> The important part is to understand that the current lack of end-user > services is not because of lack of knowledge, technology or any thing > similar, but by design.
Umm, no, not really. It most certainly *is* because of the lack of knowledge, technology, time, people and many other resources. It is not easy to provide any non-trivial end-user services based on OSM data - mainly because there is *a lot* of data. Take any example, like clickable POIs, better history, routing, search. If anyone wants to take such services to Google Maps level (so search "just works" for a change) then it WILL be hard to implement. Don't spread misinformation that anything is "by design". If there were people to tackle those hard tasks then would anyone say "no" because "that's our design"? I don't think so. On Tue, Jul 9, 2013, at 8:29, Simon Poole wrote: > > Guillaume > > I've answered some of your questions directly on your OSM blog. > > Here just some general remarks: at least since I've been involved with > OSM and likely for a whole lot longer, the tension between what we have > stated as the primary function of the main site, providing tools for our > contributors to add and edit data, and the expectation that it should be > something more google-ish has been very apparent. At times, mostly just > to drive the point home, it has been suggested that it might be best to > get rid of the map on the front page completely. > > Now I think there is some consensus that "the Map" is an important > marketing tool that we need to attract more contributors, well at least > keep them interested for a couple seconds so that we can tell them our > story. But that is likely where the consensus stops and that is one of > the reasons (outside of resources) why there hasn't been much visible > expansion of services on OSM over the last years. > > Providing more services to "end users" would have a lot of consequences, > for example it would start encroaching on the business of third parties > providing such services now (we naturally already do this with the > current site to a certain point), at least raising the bar of what you > would need to provide to differentiate your service from OSM. Providing > a full blown end-user site would also require substantially more > resources than we have at our disposal and would likely mean that our > current "all volunteer" model both for operations and administration > would no longer be workable. > > There are some clear downsides to our current "business model" for > example our main "brand" is not exposed as much as if we were running > 4square, MapQuest Open etc., and on the other hand interesting services > for end users that exist don't profit from the OpenStreetMap label as > they could do. > > The important part is to understand that the current lack of end-user > services is not because of lack of knowledge, technology or any thing > similar, but by design. Now the communities thinking about that may > change, but because we are travelling in largely uncharted territory, it > is not a surprise that change comes slowly. > > Simon > > > > > Am 09.07.2013 06:41, schrieb Guillaume Pratte: > > Hello, > > > > I have been a serious user of OpenStreetMap for less than six months, and I > > am proud to recently have achieved my one hundredth contribution to the > > project. I really love the OpenStreetMap project, and I would like to > > replace my daily usage of Google Maps with OpenStreetMap. > > > > But it just seems I cannot. Anybody else feel the same issues? > > > > I'll give a few concrete examples why, humbly hoping that my words can > > encourage changes to the main website. > > > > First point: searching. I have OpenStreetMap zoomed in to some region of > > Montreal, Canada. I input "café", looking for a coffee shop. I get results > > from Nominatim, inviting me to visit a village in Brazil named "Café" or > > even the "Café point" in Antarctica. While these search results awaken my > > globetrotter's desire to explore the world, they frustrate me at the same > > time. Why couldn't Nominatim priorize results from the bounding box or > > surrounding? Why can't OpenStreetMap show me results on the map like the > > OverPass API does, performing a search on the tag amenity=cafe and showing > > the results on the map? > > > > Second point: accessing POI information. I cannot click on point of > > interests (POI) to get more info about them. Why do we input address, > > business hours and phone numbers on shops and restaurants if the map cannot > > easily display this information to the user? Why do I have to show the > > map's data in order to have information on a point of interest? > > > > Third point: maximum zoom level. Some area are densely populated, and > > OpenStreetMap's current zoom level is not enough to see all details of the > > map. This is really unfortunate. Example: http://osm.org/go/cIrNs6Qzp-- > > What are the restaurant surrounding the Hard Rock Café on this map? I have > > to use the editor to be able to zoom and see all data. > > > > Fourth point: sharing a point of interest. There should be an easy way to > > do that. I have found a (complicated) way to do it, which is all but > > obvious to newcomers. Here is how: > > > > • Using the layer icon at the top right of the map, I select "Browse > > Map Data"; > > • I select the object I want to share (which is not always possible; > > sometimes it is "hidden" behind a residential area or similar); > > • I click on "Details" > > • On the resulting page, I click on "View way on larger map" > > • I get an URL similar to this that I can share: > > http://www.openstreetmap.org/?way=225637513 > > > > Fifth point: routing. Why is there absolutely no routing implemented on the > > main OpenStreetMap website? This is I concede a naïve question, as it might > > be simply because of limited server resources. Once we have our new > > servers, is this something we want to implement, as a community? > > > > I really like the OpenStreetMap project, and I dream to be able to use it > > as a primary map instead of Google Maps. I feel resolving these issues > > would bring me many steps closer to making that dream come true. > > > > What do you all think? Do you also have showstoppers that prevent you to > > use OpenStreetMap as your primary and daily map? > > > > Guillaume > > _______________________________________________ > > talk mailing list > > talk@openstreetmap.org > > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk > > > > _______________________________________________ > talk mailing list > talk@openstreetmap.org > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
