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Openstreetmap is having a moment

joemorrison.medium.com

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Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#101

Post by BMSmnqXAE4yfe1 »

SulfurHexaFluri wrote: post #67
matli wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the issues for the traditional map makers is their ability to keep up with updates. It requires a massive infrastructure to quickly discover and submit all the small changes that goes on in the real world all the time. One of the few viable ways is crowdsourcing. So over time, the traditional maps degrades in quality, while OSM continuously gets better.

Does OSM continuously get better faster than it gets worse? A few years ago I started contributing heavily to OSM and found that a lot of the data was out of date or missing. I made some really good maps of my local area but now a few years later a lot of that data is out of date and no one will bother to update it. Google and Apple maps have the advantage that businesses will go and update their own data because its…

And there are a lot more businesses than there are OSM enthusiasts, so actually Google maps get much more crowdsourced data.

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#102

Post by spenrose »

When I spoke at the Open Source Conference Albania[1], I met a dozen Albanian young adults for whom OSM was an important bridge to developing professional technology skills. Kudos to OSM for providing a wonderful platform for personal growth in communities where it is desperately needed.

[1] https://oscal.openlabs.cc

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#104

Post by gwern »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #35

As a long-time OSM contributor (former editing software maintainer, former OSM Foundation board member yadda yadda) I like this piece, because it actually gets the "mutual aid" dynamic between corporate OSM and enthusiast OSM. The two should not be opposed. Rather, the more people are exposed to OSM via Facebook, Apple and so on, the more enthusiast contributors OSM gets. The more rendering tech that Mapbox releases…

> As a long-time OSM contributor (former editing software maintainer, former OSM Foundation board member yadda yadda) I like this piece, because it actually gets the "mutual aid" dynamic between corporate OSM and enthusiast OSM.

The phrase 'commoditize your complement' ( https://www.gwern.net/Complement ) is probably better known than 'mutual aid' as a description of why OSM gets all this corporate buyin from Facebook, Apple, etc.

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#105

Post by [deleted] »

gwern wrote: post #104
Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #35

As a long-time OSM contributor (former editing software maintainer, former OSM Foundation board member yadda yadda) I like this piece, because it actually gets the "mutual aid" dynamic between corporate OSM and enthusiast OSM. The two should not be opposed. Rather, the more people are exposed to OSM via Facebook, Apple and so on, the more enthusiast contributors OSM gets. The more rendering tech that Mapbox releases…

> As a long-time OSM contributor (former editing software maintainer, former OSM Foundation board member yadda yadda) I like this piece, because it actually gets the "mutual aid" dynamic between corporate OSM and enthusiast OSM. The phrase 'commoditize your complement' ( https://www.gwern.net/Complement ) is probably better known than 'mutual aid' as a description of why OSM gets all this corporate buyin from Faceboo…

[deleted]

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#107

Post by joejoebags »

oh_sigh wrote: post #32
joejoebags wrote: post #23

Hello, HN. On the rare occasion my writing has appeared on the front page, the tone of some anonymous commenters has left me feeling indignant. Last time, someone called me a dog. Please keep in mind that a fellow human wrote this piece! You don't have to be nice, but at least be constructive.

Surely they were just making a wild assumption, because I've been informed that on the internet, no one knows you're a dog.

They made an educated guess—-and they were right.

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#108

Post by mixmastamyk »

SulfurHexaFluri wrote: post #67
matli wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the issues for the traditional map makers is their ability to keep up with updates. It requires a massive infrastructure to quickly discover and submit all the small changes that goes on in the real world all the time. One of the few viable ways is crowdsourcing. So over time, the traditional maps degrades in quality, while OSM continuously gets better.

Does OSM continuously get better faster than it gets worse? A few years ago I started contributing heavily to OSM and found that a lot of the data was out of date or missing. I made some really good maps of my local area but now a few years later a lot of that data is out of date and no one will bother to update it. Google and Apple maps have the advantage that businesses will go and update their own data because its…

Rather than contribute heavily and then walk away for years, it would make more sense to pace yourself and do a little bit every month or so.

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#109

Post by splonk »

afandian wrote: post #14

I had to look up "having a moment" in American. In British English it means being distracted, having a brain-fade, being a bit down. I think this article probably means the opposite...

As a AmEng speaker, I think of "having a moment" as being a fairly recent idiom, maybe from the past decade or so. My personal classification of it is that it's used by the same generation that uses "bae", "cray", "totes", "YOLO", and terms of similar vintage.

I have no idea if that's true or I'm just out of touch, but that's my impression of the phrase. Basically I feel like I tend to see it in titles of thinkpieces about newly popular things from people who are around 30.

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#110

Post by muyuu »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #35

As a long-time OSM contributor (former editing software maintainer, former OSM Foundation board member yadda yadda) I like this piece, because it actually gets the "mutual aid" dynamic between corporate OSM and enthusiast OSM. The two should not be opposed. Rather, the more people are exposed to OSM via Facebook, Apple and so on, the more enthusiast contributors OSM gets. The more rendering tech that Mapbox releases…

thanks for the contributions to OSM

I'd like to know if there are practical points of conflict between corporations and the community, including but not limited to map consensus discrepancies.

Also, is the openness of OSM in danger in the long term? Could a dependency appear that would close down the body of data generated in the past?

Regards

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