> On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 4:46 PM, Alan Wright > <alanwright.a...@googlemail.com> wrote: > >> I think OpenStreetMap needs a "shop window" - perhaps a different website >> altogether. > > I disagree. OSM doesn't need a faked-up website to show what can be > done. There's plenty of real places using the data for real > applications, and that's waaay better than anything that is conceived > just for showing-off. > > OSM needs two aspects - a place which is a hive of mapping activity > (i.e. for mappers) and places of OSM consumption. IMnotveryHO the > consumption stuff has been left to others, and rightfully so. If we > want to show off OSM to consumers, then lets point them to awesome > places that are using OSM data. > > And then on the other front, which boils down to what should > openstreetmap.org be focussed on, that's everything that's needed for > mapping activity. Like a ship's bridge or a surgical theatre or a > well-stocked toolbench it should have everything close to hand that > mappers need to get their jobs done, and do it well. Maps to see > what's there. Tools to edit the data and inspect it. Ways to > communicate with other mappers. Calendars to organise parties. Blogs > to keep the community bound together. > > One small part of that (in the "inspecting the data" part) is routing. > I don't want a journey planner on osm.org (unless it's for getting to > the mapping parties :-) ) but I do need a way to check the > connectivity and correctness of the mapping data. And not as some > hidden extra in an editor I don't happen to use - it should be > somewhere close to hand. We started with a map and then developed > maplint, nonames, keepright et al, so we should start with > point-to-point routing and then figure out how we can improve things - > with the primary purpose being to help mappers. > > Cheers, > Andy
Ok you disagree and that's fine - it is a community after all :) However I'd like you to perhaps think about some of the conversations I'm having... "Take a look at this... It's call OpenStreetMap and it's the Wikipedia of Maps... it has a really strong backing from a huge community and it really looks promising ..." "...Yeah, that looks cool I see you get some fantastic detail in those maps... What else can it do?" "...Oh a bunch of stuff - it's all free to use... you can do what you like with it" "Like what?" "Routing, geocoding... all sorts of stuff..." "Great, where can I see this?" "Hmmm... not sure, try hunting around a bit... check their wiki... there's stuff announced on their mailing list all the time..." "...hmmm, right". Apologies if this sounds trite, and I'm certainly not trying to sound like a spoilt child, but these are the types of conversations I'm having regularly. Now you could argue that I simply don't know enough about what's going on, but I've read enough User Diaries and mailing list comments to know that a lot of people are having real difficulty in identifying a central place where stuff can be found. The only place we have right now (that could be considered a "front door") is osm.org and in my opinion it doesn't have enough of a wow factor to attract the attention I think it deserves. As a website, osm.org serves it's "mapper" audience very well - it's the casual browser, or company boss that perhaps need something a little more polished and less wiki-like in nature. Alan. _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk