up again after a decade of inactivity. I wanted to display a route map of each railway, with clickable stations and the route highlighted. I can not work out how to do that. OSM has the route and sta…

You might be interested in this article from Alessandro, the guy who makes Spatialite: https://www.gaia-gis.it/fossil/spatialite-tools/wiki?name=gr...

It talks about the errors in Open Street Map data, and the consequences of that for railway routing.

Re: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

#245

Post by stereo »

pornel wrote: post #53

I've tried to build an open check-in app based on OSM data, and I've ran into many of the problems mentioned in the article: • Tags and relations are a total mess. There are many different and overlapping schemes. There is obviously outdated/sub-standard data, but automated fixes are forbidden. There are some neat tools to make sense of the tag data, but ultimately I had to deal with all that mess and complexity on m…

I’m a member of OpenStreetMap’s data working group, but not speaking officially.

Neither automated edits nor imports are forbidden; they’re allowed with careful planning and consultation with the community.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Guidelines

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Automated_Edits_code_of_...

Re: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

#246

Post by tomaskafka »

lucb1e wrote: post #87
acabal wrote: post #15

I remember just a few years ago, I got a new phone and was interested in replacing as many Google apps with OSS maps that I could. (K9 instead of Google's mail app, etc.) Naturally I turned to OSM instead of Google Maps. But I was really surprised by how strange and difficult it was to install and use. As the author mentioned, OSM itself doesn't have any apps, which is very confusing. After some research I figured ou…

> Needless to say I quickly gave up on using OSM and turned back to Google Maps--and I'm their perfect use case, a skilled techie with a deep interest in using free software! I can't imagine trying to explain how to use OSM to my mom My mom got an iPhone gifted from my dad, so there's mistake number one (I don't know of any decent OSM apps on that proprietary platform), but for what it's worth, my non-technical girlf…

Here's an iOS + Android app that the company I work for makes - it uses OSM as a source, plus proprietary maps for Czech Republic (where we're based).

I believe it has one of nicest and most usable map keys for outdoor navigation:

https://windymaps.com/app

Re: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

#247

Post by wst_ »

rmc wrote: post #232
fludlight wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Openstreetmap is better for some things already Such as?

Do you like trains? Train nerds have made a detailed map ( https://www.openrailwaymap.org/ ) There are a few local specific maps ( Here's one in Welsh https://openstreetmap.cymru/ ) Interested in what shops/venues are wheelchair accessible? Wheelmap has you covered https://wheelmap.org/map#/?zoom=14 Kurviger is a routing service for motorcyclists. Pick a point, select a direction, and a distance, and it'll generate a…

You mean few small (relatively) communities did this for themselves, because it was obvious no one will think about them and in most cases ordinary user doesn't care much about their input. I am talking about an average map user, globally. If you want global coverage and relying on people to input data, then good luck. I do really like the idea and I wish with all my heart that people would be that generous with their time and effort but we have to face the truth - people don't care, people want a working and complete service. Unless there is some automation in place and free data exchange OSM will never be first choice for general public. Idea is beautiful, execution... Well, Tokyo city, population goes in millions, buildings and addresses not available farther than few blocks away from the train stations. You can see roads but roads in Japan have no meaning. And yes, I could input my house (just 10 minutes from station, blank point on map) but sad truth is, I am unable to input all of them and as you can see - people don't care. They just use Google Maps.

Re: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

#248

Post by 6487698hhhh »

petre wrote: post #216
voltagex_ wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How intensive is it to rasterise on demand?

Depends on the degree of complexity of the tiles. We tried it (using tilecache or tilestache and mapproxy) and it becomes unresponsive when you rasterize several tiles (9). It can take several secons for a busy tile. If the user gets impacient like I do, zooms in and out and pans the map, it freezes to a halt. It's doable over clear water and maybe on the highway, but not in busy cities, at least not with hundreds of…

Why not use vector tiles? I can generate a vector tile package of the whole planet in Esri .vtpk format and it takes up around 30Gb. A map service can be published from it easily. Takes me about 2 days for initial translation and about 1 week ti generate the vtpk. Neither of these have been optimised for speed. I have an old Galaxy S3 upstairs running an app that displays this vtpk - so I can have the entire world down to house level on my phone.

Re: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

#249

Post by 6487698hhhh »

aw3c2 wrote: post #236
petre wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just syncing the map data from osm regularly would require decent hardware We need servers with at least 24 CPU threads and 256 GB RAM and moving the data into PostGIS, region by region takes a week or two. Plus you manually have to fix the process when it just spits out an error and aborts after 15 hours of churning.

Have you tried imposm? Your process sounds magnitudes too slow.

Agreed. I can load with osm2pgsql on my home PC (AMD FX 8370, 32gb ram, 1tb SSD) in a couple of days, and that's generating 78 output layers. imposm is supposed to be faster still.

Re: OpenStreetMap Is in Trouble

#250

Post by 6487698hhhh »

nottorp wrote: post #138

I attempted to do an offline map with OSM/Mapbox/etc. I found out that it's a major bother even if you're willing to pay someone for the data. Project got canceled so I don't have a final opinion, but i'll avoid OSM next time...

We use Esri for rendering vector tiles and it works well.
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