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Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?

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Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?

#11

Post by TheJoeMan »

mwattsun wrote: post #8

I've enjoyed Google Maps for many years and never paid for it. Apple MapKit appears to be free. I improve the experience for others when I help improve the maps and in turn my experience is improved by the contributions of others. It's costs Google and Apple money to provide the infrastructure for this, which they obtain in various ways such as advertising. It doesn't bother me if someone wants to advertise their sto…

Question: if I contribute a fix to Google Maps or Apple Maps, does that fix back-propogate to OSM? My home address needs to be slightly shifted and wondering for best practice.

Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?

#12

Post by burkaman »

ydlr wrote: post #2

> They employ nobody in the OSM community. I imagine many of the employees that do the work mentioned in the article would consider themselves part of the OSM community.

Here's one example of a person employed by Apple to work on OSM: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/andrewwiseman

Facebook and Microsoft are also "Gold Corporate Members" of OSM which costs €10,000 / year, and they are "Corporate Partners" of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, which does employ people to directly work on OSM: https://www.hotosm.org/.

Also apparently "nearly 17% of the global road network was last edited by a corporate data-team member" (https://2020.stateofthemap.org/sessions/SPRQVZ/), and lots of people must be employed by corporations to make that happen, even if it's mostly automated edits.

Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?

#13

Post by burkaman »

cheeaun wrote: post #10

I’m curious to know if the companies that use OSM actually contribute back? Like fixing all the wrong/malicious data.

Yes: https://2020.stateofthemap.org/sessions/SPRQVZ/

> nearly 17% of the global road network was last edited by a corporate data-team member.

Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?

#15

Post by thepete2 »

TheJoeMan wrote: post #11
mwattsun wrote: post #8

I've enjoyed Google Maps for many years and never paid for it. Apple MapKit appears to be free. I improve the experience for others when I help improve the maps and in turn my experience is improved by the contributions of others. It's costs Google and Apple money to provide the infrastructure for this, which they obtain in various ways such as advertising. It doesn't bother me if someone wants to advertise their sto…

Question: if I contribute a fix to Google Maps or Apple Maps, does that fix back-propogate to OSM? My home address needs to be slightly shifted and wondering for best practice.

No and that is IMO the point of using OSM in the first place. The data is public and free for everyone and if you contribute there's the possibility of other services adopting your change. I know that mapbox integrates osm data, Google and Apple might too.

Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?

#16

Post by mikhailt »

cheeaun wrote: post #10

I’m curious to know if the companies that use OSM actually contribute back? Like fixing all the wrong/malicious data.

Yes, it is mentioned many times in the article itself; several paragraphs in fact.

Here is a few:

> Apple uses OSM data in parts of the world where their commercial partners don’t provide data. They are reasonably good at fixing and contributing data to OSM in those regions. They employ nobody in the OSM community.

> Microsoft Bing uses OSM in several regions, and is slowly moving from it’s traditional providers to OSM globally. They provide machine-learning (ML) datasets that they have computed from areal imagery. They employ nobody in the OSM community.

Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?

#17

Post by PragmaticPulp »

ydlr wrote: post #2

> They employ nobody in the OSM community. I imagine many of the employees that do the work mentioned in the article would consider themselves part of the OSM community.

Seems like circular reasoning:

Being a part of the OSM community means they aren’t employed by OSM as employees. If they employ the person, they’re no longer a community member but an employee.

I don’t actually see the issue.

Re: Should you contribute open data to OpenStreetMap?

#18

Post by jefftk »

zaik wrote: post #9

I contribute to OSM because I want to make alternatives to Google Maps like OsmAnd or Organicmaps more useful. That big players also use open data does not invalidate my reasons to contribute.

In fact, that big players also use it supports your reasons: everyone contributing back data helps make OSM more useful.
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