> On Sep 15, 2015, at 1:21 AM, Simon Poole <si...@poole.ch> wrote: > Over the years the expectation has been that somebody would take OSM > data and create such an end user portal, but as we know, that has never > happened outside a couple of aborted or zombie projects (three that come > to mind are MapQuest, bing and skobbler, but I'm sure there have been more). > > I once asked around what the original vision was for OSM, but nobody > seemed to be sure if originally the intention was to cater for > end-users, it definitely hasn't been the case for the majority of the > roughly 10 years the project has been around.
It was. Why that didn’t happen is a long story. As for the rest of the email - a kickstarter project would probably work, but not by committee. > In any case the main problem is that it is not possible to build a sane > commercial business plan around providing such a portal and that > providing maps is just one (now days small, thanks to OSM) part of what > a viable map portal/app would need to offer as Frederik has already > pointed out (note this is not limited to OSM, one of the reasons for the > rapid dispatching of Here/Navteq by Nokia was the failed attempt to > provide exactly such a end-user service). > > Naturally the main competitor for an audience is google which is likely > sinking billions into google maps with nearly no direct income from the > service (google doesn't actually disclose any specific numbers, what is > however known is their advertising revenue vs. other sources). I think > it is clear that competing on a commercial footing is just completely > out of the question and -not- going to happen, so Frederik is being a > bit misleading if he points to that as a realistic possibility. > > What is largely unexplored is a non-commercial operation at the level > that would be necessary to provide the missing bits and pieces. Given > the intolerance of the masses for a less than google like perfection > (see the issues Strava is having and that with an audience that > historically has been sympathetic to OSM) and the problem that you have > at least one viable commercial operator in the market, obtaining > sufficient funding is likely to be -very- difficult. > > Simon > > _______________________________________________ > talk mailing list > talk@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk