[OSGeo-Discuss] The Rise of OpenStreetMap as a World Mapping Agency

[Suchith Anand]

Fully agree Peter. In fact, having the expertise of colleagues like you, Vyron and all is very important. This is just the start of the discussions. We need to include all these ideas and inputs. I am also trying to setup tele meeting facilities for RDA Geospatial IG meeting, so those interested can join remotely as well.

Best wishes,

Suchith

________________________________________
From: Peter Mooney <petermooney78 at gmail.com>
Sent: 02 March 2017 11:24 AM
To: Benoit Fournier
Cc: Anand Suchith; discuss at lists.osgeo.org; geoforall at lists.osgeo.org
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] The Rise of Open Street Map as a World Mapping Agency

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<mailto: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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