OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap is an amazing project, bringing some extremely dedicated cartographers and new users wanting to add their street to the most detailed map available. To make it even better, it is all freely available and is not restricted by a giant corporation, which makes the data ethical and extremely easy to use.
The data becomes particularly helpful in cases of disaster, where humanitarians require up-to-date data after 50% of the roads were destroyed after an earthquake, or villages were flattened after a tsunami, etc. Satellite data is great for understanding what has happened, but a simple map is much better for navigation.
This is what makes OpenStreetMap great, because it isn’t tied down to profit targets or any corporate goals. It simply wants to grow and improve. The actual map that we see when we visit OpenStreetMap has grown at an absolutely incredible rate, and the increase in server capacity is allowing users to upload more precise ways with more detailed tags, allowing people to search very easily for a certain place or a category of place…that part about the searching doesn’t sound right. As the word of OpenStreetMap spreads, more users will come to visit the site, and although this a simple prediction, I believe the majority of new users won’t be coming to edit the map - they just want to search it to find somewhere.
At the moment, if you visit Wikipedia you’ll notice that one of the map providers has a lot of orange. Yep, OpenStreetMap. This is sort of a good thing, because it means that it is possible to get directions, or print off a map, or view the map in 3D. However, none of that is integrated into the main service, and that is a necessity if OpenStreetMap is to attract more customers. I know one of the general themes of the community is that we must use satellite data only for editing, and that the map comes first, but we must grab this opportunity to become a competitor with the major map providers. Directions are possible to integrate, and with the large number of developers that are part of the OpenStreetMap community we can make the directions feature rival or beat those of competitors. Printing the map is an extremely simple feature to integrate, but yet it isn’t present. As for a 3D view, that is quite a difficult thing to create. However, I believe the talent that is the iD development team would be able to whip up a program that quite easily allows you to upload 3D renderings of buildings, and then drag-and-dropping the building onto a location. No doubt it would be a challenge, but this community is great at challenges.
As a little side note, the picture of an iPad above was not just because it a common device, but also because it is a mobile device. The mobile view of OpenStreetMap is good, but not great. It would be so much better if OSMF were able to reform their development team, and produce a dedicated OpenStreetMap app for all devices, with features such as offline maps, directions, and the ability to save directions to the cloud from one device, which then pops up on another device.
A summary of my proposals: 1. Integrate many little features to make OSM on par with competitors on features 2. Integrate directions into OSM so that we provide the greatest directions available 3. Reform the development team and create a dedicated OpenStreetMap for all devices 4. Improve the accuracy of search results by a huge amount
Discussion
Comment from The La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo on 30 May 2014 at 17:47
I’ve always agreed with this, but most of the people developing OSM work for companies. If these services were baked into osm.org, then those companies would likely have issues.
As someone else put it, you can go in that direction and end OSM’s commercial prospects or try to make osm.org’s purpose (that it is for mappers only) as clear as possible.
Comment from Tordanik on 30 May 2014 at 18:02
There’s also the issue of getting the millions of $€£ per year that are required to serve a big customer base. Maybe donations or something would work, but we don’t really know that.
Comment from yvecai on 30 May 2014 at 20:54
Humm .. ‘Reform the development team ‘. I hope the devs out there that are doing work around OSM spend a nice week-end.
The ‘developement team’ is a community, as is the community of mappers. There is no such thing as a big entity that can ‘reform’ this. Most of the work done on openstreetmap website is done on a volunteer basis, in a few cases supported by a company. However it’s mainly a do-ocracy. And there is far more to openstreetmap than openstreetmap.org !
I find it nice that Openstreetmap is first and foremost the database, and that there is plenty of space for all kind of actors to build on it.
That being said, here are two places where you can offer help: https://github.com/twain47/Nominatim/issues https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues
Comment from CloCkWeRX on 31 May 2014 at 07:52
Go you one better: people talk about geogit, and I think osm should embrace the concept. distributed data sets basically equate to layers. Svg rendering means lighterweight maps.
Mix the two concepts, you appease both camps: routing can be owned by multiple providers, whomever you choose. Specialized maps? Just add layers and styling. You can offer tools to easily render/integrate external capabilities on the core site, and let commercial interests promote as needed.
Right now the best we have is mapbox with ‘improve this’ links; but what could we do with a dedicated effort and open standards for layering/widgets provided?
Comment from Rydium on 31 May 2014 at 10:51
@Evropi It would be better if the OSM developers were all independent volunteers, but as you state the majority of them are working for companies. However, we could try to work with the companies to come to agreements rather than throw them out of the cycle. I’m not saying any official partnerships (leave that to OSMF) but leaving them in the credits or even placing a “Supplied by Lorem Ipsum Inc.” note next to the directions window.
@Tordanik Although the finance required to run the servers at such a large capacity would be quite high, it wouldn’t be a sudden jump to that number. In fact, I would assume that it would be a rather slow increase which donations could handle quite easily. In other words, as more people visit the site, more people are likely to donate, and the increase in donations should be in correlation with the increase in server costs, so we should be able to cope.
@yvecai I know that the development team, and furthermore almost the entire OSMF, is composed of independent volunteers, but that surely doesn’t mean they can’t change the hierarchy to something a little more efficient. I was a member for more than a year, and I noticed that the communication between members was difficult, to say the least. This may be different within the working group, but that is most likely because the working groups are much smaller. I just think that the assignment of responsibility can be left to the members to keep them productive and happy, but the working groups must be assigned representatives which form part of a larger hierarchy. This way more work can be done, in a shorter time, and more ideas can be pitched and actually worked on, rather than being lost in the minutes.
@CloCkWeRX I hadn’t actually seen GeoGit until now, but I love the concept - especially the ability to branch into sandboxed areas. In general, those ideas are what I think the community and the foundation should be focusing on. We are not limited to doing small changes; our community contains some extremely talented designers. We are not limited to the opportunity cost of working for mappers or companies; we are able to satisfy both.
Comment from RobJN on 31 May 2014 at 16:57
Directions are coming. See the demo site at http://jsrouting.apis.dev.openstreetmap.org/
Gradually other things may get added, but as noted the OSM Foundation don’t want to put off third parties from doing this. I find that OpenStreetMap is becoming better known now through our data users (e.g. the many iOS and Android apps that use OSM data).
Comment from Richard on 31 May 2014 at 17:03
I’m not sure where you get the impression that the majority of OSM developers are working for companies. If it’s true (which I doubt) it’s only on a technicality - several are independent OSM consultants (i.e. they own their own companies), others are employed on OSM-related business but contribute code to OSM in their spare time, and so on. Very few people are paid to contribute code to the core osm.org site.
Nor am I sure why you think that OSMF has a “hierarchy” or a “development team”. It doesn’t. Generally the development of the site has very little to do with OSMF; the Foundation’s main function is to hold ownership of certain assets, e.g. servers, domain names etc.
As a matter of fact, routing (“directions”) is already being worked on and will be going live shortly: see http://jsrouting.apis.dev.openstreetmap.org and https://github.com/systemed/openstreetmap-website/tree/routing .
I’d encourage you to talk to developers and find out how things work at present before making radical suggestions as to how things should change. IRC is a good place to do this.
Comment from Jean-Marc Liotier on 2 June 2014 at 09:23
Openstreetmap does not have customers, it has contributors and users.
On the other hand, many Openstreetmap users do have customers.
Comment from baditaflorin on 3 June 2014 at 06:38
Did you use mapillary ?
There is a plugin to export and use in JOSM
Comment from baditaflorin on 3 June 2014 at 06:49
Sorry, the comment was not for this post, was for http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Harry%20Wood/diary/22133
Comment from brogo on 3 June 2014 at 08:27
Yes, I think that OSM should integrate more features on the main page, to show the possibilites of OSM-Data. Many people ask “I want to use OSM. With Google I can do it this way, how can I do this with OSM?” Almost everytime there is already an OSM-based solution, but somewhere hidden deep in the OSM-universum.
I know OSM could and should not be a second Google Maps. But we have to make it more simple to use OSM.
The visitors of the Wikipedia want to read something about a special topic. Many know, that they can change the arcticles but only a few will really edit the article.
P.S. Another point form me: I think the standard map style should be changed to something not so overloaded.
Comment from lubosb on 3 June 2014 at 09:21
I think current model is OK. Companies using OSM data know that osm.org is not competition for them. They can give back to osm.org without fear to be smashed down in future with non profit giant-like-wikipedia-foundation living from donations.
Though it should be more clear that osm.org is just presentation of what is possible and recommending other maps and apps. Just something like a link to list of alternative styles/maps and offline apps on osm wiki.