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How Facebook, Apple and Microsoft Are Contributing to OpenStreetMap

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Re: How Facebook, Apple and Microsoft Are Contributing to OpenStreetMap

#71

Post by donalhunt »

lucideer wrote: post #34

This is great, but I'm surprised to see Apple featured so prominently in the title here alongside Facebook and Microsoft. Apple has an internal volunteer programmer whereby employees can choose to spend their time contributing to OSM—part of employee benefits (which is nice), whereas Microsoft and Facebook are actually contributing mapping data the company has created/collected to OSM. Furthermore, just 2 of the 3 li…

The missing maps (https://www.missingmaps.org/) project is very popular in CSR programs around the world even if it's a bit "mechanical turk" for tech crowds.

Even google employees have contributed to the project by running internal mapathons in conjunction with organisations such as Médecins Sans Frontières...

Will be running some events in my current company in the coming weeks which will be fun!

Re: How Facebook, Apple and Microsoft Are Contributing to OpenStreetMap

#72

Post by Avamander »

agentdrtran wrote: post #65
nickysielicki wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second best? At least in my experience, OSM data is leaps and bounds better than Google Maps in every way possible, and it has been that way for a couple years now. The reason that I still use Google maps is that it's fast and well-integrated with my phone, and it has a lot of added features on top of the actual mapping that makes it very useful --- things like location sharing when you're on a longer road trip, crea…

Google Maps beats OSM with absolutely no content in regards to POI data and navigation.

Especially navigation. Google can plan my trip from start to end, perfectly. There's not a single OSM-based thing that comes even close.

Re: How Facebook, Apple and Microsoft Are Contributing to OpenStreetMap

#73

Post by orblivion »

fireattack wrote: post #57
nickysielicki wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second best? At least in my experience, OSM data is leaps and bounds better than Google Maps in every way possible, and it has been that way for a couple years now. The reason that I still use Google maps is that it's fast and well-integrated with my phone, and it has a lot of added features on top of the actual mapping that makes it very useful --- things like location sharing when you're on a longer road trip, crea…

My problem with OSM, besides the lack of satellite layer, is that it doesn't seem to offer any (detailed) info of landmarks - just the name, sometimes not even that: for example, some churches are just marked with a cross.

If you want to try something really fun, install OSMAnd and download the Wikipedia maps, and then enable them I think in the "layers" option. I don't even think that's OSM data, I think it's geocoded Wikipedia articles. They show up on your map, and you can click on them and read them all offline.

Re: How Facebook, Apple and Microsoft Are Contributing to OpenStreetMap

#74

Post by logicallee »

webreac wrote: post #44
detuur wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is exactly the point. Translation is a real-world problem. You need to actively go into the real world, find problem cases, make your translation software translate it, make your own translation, compare the translations, teach your software to translate it correctly, and hope that your approach is good enough. The real-world constraint of translation software is building a sizeable quality corpus of real-world…

Since they are using this strategy, translation of idioms is terrible. I have switched translate.

To what?

Re: How Facebook, Apple and Microsoft Are Contributing to OpenStreetMap

#75

Post by richforrester »

Our HR department wouldn't let me give proper feedback. Even though I've had some people that, with a little tweak to their knowledge, or a slight shift in thinking, could become great hires.

There's tonnes of candidates out there that just lack something small, or are slightly less ideal than someone else... yet still have all the raw talent and potential in the world.

But you can't always hire them because you don't have the resources to up-skill them efficiently. Or you need someone that can more readily contribute to a project.

I've certainly got some people in mind whom I'd love to contact as soon as I start at a different employer, to drag them on board if said employer had the resources to properly develop them.

Ah well.

Re: How Facebook, Apple and Microsoft Are Contributing to OpenStreetMap

#77

Post by ethelward »

swiley wrote: post #51
nickysielicki wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Second best? At least in my experience, OSM data is leaps and bounds better than Google Maps in every way possible, and it has been that way for a couple years now. The reason that I still use Google maps is that it's fast and well-integrated with my phone, and it has a lot of added features on top of the actual mapping that makes it very useful --- things like location sharing when you're on a longer road trip, crea…

I only use google maps because the goecoding is a lot and I think the routing is done on their computers which makes it a lot faster. Plus finding good OSM apps is hard.

Maps.me, Karta, Osmand.

Re: How Facebook, Apple and Microsoft Are Contributing to OpenStreetMap

#78

Post by confounded »

richforrester wrote: post #75

Our HR department wouldn't let me give proper feedback. Even though I've had some people that, with a little tweak to their knowledge, or a slight shift in thinking, could become great hires. There's tonnes of candidates out there that just lack something small, or are slightly less ideal than someone else... yet still have all the raw talent and potential in the world. But you can't always hire them because you don'…

Wrong thread, perhaps.

Re: How Facebook, Apple and Microsoft Are Contributing to OpenStreetMap

#79

Post by femto »

Moru wrote: post #58
usuallymatt wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mileage varies depending on where you live. I really like the idea of OSM and have tried it on and off for years but it's abysmal for my city. Post code searches come up wrong and my own home address places the map marker the other side of town from my house. Google Maps has been accurate every time I've used it and I've never had any issues. I can't really trust OSM as an accurate source over Google Maps right now b…

It's open for you to make the changes nessessary. It's only as good as it's editors and there isn't that many that can dedicate a lot of time to mapping. Thank you all that does!

This actually does work. I went though a phase of keen mapping and entered detailed information for my local area, especially for things off road. (Triggered by OSM becoming rubbish when the license changed most of the Australian data was removed.) Consequently for the last 6 years OSM is my fist stop for anything to do with my local area. Hopefully others have seen a benefit too.

It's always interesting to see where my OSM data pops up, as I mapped a number of obscure cliff lines in in accessible bush, which are quite a distinctive feature. For example, participating in rogaining or orienteering events and realising that I drew the base map 4 years before!

Re: How Facebook, Apple and Microsoft Are Contributing to OpenStreetMap

#80

Post by BookmarkSaver »

ucaetano wrote: post #8
nugget wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google recently hiked enterprise license fees for access to translation services pretty substantially. I wonder if we'll see similar competitive momentum in that market.

Most likely, yes. But translation services are far easier to enter than mapping.

Far easier to enter, because so far there isn't a single one that is more than vaguely useful. As far as I'm aware, there isn't really much business at all for translation because at the end of the day, if you want it done anywhere close to correctly, you have to hire someone that actually knows both languages.
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