OpenStreetMap
Connecting Communities With Improved OpenStreetMap Credits on Mapbox Maps
Posted by lxbarth on 10 May 2014 in English. Last updated on 10 June 2014.We’re updating attribution for OpenStreetMap-based Mapbox maps thanks to feedback on attribution conventions here on the diary and on mailing lists. The new convention on Mapbox maps is to expand attribution by default: collapsed attribution should only be used when attribution becomes unusually long, or screen space is limited. Expect us to roll out these changes over the next couple of weeks, but here is a preview right away.
The entire goal of the Mapbox team’s work with OpenStreetMap is to help make OpenStreetMap the best map, everywhere in the world. We will only be able to achieve this as a community and with open data. Linking maps back to OpenStreetMap is at the heart of growing OpenStreetMap by helping turn map consumers into map contributors. Our goal with these new attribution conventions is only to further improve the connection of the many million users who view Mapbox maps every day to OpenStreetMap.
Here are the new attribution recommendations for all Mapbox maps that are based on OpenStreetMap data.
Expanded attribution
While collapsed attribution wrapped in an info - ⓘ - symbol, works well on small screens, we are now recommending to expand attribution whereever possible. The full attribution line is “© Mapbox © OpenStreetMap” and next to it we recommend an “Improve this map” link leading a user to editing on OpenStreetMap. Another change is that now “© OpenStreetMap” links directly to http://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright, “© Mapbox” continues to link to http://mapbox.com/about/maps listing the full roster of map data we’re using including OpenStreetMap.
Recommended attribution on Mapbox maps. Click to explore.
Collapsed for small maps
We’re recommending this form of attribution for small slippy maps. Here’s an example:
Recommended attribution on small slippy Mapbox maps. Click to explore.
Use these attributions now
Until these attribution recommendations are rolled out on Mapbox.com, here are links to code snippets that already work today:
- Expanded (default) http://bl.ocks.org/lxbarth/0c11056628119b24b78b
- Collapsed (small) http://bl.ocks.org/lxbarth/9921260
- Mapbox branded http://bl.ocks.org/lxbarth/9490377
Discussion
Comment from Glassman on 10 May 2014 at 21:37
Great improvement. It would be nice to capture number of clicks on “Improve this map” link. It should give us some useful intelligence, such as the percentage clicking on the link and trend charts.
Clifford
Comment from Tordanik on 10 May 2014 at 21:38
Much better. Thanks!
Comment from rasher on 11 May 2014 at 03:42
Great news. Alas, some of your customers are not showing any attribution at all (link will probably go bad over time)
Comment from cquest on 11 May 2014 at 06:53
Good step in the right direction.
Comment from Komяpa on 11 May 2014 at 10:47
There’s “Improve this map” link that leads to mapbox-hosted page.
Can community do something to localize this page? It would be great to have at least Russian version of the page, so that big sites like vk.com can help people contribute.
Comment from HannesHH on 11 May 2014 at 11:23
Thank you, this is much nicer.
Comment from lxbarth on 12 May 2014 at 12:42
Rasher - let me reach out.
Comment from imagico on 13 May 2014 at 16:26
This looks much better.
Comment from lxbarth on 20 May 2014 at 20:37
Phase one of the changes I described above are rolled out now with Mapbox.js 1.6.3. What’s missing now is updating our infrastructure to link attribution differently and switching maps directly viewed on Mapbox.com over to the new Mapbox.js. https://www.mapbox.com/blog/mapboxjs-v163/
Comment from Harry Wood on 16 April 2015 at 16:04
In your final links “Collapsed (small) http://bl.ocks.org/lxbarth/9921260 “ I don’t know if this gist has been changed since you wrote the diary entry, but it’s back to showing all one link for the text “© OpenStreetMap © Mapbox”, and no direct link to OpenStreetMap.
On tiles.mapbox.com/v4 these improvements have either not yet been rolled out, or you’re not rolling them out there for some reason. Pages like this for example I know these are sometimes presented in an iFrame, and perhaps not intended as shareable URLs, but in any case, is the OpenStreetMap credit approach just not been updated there yet?
In general I’ve seen quite a lot of different inconsistent approaches to giving OpenStreetMap credit, even on Mapbox’s own blog. e.g. Blog posts with images/screencasts like yesterday you’ll tend to not bother linking OpenStreetMap at all. But here we’re talking about embedded maps. There’s been quite a few of these on the mapbox blog over the years. Some use your ‘mapbox examples’ site e.g. this one which has credit without links. here’s one with the all-one-link style. Would be good to see these linking OpenStreetMap directly as you’ve described in this diary entry.
Comment from Mateusz Konieczny on 2 March 2019 at 10:07
Mapbox is still not properly attributing OpenStreetMap in its own examples.
For example
https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/mapbox/streets-v9.html?title=true&access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoibWFwYm94IiwiYSI6ImNpejY4M29iazA2Z2gycXA4N2pmbDZmangifQ.-g_vE53SD2WrJ6tFX7QHmA#1.07/-1.4/4.7
at my Xiaomi Redmi 4 (5.0 inches, 68.9 cm2 screen with 1080 x 1920 pixels) there is more than enough space to display proper attribution but it is collapsed.
Is it a bug or a desirable decision? Note that on map there is a large Mapbox logo that is displayed.
I informed Mapbox via mapbox.com/contact/support/#attribution and received no useful reply. Contact dropped after on 24th January I asked
Screenshot of how map appears for me is at https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/899988/51281667-67210a80-19e3-11e9-807a-480de4fa8eea.png
It is barely acceptable on extremely small maps. Even on smartwatches it is possible to easily fit readable “© OSM”
Comment from Mateusz Konieczny on 2 March 2019 at 10:08
https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/lxbarth/diary/21847
Note also https://docs.mapbox.com/help/tutorials/first-steps-android-sdk/
First image presents map made from OSM data misrepresented as a Mapbox data. I request fixing this.
https://docs.mapbox.com/help/img/android/android-first-steps-intro.png
Comment from mikelmaron on 2 March 2019 at 14:21
Hi @Mateusz Konieczny
This confused me for a minute as well. Physical screen resolution and the coordinate system (called points or density independent pixels) are different. An ok explanation is here. The intention on the part of phone manufactures is to give a similar experience no matter what the pixel density.
For example, my phone has pixel width of 1125, but 375 point width. So there are three pixels per point. The width available to the web browser is still max 375. So while pixel dense, the experienced screen size is still small.
-Mikel
Comment from Mateusz Konieczny on 3 March 2019 at 09:19
I am not sure how it changes anything. There is still enough space to display attribution.
Comment from Mateusz Konieczny on 3 March 2019 at 09:21
Just use the same way of detecting resolution as is used to display Mapbox logo and everything should work well (and if Mapbox logo is always displayed them OSM attribution also should be always displayed).