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Openstreetmap is having a moment

joemorrison.medium.com

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Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#91

Post by stereo »

rathel wrote: post #41
joejoebags wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a nitpick at all--interesting observation. Can you think of a better metric by which to measure contributions? (I'm truly asking out of ignorance)

You may have a look at http://hdyc.neis-one.org/?Stereo to try and find metrics relevant to you (example profile, to retain privacy profiles are hidden behind an OSM account login-wall, unless said user links to that page in their OSM profile site, which this example user did) One great metric is mapping days (distinct calendar days in which the user was active) which sort of abstracts the fact that different people…

I feel like somebody's watching me :p

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#92

Post by TheGrassyKnoll »

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.

Let me assure you that, in general, dogs are way better people than humans.

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#93

Post by urbandw311er »

Google has some pretty aggressive terms when it comes to mapping: if you obtain data from any of their routing APIs, you are literally forbidden from displaying that route on an OSM map, it can only be displayed on a Google Map.

I’ve always found that a bit mean and not really in the spirit of interoperability.

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#94

Post by SulfurHexaFluri »

labawi wrote: post #88
SulfurHexaFluri wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 A few years ago I started contributing heavily to OSM and found that a lot of the data was out of date or missing. I made some really good maps of my local area but now a few years later a lot of that data is out of date and no one will bother to update it.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…

When businesses realize people actually use OSM and updates are 10x easier, they will make sure to keep it up to date, for the same reasons. OSM actually needs less popularity to stay up to date, it's just not there (yet).

Do people really use OSM for POI data on any meaningful scale? I tried really hard to use OSM but all the apps were really bad. OSMAnd seemed like the best one but it was super slow rendering on my phone while everything else was snappy.

The only use I have seen for OSM data is in 3rd party apps like strava where you only really need street data which is pretty accurate on OSM. Or other specialized cases where you mostly provide your own data.

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#95

Post by sliken »

mxskelly wrote: post #13

"If you’ve ever ... peaked at the dash of your obnoxious neighbor’s new Tesla…you’ve used OSM." 1. peeked, not peaked 2. Teslas do not use OSM for the on-screen maps. They use Google maps. Tesla only uses OSM for the data regarding parking lot layouts for the automatic parking features, nothing else.

I've heard that claimed. But on several occasions tesla owners have found a problem with nav, found the error on OSM, fixed it, and 1-2 months later the Tesla picks up change. From what I can tell Tesla pays some 3rd party to help improve their maps, and apparently on of the data feeds the 3rd party uses is OSM.

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#96

Post by m463 »

dmitriid wrote: post #60
samcrawford wrote: post #40

After I did a Show HN about my OSM-powered project ( https://trailrouter.com ), I saw first hand a little of the positive impact of large corporate involvement in OSM. Two of the very large companies mentioned in the article got in touch with me to find out what what could be done to improve the state of data in OSM useful for pedestrian routing. They were conscious that a disproportionate amount of effort went into…

> After I did a Show HN about my OSM-powered project ( https://trailrouter.com ), This is just amazing! I immediately bookmarked and sent it to friends. But I'm not a runner myself, I prefer bikes :) Do you perchance know of something similar for bikes? Though in Sweden, where I live right now, Trail Router would work very well for bikes, too, especially outside cities.

lot of telemetry

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#97

Post by rathel »

jillesvangurp wrote: post #76
adrianb wrote: post #50

It's interesting that all the big tech companies except Google are invested in OSM, but at the same time none of them bought one of the classic, "traditional" digital map makers - Here Maps formerly Nokia, formerly NavTeq and TomTom formerly TeleAtlas. They would certainly have the budget so I wonder why they weren't interested? Do they think it's better to pool their resources into one digital map data source? Are t…

I worked at Nokia in the maps unit around the time that MS tried to leverage OSM and ended up licensing maps from Navteq. Trust me, everybody was very interested in OSM but also very aware of the legalities of that. Google started building its own maps in response to Nokia first buying Navteq (in 2006, which Google was depending on at the time) and subsequently offering free navigation on the N95 (S60) and later phon…

> The dilemma these companies have is wanting to keep those things proprietary and OSM not really allowing for bundling proprietary and open data

Provided you attribute OSM data, you can slice across horizontal layers and country borders. [1]

> I'd argue Here maps is a lot less attractive these days then it was when Nokia bought Navteq (which became Here later). It's still alright for car navigation but that's just one niche application of maps these days.

The silver lining here is that limiting scope lowers the effort needed. Much of OSM edits go beyond road network.

[1] https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Community_Guidel...

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#98

Post by m463 »

sleavey wrote: post #44

I can understand why the tech giants are getting involved in mapping. There are some really cool things being built with OSM and other data, like OpenRouteService [1] (Google Maps navigation for OSM), OpenTopoMap [2] (space shuttle topological data overlaid as contours on OSM), ORBIS [3] (Google Maps navigation for the Roman road network), and loads of detailed maps using OSM data directly but with a particular purpo…

This may sound silly, but I would use osm + routing more if it had better support for english units (miles/lbs).

I wonder if that's not a slight barrier to entry to participate in the community.

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#99

Post by [deleted] »

matli wrote: post #54
adrianb wrote: post #50

It's interesting that all the big tech companies except Google are invested in OSM, but at the same time none of them bought one of the classic, "traditional" digital map makers - Here Maps formerly Nokia, formerly NavTeq and TomTom formerly TeleAtlas. They would certainly have the budget so I wonder why they weren't interested? Do they think it's better to pool their resources into one digital map data source? Are t…

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.

[deleted]

Re: Openstreetmap is having a moment

#100

Post by m463 »

mxskelly wrote: post #13

"If you’ve ever ... peaked at the dash of your obnoxious neighbor’s new Tesla…you’ve used OSM." 1. peeked, not peaked 2. Teslas do not use OSM for the on-screen maps. They use Google maps. Tesla only uses OSM for the data regarding parking lot layouts for the automatic parking features, nothing else.

yes there's a google watermark on all maps displayed
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