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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

#171

Post by maxerickson »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #169
Pinus wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, have you looked into what data is missing? Is the house (or at least the street) mapped, but missing the street name or the house number (assuming you live somewhere where these are relevant), or is the street completely missing?

OSM doesn't support/understand the street numbering scheme used in my country. If I rewrite my address in the format OSM thinks I should be using, then at least it can find the street I am on. But I'm not going to write addresses differently just for one website...especially when Google Maps understands how we write addresses.

You mean the search box doesn't handle it well?

How does https://photon.komoot.de/ do?

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

#172

Post by diegoperini »

seren wrote: post #121
golfer wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Citation please? What do base your statement of fact on?

OSM is generally richer in term of what can be documented. For example, you can describe a bench, how many seat it has, what color is it, is it in metal, wood or stone, and so on. This is not necessarily displayed on osm.org, but could be on a more specialized app using osm dataset. For example compare the two following areas : https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/41.88846/12.49110 https://www.google.com/maps/@41.88…

Not that I don't believe in your claim (I really prefer to live in world where OSM is better) but isn't how you form your argument is a kind of confirmation bias?

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

#173

Post by freddie_mercury »

maxerickson wrote: post #171
freddie_mercury wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OSM doesn't support/understand the street numbering scheme used in my country. If I rewrite my address in the format OSM thinks I should be using, then at least it can find the street I am on. But I'm not going to write addresses differently just for one website...especially when Google Maps understands how we write addresses.

You mean the search box doesn't handle it well? How does https://photon.komoot.de/ do?

Yes, it works. Well, it is missing the location but it at least understands the format. What is it doing differently from the OSM site?

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

#174

Post by freddie_mercury »

rmc wrote: post #170
freddie_mercury wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OSM doesn't support/understand the street numbering scheme used in my country. If I rewrite my address in the format OSM thinks I should be using, then at least it can find the street I am on. But I'm not going to write addresses differently just for one website...especially when Google Maps understands how we write addresses.

Hi, I'm a long time OSMer, and I'd like to help. OSM has a flexible tagging system, so it could be possible to map your addresses the way they should be. You shouldn't have to shoe-horn things into a schema that doesn't fit you. Which country are you in?

I am in Vietnam. Here are the problems:

Addresses here are written like "220/9 xo viet nghe tinh", which means "go to 220 on Xo Viet Nghe Tinh and turn into the alley there, go to #9 in the alley".

Typing "220/9 xo viet nghe tinh" into OSM results in "No results found". Instead I have to write "hem 220/9 xo viet nghe tinh" for it to find the road; no one writes it that way.

A house address would be "220/9/14 xo viet nghe tinh" meaning "go to 220 on Xo Viet Nghe Tinh and turn into the alley there; go to #9 and turn into the next alley you find there; then go to house #14".

The only way OSM can figure things out is if I write it like "14 hem 220/9 xo viet nghe tinh"

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

#175

Post by maxerickson »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #173
maxerickson wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean the search box doesn't handle it well? How does https://photon.komoot.de/ do?

Yes, it works. Well, it is missing the location but it at least understands the format. What is it doing differently from the OSM site?

It's different software.

openstreetmap.org uses Nominatim:

https://github.com/openstreetmap/Nominatim

The photon link uses Photon:

https://github.com/komoot/photon

Nominatim processes OSM data, associating items of interest with features like town boundaries that enclose the item, or place markers that are nearby, and then is also a fairly pedantic search interface for that data.

Photon takes the data that Nominatim generates and sticks a more flexible search on top of it.

Checking for/creating an issue for Nominatim describing the address format that doesn't work well would be a useful thing to do, as global support is a goal there.

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

#176

Post by BrandoElFollito »

nickysielicki wrote: post #18
ucaetano wrote: 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…

I once reported an issue with a stadium in my city. I bike in front of it twice a day. The issue was that it was licated on the wrong side of the road.

They said that they checked and it is ok. I asked them how they did this because, well, I actually see the place twice a day. They said that they have ways to check (or smthg like that).

I then sent M their own stree view link and screenshot. Not good enough. So I have up, I do not need the gps to bike there twice a day.

Two years later, suddenly it was approved.

All my corrections are now approved automatically (within an hour or so) so they may have improved.

I also told them to check on OSM where I also updated some information about the surroundings :)

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

#177

Post by richforrester »

confounded wrote: post #78
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.

That's embarrassing.
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