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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

#91
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Karta

Contains ads, in app purchases

Hmm...

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

#92
post #42

I want to try openstreetmap, whats the best client available for android? (Pref. f-droid)

I use both osmAnd and Maps.me from the fdroid store.

Maps.me: https://f-droid.org/app/com.github.axet.maps

osmAnd has a ton of features. maps is more basic but is better for navigation since it has a 3d option

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

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I was way wrong. It's under "Configure map" and then "POI Overlay...".

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

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With auto-discovery of routes, Google might be picking up the most popular routes, but that does that does not mean they are the best ones. For example, on Strava heatmaps you can frequently see routes that are heavily cycled, but they might also be extremely stressful because one has to share the road with traffic. In fact, most cyclists might only be using them because they are sports cyclists with very thin tires…

Funny you should mention Albania: It's exactly where I learned never to doubt Google Maps. Specifically, never to assume that "It's like ten meters between these two points... I don't see a reason why we would need to go all the way around". (There was a 30m deep gorge) More to the point: Given enough position data, Google should be able to assess all those road parameters you mention, far better than manual entry co…

> (There was a 30m deep gorge)

which may well have been explicitly marked, tagged with depth information, in OSM.

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

#95

Seems like OSM has a future. This is great. Only sad thing is perhaps some day we won't be able to have the fun of making contributions ourselves, if the big companies handle all that for us like Google does. In the mean time, though, I can make an easier case to people as to why they should care about this, since it's now used by Apple and Pokémon Go.

Why wouldn’t it have a future? We use it quite a lot in the European public sector where we can’t use google maps because of privacy issues.

We’ve written a small app that does route calculations for us to make reporting business related driving (you get a refund, but that has to be taxed in specific ways) an automated process. We use OSM in that, but we do pay a company to do the routing algorithm and supply the data in a way that doesn’t abuse the standard OSM api. I’m not sure exactly how they do that, I think they host part of OSM or something like that. There is a big industry for small companies which are specialized in those things in Europe, and they are typically cheaper and easier to use than google.

We also rely heavily on OSM in our GIS department, where we have our own private maps, though they aren’t so much for traffic we have been building our own “street-view” thing, using OSM and our own 360 images.

The disadvantage of OSM is actually the submission process, like if a street is wrong, and you supply the correct information, it’s not always accepted right away. Which is a huge issue if you rely on it for something serious. That hasn’t been an issue for us for two years though, but we did have one week where an elected official couldn’t submit his driving because of a wrong one-way street.

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

#96
post #2

This is competitive pressures at work, similarly to IBM and other's investment in Linux in the early 2000's as a way to place competitive pressure on MS/Windows. If you're not the leader in the field, and won't be able to catch up just by investing, you try to make the leadership in the field (Google's) irrelevant. If the 2nd-best-by-small-margin base map info is open, having the best one isn't a competitive advantag…

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…

Just another reply saying "OSM is completely useless where I live".

If I enter my street address into Google Maps, it shows my house. If I enter it into OSM it says "No results found" and can't even figure out what country or city I am in.

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

#98

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…

Just another reply saying "OSM is completely useless where I live". If I enter my street address into Google Maps, it shows my house. If I enter it into OSM it says "No results found" and can't even figure out what country or city I am in.

At least you were given the chance of improving it. You declined to do so, but that's your decision.

In a similar situation with Google Maps, you wouldn't even have been given the opportunity.

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

#100
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just another reply saying "OSM is completely useless where I live". If I enter my street address into Google Maps, it shows my house. If I enter it into OSM it says "No results found" and can't even figure out what country or city I am in.

At least you were given the chance of improving it. You declined to do so, but that's your decision. In a similar situation with Google Maps, you wouldn't even have been given the opportunity.

You can add missing places (including private property) to Google Maps, but I've never had an issue where I needed to do that.
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