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Why We Need OpenStreetMap (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the free-often-gives-you-the-best-value dept.

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.

12 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Anything that knocks Google (and Apple) down a peg or ten is good in my book.

    1. Re:Sounds good by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Interesting

      +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
    2. Re:Sounds good by mrchaotica · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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

  2. OpenStreetMap Server by sanosuke001 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
  3. Re:It's OK by Roblimo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I consider "render it how they like" the equivalent of freedom to choose your own clock face and size rather than the time the clock displays.

     

  4. Re:It's OK by tpstigers · · Score: 5, Informative

    You obviously know nothing about maps or data. GMaps is a mapping product. OSM is a data storehouse. It has a minimal map structure to facilitate editing data. The idea behind OSM is to provide data which we can freely use to make our own maps. If you need to see examples of pretty maps made with OSM data, just look at Mapbox (https://www.mapbox.com/tour/).

  5. Re:A solution in search of a problem by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  6. Not written for the Guardian by SWroclawski · · Score: 5, Informative

    I wrote the article, but I didn't write it *for* The Guardian. They picked it up and syndicated it, as did Gizmodo ( http://gizmodo.com/why-the-wor... ), but the original is still on my blog: http://blog.emacsen.net/blog/2...

  7. END FLASH ON /. NOW by SD-Arcadia · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fascinating topic, and I'd love to check it out but TOO BAD the video requires the craptastic Adobe Flash plugin. It's 2014, Flash is dying and HTML5 is the real way of doing things now. And Slashdot is supposed to be the home of FOSS-friendly early-adopting geeks? WTF?

    --
    https://dalgamotor.wordpress.com/ - Elektronik beyinlere ozgurluk asisi (Turkish)
    1. Re:END FLASH ON /. NOW by Roblimo · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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.

  8. OpenStreemap in disaster response by caseih · · Score: 3, Informative

    In recent years, OpenStreetmap has been used more and more in disaster response. This is because the data can be updated easily by volunteers on the ground, and it can easily serve as the basis for custom maps. A number of organizations have been in the news in recent years with their work in disaster response and OpenStreetmap. For example, MapAction.org, iMMAP.org, and SahanaFoundation.org, and probably others. I'm sure they use google maps too, but the OpenStreetmap source provides flexibility that none of the other commercial mapping sources can.

  9. Re:Missing satellite view by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.