Inge Wallin wrote: >Sent: 28 July 2008 1:33 PM >To: talk@openstreetmap.org >Subject: Re: [OSM-talk]Actually using OpenStreetMap and the usability of >the current maps >
snip. >Two things. First: YES, please make it easier to create suitable adapted >maps. Second: My point wasn't to make it perfect for *me*, but to make the >default maps more usable for its intended purpose. That purpose is not >stated >anywhere -- that I could find. It doesn't really need to be stated if you are coming to the table with your mind on "the project". For me the default rendering shows me where and what I have mapped so that I know where to map on my next trip out. That's what the project is about and thus to me that's what the renderings do. Accepted though that if you arrive at the website and never go any further than browse the map you might get put off that it is either incomplete or doesn't show you what you want in the format that you want. But then I hope I can give visitors enough credit for checking for themselves to see what the project is about rather than simply dismissing it as a crap map and moving on. Sadly we do still see evidence of this negative attitude from all sorts of directions and education is still needed although starting to reduce somewhat as the project has taken hold outside of neogeography over the last year. > >> We could waste an enormous amount of time trying to discuss which kinds >> of default maps we should offer and how they should be styled, and we'll >> probably never reach results. I hope that, in the long run, >> OpenStreetMap will *not* offer *any* maps, just map data from which >> loads and loads of third parties create whatever maps they need. > >Now, that's a bit pessimistic, isn't it? "never get results"? Heck, we >have >very nice results already. I was just talking about making it even better >than it already is. I too hope that OSM never becomes a portal for viewing online maps. That's not what OSM is as a project, nor its aims. I'll be quite happy to see all OSM hosted maps disappear if a plethora of brilliant third parties start making cool maps from OSM data, that's what we should be encouraging, not faffing around with styles here and there on our default maps. That's just diverting effort from the core. If we can get more third party projects like the cycle map to take off then we simply won't need to have these discussions within OSM. Cheers Andy _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/talk
