Hi USA, just wanted to bring up an issue that I've run into recently
while mapping businesses in NYC.
Whenever I'm walking through the city, I tend to whip out the phone and
check for anything missing, incorrect, or incomplete. Often this means
pausing in front of a restaurant and keying in contact info or opening
hours. Sometimes I also take pictures with the intention of adding tags
later.
There have always been a few who treat this sort of thing with suspicion
-- especially taking pictures. But a couple times lately I've met with
outright hostility from restaurant staff when taking down their data.
One owner complained he was sick of "people from websites posting his
information." Turns out the culprits were food delivery services, who
had been offering delivery from his place without authorization. I plead
my innocence, but this guy was in no mood to appreciate the differences
between a crowdsourced map project and a move-fast-and-break-things
delivery startup.
I discussed this with a friend of mine who owns a restaurant, and he
recounted a similar story -- an angry customer calling the restaurant to
complain about a late delivery. This restaurant doesn't do delivery, and
has never partnered with any third parties for delivery. But a food
delivery startup (I'm not naming names... actually I can't even keep
them straight) apparently scouted their location, imported the menu
(which changes often and is not posted on the web), and listed the
restaurant as a delivery client -- all without even informing the
restaurant, much less attempting to make any sort of agreement. They
wouldn't even take down the listing when confronted -- figured they
could just bully their way into a business relationship. And they were
listing dishes that weren't even on the menu anymore! Though they took
them all down quickly when the restaurant's lawyer called.
Don't know how common these sort of predatory tactics are outside NYC,
but fair warning, there may be businesses out there who are no longer
delighted at the thought of someone "from the internet" taking notice of
their publicly-posted information.
Happy mapping, Jason
_______________________________________________
Talk-us mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
