I love this article! I always thought it was a shame the best mapping solutions have pretty much always been proprietary. What I think is a bit weird about this space, though, is I really feel...
I love this article! I always thought it was a shame the best mapping solutions have pretty much always been proprietary. What I think is a bit weird about this space, though, is I really feel like "mapping the country" seems like something a national government would have been interested in doing, and yet it seems like our main competitor to the proprietary Google Maps software is going to be a loose, distributed, decentralized collection of hobbyists and enthusiasts who are being supported by an unholy alliance of giant tech companies that are normally rivals.
Edit: Like I honestly would have expected that governments around the world would start dumping resources into improving OSM than I would have private companies...
I can say that most Australian state governments at least are putting resources towards open data sets that are prepared for incorporation into OSM, just leaving the final step to OSM contributors...
I can say that most Australian state governments at least are putting resources towards open data sets that are prepared for incorporation into OSM, just leaving the final step to OSM contributors (mostly microsoft in practice in my locale).
I attended a OSM conference today where half the speakers were from various government departments.
I didn't know OSM was getting so much usage by big corporations! This has motivated me to download StreetComplete from F-Droid to detail my local area a bit - add some personal contribution and...
I didn't know OSM was getting so much usage by big corporations! This has motivated me to download StreetComplete from F-Droid to detail my local area a bit - add some personal contribution and hopefully improve my own experience with popular services
I love this article! I always thought it was a shame the best mapping solutions have pretty much always been proprietary. What I think is a bit weird about this space, though, is I really feel like "mapping the country" seems like something a national government would have been interested in doing, and yet it seems like our main competitor to the proprietary Google Maps software is going to be a loose, distributed, decentralized collection of hobbyists and enthusiasts who are being supported by an unholy alliance of giant tech companies that are normally rivals.
Edit: Like I honestly would have expected that governments around the world would start dumping resources into improving OSM than I would have private companies...
I can say that most Australian state governments at least are putting resources towards open data sets that are prepared for incorporation into OSM, just leaving the final step to OSM contributors (mostly microsoft in practice in my locale).
I attended a OSM conference today where half the speakers were from various government departments.
I didn't know OSM was getting so much usage by big corporations! This has motivated me to download StreetComplete from F-Droid to detail my local area a bit - add some personal contribution and hopefully improve my own experience with popular services