On 17/12/14 03:07, Adrian Custer wrote:
>>> The map data obviously must be collected by someone and OSM data 
>>> are suitable for use, though perhaps only once curated at some 
>>> level.
>> 
>> Sorry, I just don’t understand this sentence. “only once curated” 
>> ??? -ENOPARSE
> 
> 'curating' data is a common term for checking data, fixing errors, 
> finding mismatches, and generally not using a raw data dump but doing
> some work with the data before use. Reports generally from people
> using OSM data is that the data need work before use.

This is IMHO very very much dependent on the location. OSM has probably
a bad reputation in US, because (I suppose) of
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/TIGER_fixup and similar mess, and
generally US OSM data don’t seem to be (looking from the other side of
The Pond) that good. Some even consider the Nokia Maps to be clearly
superior to OSM, position which is absolutely laughable anywhere else.

Yes, I am living east from the former Iron Curtain but even from my very
limited experience with maps in France and Italy, it seemed to me that
anywhere in Europe the situation is exactly opposite. OSM provides maps
of the similar quality to Google, and everything else (namely Nokia
Maps) are distant distant second. And of course, not mentioning real
developing nations, where I would expect the Nokia maps be even worse,
while hopefully OSM could be at least minimally consistent in quality
(let's hope).

BTW, just completely random comparison
https://www.here.com/?map=28.63097,77.21724,10,normal v.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/2763541#map=10/28.6443/77.0923&layers=N
seems to support my expectations, but of course a serious research would
be required.

> The OSM terms: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tile_Usage_Policy

Oh, tiles ... tiles are not data I meant, and yes if OSM mapping app
would be part of FxOS, then it is probably (and rightfully, IMHO)
expected from Mozilla to have its own servers. But that should be
covered IMHO just by providing hardware and administration of
FLOSS software on it, so not much development needs to be involved,
hopefully. And also this starts to be consideration once the app is
widely deployed. I don’t think anybody limits
https://marketplace.firefox.com/app/osm-viewer or
https://marketplace.firefox.com/app/lantea-maps

> So yes, my thinking may well be 'overengineering' from your point of
>  view. From mine, it seems like smart, modular design and maximizing
>  effectiveness of the work and resources going into the project.
> There is actually a current active thread on the list looking for
> exactly the kind of IPC system that I see being needed for sharing
> maps; that confirms to me that this full 'over' engineering will come
> to the platform eventually. A well designed app would be built for
> that future.

By overengineering I don’t mean that it is wrong to think like that, but
that it should not be considered as a barrier to achieving at least the
first step, which is to bring working OSM mapping app to FirefoxOS. Of
course, once it is achieved there would be time to make it better. Or if
the particular infrastructure were in place, it would be certainly right
to use it.

> OSMand seems to be selling an app to finance the servers for the 
> download data (and artificially limiting the 'free' app to ensure 
> some revenue).

I don’t see anything wrong with that.

> I also vaguely remember there being a libosmand API that gave other 
> android apps access to the data stored by osmand to allow broad 
> re-use of offline map data.

As I said, I don’t think there is anything wrong in saying that, but
your statement read to me like “OSM mapping cannot be done, because we
don’t have a way how to share data with other apps”. If I misunderstood
you, then I am sorry for confusion.

Best,

Matěj

-- 
http://www.ceplovi.cz/matej/, Jabber: [email protected]
GPG Finger: 89EF 4BC6 288A BF43 1BAB  25C3 E09F EF25 D964 84AC

This conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Good bye.
    -- HAL9000 in 2001: Space Odyssea
_______________________________________________
dev-b2g mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-b2g

Reply via email to