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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

#131

Post by dingaling »

rmc wrote: post #110

Yahoo (remember them?) allowed OSMers to use their aerial imagery from 2007 till 2011. Microsoft has allowed OSMers to use Bing aerial since 2010, and to be honest, it's probably been the most beneficial contribution to OSM of the ones in the article. Also, Apple gave a talk at SotM about "working with the community" and demanded that that talk not be recorded (unlike all other talks thre) or shared with anyone else.…

Indeed the Bing imagery is one of the greatest non-financial gifts ever given by a technology company, regardless of motives.

When I started working on OSM about a decade ago my area was a greenish blur on the photo underlay and everything had to be manually positioned from GPX tracks. It took hours to map a street and given GPS error margins it was never certain to be exact.

Now anyone can log-in and start tracing roads / paths / buildings and it just takes a couple of physical visits to backfill the enumeration and names.

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

#132

Post by andygates »

muglug wrote: post #68
nextos wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OSM worked great for me on newly built streets in Cambridge UK, where Google Maps had zero cartography. The only major disadvantage of OSM-derived applications is the lack of real-time traffic information. Google Maps harvests data from phones inside cars and some car navigation systems. They also buy it from third parties. http://opentraffic.io/ is trying to do some data harvesting, but it's still not very good. Ano…

> OSM worked great for me on newly built streets in Cambridge UK, where Google Maps had zero cartography. Cambridge is incredibly atypical, though, given its large number of smart people without much money.

New builds are a target of opportunity for local mappers. There only need to be one or two in a medium city to spot these. It's a much more _fun_ activity than, say, maintaining POIs.

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

#133

Post by seren »

mwexler wrote: post #124

Maps are not just roads. POIS, transit rails, pedi paths all play a role,esp in cities. And OSM does well with path data but it's POI data is disappointing compared to Google. Transit stations are in the data but no info about what lines serve them. For eateries or stores, hours, menu focus, parking data is often part of Google POIs but is missing from OSM. All great reasons this data is not present, but that does li…

I do occasionally add opening hours to OSM but the interface is a bit clunky in id editor.

I would recommend using Street Complete, that has a really easy interface to add that kind of information to osm.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.westnordost...

It is in beta but still very useful, and does not feel like a beta (really stable)

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

#134

Post by yoz-y »

ethelward wrote: post #77
swiley wrote: 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.

I really like Maps.me, however the main issue for using OSM is search. It is quite slow and it does not handle all address formats well.

I think OSM is a great data source and I always try to contribute at least the business opening hours but it deserves a better application layer on top of it.

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

#135

Post by Vinnl »

Mediterraneo10 wrote: post #7
orblivion wrote: post #3

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.

> 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. There will always be room for individual contributions, because there are things that the big corporations do not care about. For example, many hiking trails and agricultural tracks good for cycling are missing from Google Maps because they simply do no…

> Another example is opening hours for shops.

Unfortunately, the dominance of Google Maps makes 1) more likely to happen for them - more likely even than 3) is going to happen for OSM. Or at least, that's what my gut feeling says.

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

#136

Post by fireattack »

Freak_NL wrote: post #130
fireattack wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you even get to this info page? I mean the "way" one. I tried to click/double-click the text "Kölner Dom" (which is how it works on GMaps) on https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/50.94132/6.95838 but it doesn't show anything.

On https://www.openstreetmap.org you mean? By using the 'query features' tool on the right (the pointer with the question mark), and then picking the object you want from the list of objects in that area. Other viewers of OSM data (like smartphone apps) can have different (sometimes easier) means of accessing that data. OSM is a database intended for use with many clients; https://www.openstreetmap.org is just one.

Thanks!

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

#137

Post by Moru »

t0mislav wrote: post #15
kerng wrote: post #5

This is great! Google has recently spiked fees drastically and it will be good to see more alternatives with high quality data

Because of that I needed to abandon Google Maps Api. But good thing is I learned how to download OSM data, generate and host my own maps.

Yeah, me too :-) Just got it running yesterday on my devbox. Still thinking of hireing Geofabrik to set up the real server when I'm done though.

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

#139

Post by jamesrcole »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #125
kqr wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 declined to do so, but that's your decision. This kind of patronizing attitude is unnecessary and silly. The vast majority of users of any software product are only interested in being just that: users. And that's totally okay. No need for passive-aggressive shaming.

The vast majority who make use of OSM data probably aren't even aware of what Open Street Map is, nor that they can contribute data to such a thing, or of how they could do so.
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