You get what you pay for.Was there ever a putdown more easily falsifiable?
You pay nothing for PostGIS. Is the value to you nothing? You pay nothing for Wikipedia. Is the value to you nothing? You pay nothing for Open Street Map, is the value to you... nothing? Clearly, you, and everyone, gets more than what they pay for.
Now, there are many arguments to be made and beers to be drunk over whether what you get is enough for all possible purposes of all possible people. Some think that the trend in open knowledge is so strong that even that goal is within reach. Me, not so much.
But clearly, everyone has access to these resources, for free, and what they get in return is more than what they paid.
8 comments:
Paul,
I think in some ways you are both right.
I work for the City of Surrey, here in BC and just downloaded a copy of the City's street network off Cloudmade in a shapefile format. Now in general terms, if you are going to use that to simply make a map, it's great, fantastic, and easy enough for those simple purposes. In this case, you do get more than what you pay for.
Now if you are going to use this OSM data for some fancy, schmancy geoanalysis, you (as a geoprofessional) are going to be hooped. The data from Cloudmade (ergo, OSM) looks like sh*t. There's waaaaay too many road classifications. Best to call the City and pay for the data and get all the data richness you can love.
That being said, as a City guy, I do appreciate the fact that volunteers are mapping out walking and cycling type paths on OSM. It's really good for that sort of thing that we, at the City, just can't track everyday. (We gotta map out stuff we use and maintain after all....)
Cheers
CS
"The data from Cloudmade (ergo, OSM) looks like sh*t. There's waaaaay too many road classifications. Best to call the City and pay for the data and get all the data richness you can love."
Alternately, you can just download OSM data into QuantumGIS, save it locally as a shapefile, then alter the data to your heart's content. I know it can difficult to work with data that classifies streets with designations like 'primary' or 'secondary', as opposed to far more useful classifications such as '4', but with a little determination I'm sure you can get the hang of it.
Paul:
I am not knocking OSM. Just before "You get what you pay for" I had this: "Collaborative mapping certainly has its place in the GIS ecosystem, but it is often misunderstood, and on occasion misrepresented." The misrepresentation is what I have a problem with, but clearly failed to get across in my blog post.
I think the issue is what motivates people to volunteer their efforts. I suspect the recession is hitting wikipedia harder than open source software.
Voluntarily programming open source is a viable way for an unemployed programmer to gain recognition of a potential employers/clients.
However, I don't think volunteering content to wikipedia is a very good way to gain employment.
Kirk: YES! The issue is also what *unmotivates* people to volunteer their efforts. Any volunteer-based system must have a clear understanding of these issues. So must users who plan to rely on said systems.
Honestly, my problem was not with your argument in toto, but your choice of phrase. That one really sets me off. :) However, Wikipedia and OSM and open source have always been pretty improbable phenomena. They didn't seem possible back then, and they don't seem possible now -- and yet, there they are. So my faith is pretty strong. If Wikipedia is going throw a phase where institutional trappings are balanced with open philosophy, so much the better. OSM will get there too, as more and more people rely on the data. And OSM has a lot in common with open source which will probably drive the professionalization of OSM maintenance in the same way open source development is increasingly professionalized. Companies and organizations with a stake in using OSM data will contribute resources on the margins to keep the parts they care about up to date.
I agree. Professionalization will bring to OSM responsibility, reliability, stability, predictability, and longevity. Much like marriage does to a passionate love affair.
If you don't contribute, you definitely get more than you paid for.
Personally, I've donated hundreds of GPS traces and many hours collecting and tracing them. I have received access to my mapping online and on my Garmin so I think I've had a fair deal, even if it wasn't as economical with my time as just buying the maps. (the OSM map is more accurate than any other map in this area now)
It's a good model, it will be interesting to see it mature.
Michael
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