On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 7:29 PM, David Earl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On 13/10/2008 18:24, Frederik Ramm wrote: >> Hi, >> >>> Of course, sitting up you own slippy map is easier than setting up >>> Windows, almost anybody can do that. But a bunch of people each >>> settign up their own map that implements the feature they care most >>> about is not a very user friendly solution, either. >> >> This is something I constantly preach on talk-de: We aim to be the >> geodatabase to end all geodatabases. Not the web mapping platform to end >> all web mapping platforms. >> >> Everyone has different preferences, but it is just about conceivable >> that all of us together build a giant database with which everybody is >> more or less happy. - On the other hand, it would be absolutely >> impossible to create the web map that everybody likes. >> >> And we don't have to! We are NOT a web map. As soon as we're popular >> enough any many people have set up map displays of one kind or another, >> we just kill the www.openstreetmap.org map display and just do API. We >> don't need revenue, visits, user counters, advertising click-throughs on >> www.openstreetmap.org. As RichardF pointed out: Let us *encourage* >> people to make their own cool web map from our data instead of trying to >> impose one view onto all! This capability is one thing that sets us >> apart from the others. > > We're not at that point yet though. And even if we were, it's much > easier to find openstreetmap than all its derivative projects. > > I've always been a bit troubled by the inequity that is given to Mapnik > by the openstreetmap home page. In general people should be able to make > up their own mind between osmarender, cyclemap, mapnik and others. These > are examples of derivative projects. So is Potlatch for that matter. So > is informationfreeway. > > OTOH, the pictorial map gives the project a much more concrete feel. The > idea of abstract data is really hard for most people to grasp. > > Perhaps, therefore, the home page should be more of an introduction to > the project with an index to applications using it. It needn't be as > bald as that in how it is presented, and the slippy maps can be > prominent. For people what it means is the pictorial map is one level > down, even though it may actually be hosted on another site. Or not.
I presume you mean similar to some of the national sites people have set up? ie. www.openstreetmap.de / ca for what I reckon are the better ones. I particularly like the Showcase section on the german site (see south african site at org.za for at least a partial translation). Dave _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
