The BBC article is missing a lot of context and details. The actual Facebook post - https://tech.fb.com/ai-is-supercharging-the-creation-of-maps-around-the-world/ - notes both the importance of human mappers and the local community's on-the-ground contributions, and states "We became close collaborators with the OSM community during our work in Thailand", quite different than the BBC's statement.
On Wed, Jul 24, 2019 at 2:17 PM john whelan <[email protected]> wrote: > My personal view is I think using AI to identify potential highways and > buildings is fine but there needs to be a process that includes manual > review. > > Basically the import process. > > I think my concern was more the idea in the article that suggests OSM > welcomes AI mapping and by implication conventional mappers were no longer > required. This may impact HOT mapathons by the way if people feel that > needn't bother mapping, the AI will do it all. > > Could someone clarify with the BBC to describe the process and emphasize > the community aspect of OSM. It is summer so news apart from Boris is thin > on the ground so it might well be an opportune time to get a bit of > publicity for OpenStreetMap. > > Cheerio John > > On Wed, Jul 24, 2019, 4:57 PM Andy Townsend, <[email protected]> wrote: > >> On 24/07/2019 20:56, John Whelan wrote: >> > https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-49091093 >> > >> > I note "Martijn van Exel" is quoted. >> >> I'm sure if the BBC wanted to do some actual journalism they could ask >> some OSM contributors in Thailand what their view was (see e.g. >> https://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewtopic.php?id=65056 for a selection >> of opinions) rather than just regurgitating FB's press release without >> it touching the sides on either the way down or the way up. >> >> I'm sure that there's someone at the BBC who's job it is to deal with >> complaints about non-news like this (in fact a couple of clicks from >> that "article" takes you straight to >> http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/complain-online/ ), just like the DWG >> have to deal with complaints about, shall we say, "sub optimal mapping" >> from the likes of Facebook et al. >> >> To be fair to Facebook (speaking entirely as an outsider to that >> organisation here), their approach seems to have moved from being >> entirely "mechanical" to involving more humans. Facebook's early >> attempts were, in a nutshell, dreadful: >> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17856687 is a write-up from someone >> who was apparently working there at the time; it's pretty much a >> textbook example of "how not to contribute to OSM". Latterly they have >> been much more communicative with the community, as you can see by >> reading the Thai forum threads. >> >> Other large companies contributing to OSM have followed similar paths; >> although sometimes it does require a rather excessive number of >> changeset discussion comments, OSM messages that users have to read >> before continuing to edit, longer blocks and reverts before they give up >> and actually try communicating with other people*. >> >> Best Regards, >> >> Andy >> >> (a member of the DWG, so I've of course had to "bucket and shovel" >> Facebook mechanical edits in the past, but writing here in an entirely >> personal capacity) >> >> * for the avoidance of doubt this wasn't Facebook; it was a smaller >> company offering B2B services in a couple of countries. >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> talk mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk >> > _______________________________________________ > talk mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk >
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