Very well put Mike.
On Oct 19, 2010, at 9:24 PM, "Mike N." <nice...@att.net> wrote: >> On Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 9:03 PM, Mike N. <nice...@att.net> wrote: >>> Keep in mind that there are already people using US OSM data in real >>> applications. >> >> Where? > > Cloudmade developers, who sell smartphone apps that use Cloudmade tiles and > routing data, and can provide turn by turn directions. For example, the > iPhone paid 'offmaps' app, which offers US coverage. > > There's Skobbler, whose 'Skobbler US' navigation app for the iPhone is the #1 > free US nav app, and the #18 free app overall for the iPhone in the US. I > believe they process their own planet data, and probably don't follow the US > OSM talk list. I use it and am mostly surprised when it works well in > areas that I've never touched. > > And MapQuest is looking at US data and processing it (even though you could > argue that no one uses it yet) - it would be a courtesy to their devs to get > a notice from the community that something will change rather than their > renderer just start churning out blank maps because the data no longer makes > sense. > >>> By all means, let's move forward, but not burn consumers by >>> removing ref* or name* tags to force them to change. Otherwise we will >>> just be laboring like monks to produce a mountain of pure XML that no one >>> cares about because it's to difficult to catch a moving specification that >>> has no concern for compatibility. >> >> For now, if people don't want the spec to change, they shouldn't >> download new planet files. If that becomes a big enough problem (one >> of the reasons I'd like to know who it is that's using the data), then >> the solution is to offer stable branches, not to stop the development >> of anything that might break backward compatibility. > > Many changes can be implemented with an announce and transition period. > Telling Skobbler to stop downloading the planet because they want a spec they > can follow (and work with the Apple app store 3 month release cycle) is not > realistic. We no longer are working with a clean sheet of paper. We can > move forward, but just need to consider those using the data. > > > _______________________________________________ > Talk-us mailing list > Talk-us@openstreetmap.org > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
