Andy Allan wrote: >Sent: 23 June 2008 6:16 PM >To: Russ Phillips >Cc: OSM GB >Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] Sustrans > >There's a few Sustran's volunteer "Rangers" within the OSM community, >myself included. We've tried various approaches to them with very >little success. They seem to like having sucky maps on their website, >charging a small fortune for maps that would be mostly unnecessary if >the routes were properly signed, and just use OS maps with wild >abandon internally. In fact, one of the staff from Sustrans offered me >their entire OS-derived mapping database if I wanted it, and I got >nowhere explaining to him why that wouldn't be allowed. > >They seem fairly good at cycle routes and dreadful at all things maps, >and a classic example of why going out and doing stuff (us mapping the >network in less than a year) is often better than evangelizing (since >they still don't want to help nor understand us), and also why >self-delusion about the wonderful day that someone will turn round and >open the OS data simply is a waste of time perpetuated by British >newspapers who could be supporting and promoting OSM instead. >
A quiet revolution, with OSM showing how we might be better than what they have now seems to be the best approach and Andy's version of our data is one of the ways to prove that. And as Andy says, those of us who are Rangers also have a say from the grass roots end of Sustrans and by showing the local sustrans officers how our data can be used we may be able to spread the word within. Seperately I'm having some discussions with the people at Sustrans and those involved with Connect2, hopefully to keep open a dialogue. Its acknowledge by them that they pay a lot for their OS licence, but currently I think there rely too much on their OS data (its used for many many products and services within Sustans, not just online mapping) so its not simply a matter of swapping out for an alternative. In reality though, until our mapping is essentially complete in the UK I think any change is unlikely, but I wouldn't like to put any bet on things for this time next year. Cheers Andy R _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk-gb
