Disclaimer #1 I’m not used to speak english anymore, I apologize if some sentences sound clunky.

Disclaimer #2 Last time I added pictures in the diary post, they would not always show up. Click on the link if it happens.

Introduction

So now, I’d like to start with a provocative joke :

Marck Zuck. comes into his office and asks his colleagues :

– Hey, do you know why there’s a magnifying glass on the OpenStreetMap logo ?

– Well, it means that OpenStreetMap helps you find places and amenities on the map.

– Not a all ! It’s because you won’t notice the credits without one.

Text Vs Logo

My point is that OpenStreetMap lacks a strong visual identity. I believe I started to notice it when I read some Facebook employee saying that a logo would be easier to credit on a map than the (c) openstreetmap contributors. 🤨

Dishonesty aside, he makes a point. The (not so) new OSM logo is gorgeous and deserve more consideration and would help OSM maps being more recognizable and popular. In times where we are constantly facing pictures, logos, visuals, a brand/company/project/whatever need a clear visual identity to exist in our digital world. The actual text only credit looks like good oldies websites.

Besides, sometimes, OSM credit is in competition with some other logo. I was thinking of Mapbox but I couldn’t find an example with an OpenStreetMap map.

a fair credit between the two projects

the logo will draw attention and outshine osm text credit

To me, OSM should definitely impose the logo as a way of crediting.

Mock-ups

I came to wonder how it’d look like to embed the logo on a map. Here is some mock-ups.

http://lysios.free.fr/osm/blog/attribution/mockup1.png

http://lysios.free.fr/osm/blog/attribution/mockup2.png

http://lysios.free.fr/osm/blog/attribution/mockup3.png

http://lysios.free.fr/osm/blog/attribution/mockup4.png

http://lysios.free.fr/osm/blog/attribution/mockup5.png

http://lysios.free.fr/osm/blog/attribution/mockup6.png

http://lysios.free.fr/osm/blog/attribution/mockup7.png

Some thoughts

My preference goes to number 3. Several reasons :

• The word contributor appears and give the idea this map is collaborative and credits all the little ants that survey the world.
• The copyleft symbol 🄯 is important. If we, builders of the free world do not promote this way of thinking, who else will ?
• a small text Digital Commons. Improve the map for all’s benefit linking to https://learnosm.org/en/beginner/start-osm/ to bring forth the openness of OSM and lead newcomers.

Note about the copyleft symbol. I’ve been told that it would be complicated to use because it is not well rendered by unicode yet. To me, it is not a problem if you make the credit a .svg logo.

The problem, though, is that it takes some place. Too much ? One cannot complain that text-only attribution is discrete. Maybe we could fix this : (click to open the svg version and click to unfold the logo)

• Small

• Standard

Facebook and the others

Let’s resolve Facebook issue :

• Current small map

• fixed

• Current big map
• fixed

Easy Peasy

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What do you think ?