As I've said before: the map is the data. It's the best way of presenting geoinfo. It showcases what OSM does (and doesn't) have. So keep the map.
I like the Google-style buttons. A bit more "community" stuff in a right sidebar (to keep the map squarer) would be an improvement, but I wouldn't let it take over. Personally, OSM is a live project for me because I keep looking at the map. If OSM had a Google button that launched GMaps (satellite, preferably) for the current lon/lat/zoom, GMaps would drop off my list of favourites. First I'd see what the community had to say about a place, then go to Google if I wanted to know what the bots had found. Richard On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 6:48 AM, Michal Migurski <m...@stamen.com> wrote: > On Dec 30, 2011, at 7:42 AM, Frederik Ramm wrote: > > > In fact, many of those arguing for OSM becoming a nice map portal > haven't even touched the subject of editing in their argument. > > > >> > > ... > > > > Secondly, and this touches on something from my "looking forward" post a > few days ago, we have always made it clear that there are no official tags > and no official list and no promise that anything gets rendered anywhere. > This has many advantages, decoupling editing from rendering, and brings > many freedoms, but if we were to push that "one true map" or maybe these > "ten true maps" and try to be the map portal for everyone then that would > be the end of saying "well the Mapnik map is just a showcase and you cannot > expect us to render everything". We would clearly make a much stronger bond > between editing and rendering; fewer and fewer people would be willing to > map things that are not on our main map(s), and we'd be pushing specialist > maps to the sidelines. Let's not kid ourselves: Competing with Google Maps > *will* make us more like Google Maps. > > For what it's worth, I didn't really start editing until the Mapnik loop > closed and I could see my edits on the same day I made them. This was a > huge difference for me, and a step up from making an edit, waiting several > days for it to show up, and then making another one. The "main" Mapnik > layer is one of the only products OSM makes that's visible to regular > humans, and even though someone like me *could* stay up-to-the-minute with > the replication diffs it's more often the case that it doesn't happen. > > Serge's mention of closing the circle is critical, because it keeps the > promise inherent in the name "Open Street Map" - somewhere, somehow, people > should be able to see a decent map, and it would be best if it were a > reliable enough resource to be generally usable by the world at large. > > At the same time, the current home page is 99% map and 1% anything else, > so we're *already* implicitly competing with GMaps through our homepage > design. Here's my opinion of what the front page should look like, based on > a pastiche of elements pulled from various OSM sites including .de, the > wiki, and the current page: > > http://mike.teczno.com/img/osm-homepage-sketch.jpg > > First, there's still a map across the top of the page, but now it's > smaller. It's kept for two primary reasons: visitors must be able to see > that ultimately all the work leads to a usable map, and six years of > permalinks to specific locations should not be broken. The overall tab > layout across the top (with the Edit tab) stays, but I expect that each tab > might lead to a second page with a taller, more page-hogging map on it for > roomy editing. > > The space below the map is there for the project to explain itself. We > should quibble about the choice of sections (I've borrowed these wholesale > from .de) but this area is in place to say something about what OSM is > *for*: it's something you can join, there's data you can use, etc. > > In the bottom-right corner is the wiki Image Of The Week, which is so > often the home of solid gold output from the OSM community, whether it's > new renders or photos of mappers. This part will change, and will reinforce > the dynamic nature of the project. There will be cool and weird pictures > there. > > In the sidebar, I've just copied some stuff from the wiki. Honestly, I > don't know what should go here—I never pay attention to sidebars on > websites, but presumably if someone is absolutely scratching their head > then being able to scan the page for the word "Help" or "Blog" will get > them out of a jam. > > Back to the map: > > The OL layers menu is replaced with an old-Gmaps-style set of buttons, > because if you don't know OpenLayers how will you know that the Blue Plus > will give you something interesting? Buttons encourage pushing, which > addresses the need to show a variety of cartographic outputs beyond the > default Mapnik layer. The current choice of layers is good: "Mapnik" is > what editors need to see what they are doing, "Cycle" and "Transport" both > show what it means to highlight entirely different sets of tags, and > "MapQuest" shows that third parties with recognizable names should get > involved. I can't think of a rationale for keeping Osmarender in the list. > > "Data" is a special case - I think it should be implemented in the form of > a combined thinline raster layer and a backing data layer driven by a data > format similar to Mapnik's new UTF Grid feature to support clicking on > features. If we do this smartly, then we can simultaneously solve clickable > POI's which is one of the OSMF's list of Top Ten tasks that they want > handled. > > > > I believe SWG are having a discussion about "core values" at the moment. > Suffice it to say: There are core values of this project, and if you don't > share them than you can care for OSM as much as you want, you're in the > wrong project. Now what exactly these core values or important goals are, > is open to discussion. *My* vision is that by providing excellent map data, > we put everyone in a position to make the map *they* would like to have. I > know that this is more of a hurdle than "let's provide a drop-in > replacement for Google Maps tiles", but I believe that the end-user stands > to benefit from that. > > My vision is that tiles are a form of excellent map data. Now what? > > -mike. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > michal migurski- m...@stamen.com > 415.558.1610 > > > > > _______________________________________________ > talk mailing list > talk@openstreetmap.org > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk >
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