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Bing Maps Streetside Imagery Now Integrated into OpenStreetMap iD Editor

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Re: Bing Maps Streetside Imagery Now Integrated into OpenStreetMap iD Editor

#41

Post by sidr »

simula67 wrote: post #22

Good news. These types of data intensive apps ( Google search, Google Maps etc ) are one of the greatest threats to the open web because they make it very painful to switch to an alternate provider. Keeping this type of data open ( along with open data interchange formats ) could improve competition in service providers

It's actually trivially easy to switch from Google search and maps, just type in a different URL or change a setting on your browser. It's only "hard" because the alternatives are just not as good. The fact the the alternatives have to work so hard to stay competitive might suggest that open data intensive apps just aren't as good of a model for delivering quality content. We've seen this play out before with the iOS and Mac OS X hatred before tech folks turned from hating MS to Apple to now, Google/FB.

Re: Bing Maps Streetside Imagery Now Integrated into OpenStreetMap iD Editor

#42

Post by boise »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #21
alasdair_ wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. The title is pretty bad. All they are doing is displaying the data in one particular editor. It's like displaying google streetmaps in another window when you edited open streetmaps - there is no "contribution" of data at all.

This is not true. What you described would violate Google’s copyright on their mapping data (or the copyright owner they’ve licensed it from, depending on the data).

this +100000. The huge-ness of this contribution to making openstreetmap better is underscored by the fact that you're not allowed to do this with Google Street View (Section 10) https://developers.google.com/maps/terms

Re: Bing Maps Streetside Imagery Now Integrated into OpenStreetMap iD Editor

#43

Post by raesene9 »

49bc wrote: post #19
partiallypro wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is scarier than Microsoft was even in its peak. Google controls most of the world's information, can shape thoughts with search algorithms, can destroy businesses (including competitors) with changes in ad policies, bid processes and search algorithms. Microsoft at its peak could threaten suppliers and some competitors...Google can practically destroy any company/person in any vertical if it so chose.

> Google can practically destroy any company/person in any vertical if it so chose. Yet they don't. So either they're not as scary as "Microsoft was even at its peak", or maybe they're not as powerful as you make them out to be.

What makes you say they haven't? There have been many stories of search algorithm changes hurting businesses

http://www.smeinsider.com/2015/06/23/google-is-ruining-small...

for one

Re: Bing Maps Streetside Imagery Now Integrated into OpenStreetMap iD Editor

#44

Post by sangnoir »

earenndil wrote: post #26
partiallypro wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is scarier than Microsoft was even in its peak. Google controls most of the world's information, can shape thoughts with search algorithms, can destroy businesses (including competitors) with changes in ad policies, bid processes and search algorithms. Microsoft at its peak could threaten suppliers and some competitors...Google can practically destroy any company/person in any vertical if it so chose.

Aditionally, it's (mostly) possible to avoid contact with microsoft by simply not using their products. With google, you can't help their ads in webpages, their hosting the email or messaging services your friends use; if someone send me a docx file, I can open in libreoffice, if they send me a google doc, I can't avoid it.

> it's (mostly) possible to avoid contact with microsoft by simply not using their products

I don't know what your vocation is, but avoiding Windows, Office and/or Exchange is a choice a very large number of people cannot make.

Re: Bing Maps Streetside Imagery Now Integrated into OpenStreetMap iD Editor

#45

Post by cptskippy »

sangnoir wrote: post #44
earenndil wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aditionally, it's (mostly) possible to avoid contact with microsoft by simply not using their products. With google, you can't help their ads in webpages, their hosting the email or messaging services your friends use; if someone send me a docx file, I can open in libreoffice, if they send me a google doc, I can't avoid it.

> it's (mostly) possible to avoid contact with microsoft by simply not using their products I don't know what your vocation is, but avoiding Windows, Office and/or Exchange is a choice a very large number of people cannot make.

My boss asked me if I'd played around with VS Code the other day. I said "are you thinking about switching us to Macs?"

grumble

Re: Bing Maps Streetside Imagery Now Integrated into OpenStreetMap iD Editor

#46

Post by ris »

maxerickson wrote: post #37
afeezaziz wrote: post #36

I am operating a fleet of vehicles that have multiple cameras on them. I would like to contribute to an open source community that can have work with OSM, freely. Is there an option for this? Other than mapillary.

There's OpenStreetCam, but it isn't a whole lot different than Mapillary. I think it will be a while before there is a community project accepting many gigabytes of photos every day.

Many years ago (before the advent of OpenStreetCam or Mapillary) I proposed a federated scheme where various entities could obtain their own dirt-cheap http hosting (backblaze?) and simply submit indexes (or make available in an easily discoverable fashion) of the image metadata for centralized tools to pull together, but this was dismissed as lunacy.

I still don't think it would be too tricky to do and would nicely decouple the fundamental storage/hosting problem from all the other problems that might need solving.

What I thought was particularly interesting was how EXIF data tends to be near the beginning of a JFIF file which could allow "cheap" bulk scanning of jpeg metadata by using http 1.1 ranges.... who knows.

Re: Bing Maps Streetside Imagery Now Integrated into OpenStreetMap iD Editor

#47

Post by PkBuzios »

Piskvorrr wrote: post #39
gasull wrote: post #30

Is there a good Android app using OSM that will give me public transportation directions in the main cities of the world? Until them I'm stuck with Google Maps.

I think Maps.Me did something in that direction - but well, the quality of the underlying data varies wildly. Google can (and IMHO does) periodically pay for licensing the transport data, OSM doesn't do that (for cost and license compatibility, amongst other things). Not all PT authorities are amenable to open data :(

They are starting. You can get routing for Underground in some cities. But if you check OSM there is a lot of data. I think that all what is missing is a algorithm to make the routing.

Re: Bing Maps Streetside Imagery Now Integrated into OpenStreetMap iD Editor

#48

Post by Piskvorrr »

PkBuzios wrote: post #47
Piskvorrr wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Maps.Me did something in that direction - but well, the quality of the underlying data varies wildly. Google can (and IMHO does) periodically pay for licensing the transport data, OSM doesn't do that (for cost and license compatibility, amongst other things). Not all PT authorities are amenable to open data :(

They are starting. You can get routing for Underground in some cities. But if you check OSM there is a lot of data. I think that all what is missing is a algorithm to make the routing.

As an OSM contributor, I beg to differ. "Just an algorithm" needs to take into account all the different ways in which the data is input, guess at possible transfers (again, stops might be mapped, but are they reachable from each other?), and that's before we get to the issue of stale data (infrastructure might be mapped, but the line numbering and routing changes at a moment's notice).

So yeah, it looks easy at first glance.

Re: Bing Maps Streetside Imagery Now Integrated into OpenStreetMap iD Editor

#49

Post by esturk »

partiallypro wrote: post #12
ggg9990 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it’s an attack on Google Maps, and that’s a good thing. People should be happy to have Microsoft’s help in fighting Google because Google is much scarier than Microsoft these days.

Google is scarier than Microsoft was even in its peak. Google controls most of the world's information, can shape thoughts with search algorithms, can destroy businesses (including competitors) with changes in ad policies, bid processes and search algorithms. Microsoft at its peak could threaten suppliers and some competitors...Google can practically destroy any company/person in any vertical if it so chose.

You mean like ISPs? Oh wait, it can't. Please stop throwing this impression of Google's invincibility around. You know there are forces that Google can't even come close to defeating.
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