On Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 11:34 PM, Andrew Loughhead <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Good grief. Can we please all calm down? Really there is no need for > such aggressive emails here.
Aggressive? You have obviously never witnessed the mortal combat of a real flame war. This is nothing - just a bunch of pussies tugging at a ball of string... I have been on lists where there have been threats of legal action and people have been excommunicated and banned for life! :) > And thats the thing. I liked tracing, and I liked getting the circles > and curves of older Canberra to be just right. Yahoo was a great way to > do it, and I think arguably much better than GPS, for shape. Yahoo > imagery is a little out of date sometimes, where roads have been > realigned, but I live here, and drive through these areas, and I doubt I > have traced any errors. Overall, I got to scratch my itch. At the foundation of this is the core of what OSM is - it is an Open Street *Map*. And maps are not reality; they are a functional representation. If we think we are building a community GIS then we totally are using the wrong tool set. For a street map it does not really matter that that every wrinkle is accurate and precise down to the finest resolution (the mere fact we fatten streets to accommodate their names ensures perpetual inaccuracy); only that the representation is meaningful. The extreme of this is the London Underground map - totally inaccurate spatially, but absolutely meaningful (I never get bored on the Underground because I spend the whole time reflecting on the transcendent zen-like reality, yet unreality, of this map). I lurk (also in inner north Canberra) on OSM not just because I like the visualization of spatial relationships, but because I find the sociology of a community building something fascinating (in the same way I am mesmerized by Wikipedia, not by its content and its coverage, but by the fact it exists at all and seems to work). If I want a pretty, well rendered, well registered and authoritative local map I use things like ACT Locate and ACTMAPi which are built on a grunty GIS; but I I want to feel good, I delve onto OSM. And the feeling good has nothing to do with the quality, coverage and presentation of the map, but with the fact that it exists at all and seems to work. An interesting about community information management projects, and I am involved in and contribute to a number, is that they never go exactly in the direction you want them to, but with a bit of effort you can sometimes influence the direction in which they are pointed. This is pretty confronting for control freaks, but fascinating to part of and witness in action... :) jim _________________ Jim Croft [EMAIL PROTECTED] "I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves." - Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosopher (1889-1951) _______________________________________________ Talk-au mailing list Talk-au@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk-au
