[OSGeo-Discuss] The Rise of Open Street Map as a World Mapping Agency

[Peter Mooney]

Hello everyone, Hello Suchith,

The idea of OpenStreetMap (OSM) as a World Mapping Agency is very exciting.
In many ways it is already happening. Through the OSM API, Geofabrik,
Mapzen, etc etc I can easily access high quality, up-to-date geographic for
any region, city or country in the world. Or indeed the whole world! I
could never have imagined this being possible when I first encountered
geographical data as an undergraduate, many years ago.

It is the right time for discussion of this topic. However, the danger, as
alluded to precisely by Till and Benoît, is not including all relevant
parties in this important and exciting discussion. There are many voices,
many inputs.

For example take OSGeo: OSGeo software powers many OSM services, it
provides people like myself with the tools required to access OSM data, to
work with the data, to analyse/manage/visualise, etc etc.

Also consider the most valuable components of OSM as a World Mapping Agency
- the OSM contributors! How do they use OSGeo software? How do they use
other FOSS4G? What are their opinions on OSM current and future?

Consider the academic research community - how are they using OSM? What
benefits can they bring to OSM as a World Mapping Agency?

And many others...

Unfortunately I won't be able to make the Barcelona meeting, at such short
notice.

But I am eager to be involved in this discussion and subsequent actions
arising from it.

On Thu, Mar 2, 2017 at 10:09 AM, Benoit Fournier <ben.fournier at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Suchith Anand wrote:
> > [...] to further discuss ideas on the rise of Open Street Map
> > (OSM) as a World Mapping Agency (WMA) build by the efforts of thousands
> of
> > volunteers.   It is also interesting to see the community links of the
> Open
> > Street Map and  the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) expanding
> > rapidly both locally and globally. OSM has now reaching the level of a
> > Global Mapping Agency build by the efforts of thousands of volunteers and
> > OSGeo is the world's largest geospatial ecosystem.  What a great
> combination
> > of synergies. Both initiatives are just over a decade  old and have
> > fundamentally changed the whole geolandscape.
>
> What a great way to describe and connect these two wonderful projects
> and communities!
> Thank you Suchith.
>
>
> > Myself and colleagues are working on a paper on OSM and OSGeo and i want
> to
> > use this meeting to discuss more ideas with the community. I look
> forward to
> > welcome you all to RDA meeting in Barcelona.
>
> I am not sure that all interested people could make it to the RDA
> meeting, quite unfortunately.
> I think this is even more true for the OSM community; indeed my
> feeling is that the average OSM volunteer is less
> expert/professional/academic than the average OSGeo volunteer.
>
> If you and your coworkers do not have great familiarity with the OSM
> community and ecosystem, I would respectfully suggest that you try to
> engage with an academic with this expertise.
> Furthermore, I think you should also try to connect with the OSM
> community at large, just like you just did with the public mailing
> list for the OSGeo community.
>
> I will be happy to help you on both aspects if you need assistance to
> connect.
>
>
> > Best wishes
>
> Best wishes for your work, discussion and paper!
>
> A final nitpick about rather common spelling mistakes:
> "OpenStreetMap" is written 'upper camel case' without spaces.
> Please avoid "Open Street Map", "Openstreet Maps", "Openstreetmap"...
>
>
> Thanks again for all your efforts and sharing
>
> Benoît
>
> OpenStreetMap / OSGeo France
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>
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