On 16.09.2010 02:54, Dave F. wrote:
Personally, I want facts on how to use OSM, not opinions (Lord, as if
i don't get enough of those on this forum :-) ).
[...]
I bet there's something in the wiki I haven't discovered yet, but I'm
not going to have to fork out £$ to find it.
4: Books can go into University libraries and onto GIS course reading
lists. A big one, I would imagine, for OSM.
Really? Apart from some really old fashion kudos, why?
Who thinks, "Hmm... i need to learn about OSM, so I'm off to my Local
Uni library."
Who, apart from the students, is actually allowed to enter said library?
Anyway, surely Universities have online library reading lists? If not
then they're a bit out dated.
Books are a massively positive thing - they demonstrate a healthy and
productive OSM ecosystem and a growth in adoption. More books please!
I fail to see how charging for regurgitated data (as confirmed by
Frederik) is positive or productive.
You are right in one way - and completely wrong in another.
The "Scientific community" often relies on "secured facts" and while of
course the wiki contains everything and more than a book can tell, books
published and edited in the old fashioned way are considered by these
people as more reliable, while the OSM wiki - like wikipedia and lot
more internet sources - is seen as unreliably: "You don't have an author
you can point on by name".
In that sense sources are accepted often with the minimum requirement of
having
- real name of an author/editor responsible for the facts.
- publishing date
- where to get the information to check back.
I know of permanent links in mediawiki - the science community seems to
know not.
I know of totally wrong book contents - the science community likes to
ignore that cases, wherever possible, while comparing (mostly
uncommented) books and papers to living, commented wikis.
I think, that will change in the next tens of years - but I'm sure,
books are a good thing to spread knowledge about OSM and usages wider.
If a book motivates a scientist - or a reading mapper with less internet
activity to start contributing, it's a good thing.
If the content is out of date he/she has to get more actual knowledge in
the wikis, but it's not wrong because it's a book.
regards
Peter
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