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Why We Need OpenStreetMap (Video)
This video is a conversation between Slashdot's Timothy Lord and informal OpenStreetMap spokesman Serge Wroclawski. Serge stresses the point that OpenStreetMap isn't a mapping application, but consists of the data behind mapping applications; that there are many apps that use OpenStreetMap data; and that you are free to use OpenStreetMap as the data engine behind a map-based application. You are also welcome, even encouraged, to contribute, and you may want to check out the OpenStreetMap Foundation, which is "an international not-for-profit organization supporting, but not controlling, the OpenStreetMap Project." Now comes the question: Do you really want Google or MapQuest or another commercial (or government) entity to know where you are and where you're going? With OpenStreetMap you can download maps of your area, country or even the whole world and keep your travels confidential. You can also help create accurate maps of the areas you know best, including points of interest chosen by actual users like you, not because they paid to have their names on a commercially-produced map. A last thought: In addition to watching Serge in the video, you might want to read an article Serge wrote for his blog that The Guardian picked up about the need for OpenStreetMap. The 195+ comments attached to the article are interesting, too.
I actually pushed to add OpenStreetMap tile support to our geo-spatial stuff at work. I even went and made a VM with the world database and pre-compiled metatiles so I wouldn't hammer their official servers. It's definitely nice to have imagery (even if it isn't satellite) even if you're on a standalone network and don't have internet access.
When anyone can download a few hundred gigs and build their own maps server I see that as a good thing (TM).
-SaNo
+1
Google scares me. It's getting more and more pervasive - and invasive.
A while ago, I installed Waze on my Android device as an alternative navigation app to avoid using Google Maps, because I don't want Google to know where I'm going (or where I am, or how fast I drive, or anything at all about me.)
Guess what? Waze has been purchased by Google. It's sickening. Google is silently cornering us.
I'm at a point where, whenever I install a new app or use a new PC application, I check whether Google owns the company that makes it, or whether it made it, or whether for one reason or another, Google has a vested interest in it. I used to do that with Microsoft, now Google has joined them in my list of evil-companies-to-avoid-at-all-cost. Only with Google, it's getting really, really tough because they're f*ing everywhere...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
If you want something that does what Waze does -- or anything that shares data between users -- what you want is a protocol, not a program.
In my opinion, the single biggest problem with the Internet today is that things like Facebook and Twitter were implemented as programs and not protocols.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
I used this for navigating all around cities in Europe. The data set over there is very complete.
Frankly, having a smartphone which can't operate it's most useful and potentially life-saving features without a data connection just seems retarded - and I'd regard having very completely world maps on the device as a critical aspect of that.
I totally agree with you, and I have asked management over and over to make the (I believe minor) code changes that would allow Slashdot to display HTML5 videos.
What he's saying is you can get a pretty picture but you can't actually get the data that makes up those pretty pictures.
For example, I have a little bike computer that uses OpenStreetMap. It will tell me what street I'm on and what intersection I'm approaching and whether that intersection has a traffic light or a stop sign. No map. Just data.
Google will be happy to send me a pretty map with my present location and the next intersection all drawn out. Which is nice if I don't mind squinting at a map while riding a bicycle and trying to read a street name sideways. But if I actually want the data about a street and what other streets intersect it? Google won't tell you. They'll just give you a map.