OpenStreetMap
i just wanted to make contributions to the osm wiki (mongolian projectwiki and a ulaanbaatar osm club to mobilize the crowd here and to initiate mapping weekends). i thought i can do this easily - with my osm accout - but i coundn't. another osm wiki account is necessary for that. is that correct? i wonder why? those 2 pages belong to each other like an operating instruction to a new technical instrument. never mind!
but as i'm a fan of the open data move on principle blocking all google content (as well as ad stuff) while browsing the web i had to recognize that #1 data collector g need to be given allowance in terms of receiving the full functionality for the "log in/create account" page due to show the recaptcha turing test. so my second wonder: is there no open source implementation ready to use instead of having g sniffing around. in a way i don't see the fun of it anymore, really.
i know violation protection is necessary but i know, too, g is sniffing a lot in open source projects already, too much if you ask me (so that there is already an existing interdependency) and probably supporting vialation in the end aswell, but that does not mean that there is the back door already opened especially for such an importand thing like the no. one map rival for osm or v.v. and i doubt recaptcha is the only machine to exhibit intelligent behavior although i couldn´t find one quickly. is osm data in the end hosted on g servers already? i feel like ... artfully loosing control over a free idea, and the license discussion is just words of consolation.
it is still a community base open source project and WE should take more care avoiding to support the gigants (e.g. assisting g with the decipherment of OCR failure during book digitalizations to g's profit.)
hey, can someone calm me down, please. do i overreact? i know many don't care regarding privacy anymore, but i do and i think i'm not the only one. let me know ;)
Discussion
Comment from iandees on 2 May 2011 at 15:33
OpenStreetMap's data is stored on servers owned by the OpenStreetMap Foundation, not on any Google servers.
Comment from Vclaw on 2 May 2011 at 16:56
Yes, the Wiki does need a separate login to the standard osm.org acount, as used for editing the map etc. Yes, it would be nice if they could use the same account. There have been a number of proposals for this, but they haven't happened yet. See http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Single_sign_on
Comment from Sam Wilson on 3 May 2011 at 11:47
I think the main issue that mongoltweets is getting at is that, in order to log in to OSM (is it just the wiki? or also to create a mapping account? I haven't done either for ages) one must permit Google javascript to run. The issue with that (have I got this correct?) is that it gives them a chance to track which (Google-JS-executing) sites that one (or, rather, one's IP address) visits.
There certainly are alternatives to ReCaptcha, that can run on the same server as the app; I guess they're just a bit more of a hassle to set up.
Comment from compdude on 5 May 2011 at 17:16
Sorry, but your OSM wiki account is not the same as your account for the main OSM website. Also, OSM is in no way affiliated with Google. It has not provided any data to them, though Mapquest and Bing Maps both use our data in their maps.