On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 07:48:24PM -0700, John Firebaugh wrote: > On Mon, Oct 15, 2012 at 4:17 PM, Tom Hughes <t...@compton.nu> wrote: > > Exporting raw data was never the primary purpose of the export tab - it was > > really added to address the constant request for the ability to export > > images of an area. > > > > The data export things was something I threw in because I could, and for > > most purposes people should be looking elsewhere for raw data. > > Should they? > > The general consensus at the BoF was that some (many?) people do first > look to the export tab for raw data, and leave confused by its > interface and limitations. It's unfortunate that for a project whose > guiding principle is open data, actually getting that data proves to > be a challenge for those not familiar with the various OSM satellite > sites. And so the thought was that the export tab is due for a > redesign and a rethink, and it should guide people interested in > exports at a particular size to the appropriate place, if not offer a > download directly. The challenge, of course, is to characterize the > various use cases, determine what the appropriate source and format is > for each case, and see how and if it is possible to build something > that can satisfy many different needs in a way that's not so complex > that it deters just as many interested people as the current interface > does.
OSM has created a great ecosystem of people, projects and companies "exporting" OSM data in many different formats for many different purposes. There are huge differences in the ways the data is formatted and each of thoses formats has it's uses, but also its drawbacks. You have to know quite a lot about OSM to make informed decisions about which kind of export you want for your specific needs. I don't think we can bring all of this into a single "export tab". In fact, if we reduce all of this into a single "export tab" we risk alienating people who try out whats offered, find it lacking and then go away not understanding that they tried the wrong approach. I think instead of the export tab the approach should be some kind of "wizard". You click on the big button that says "Use OpenStreetMap" or so. That leads to a series of choices where we can ask people what they want and offer solutions for the most common use cases such as "printed map", "static map on a web site", "dynamic map on a web site", "web map with routing for 'how to find us' page" etc. The most common (and easier to fullfill) choices lead to places similar to the current export tab where end-users can get what they want. For the cases where we don't have simple solutions the wizard ends in a message telling the user that what he wants is complicated and links to relevant wiki pages. Jochen -- Jochen Topf joc...@remote.org http://www.remote.org/jochen/ +49-721-388298 _______________________________________________ dev mailing list dev@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/dev
