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Exactly—OpenStreetMap would get more contributions if they had more users. People want to help others, but it's not clear how contributing to OSM does this whe
by panic 8y ago
Exactly—OpenStreetMap would get more contributions if they had more users. People want to help others, but it's not clear how contributing to OSM does this when so few people use their website.
- Sir_Cmpwn 8y agoThis is a chicken and egg problem. If you want to support the ideas OSM represents your only course of action is to do so. Complaining that people aren't using it is a defeatist attitude. And in any case, a lot more people benefit from OSM than you know. Consider that it's not just a website with a map on it, but a downloadable map you can do whatever you want with. There's no other free & public source on geography that even comes close to OSM's detail. And OSM is genuinely better for end-users than Google Maps in many respects.
- panic 8y agoI'm not complaining, just trying to explain why people don't want to contribute as much. You get the feeling you're doing work for an organization rather than improving a product for everyone. Some people are into that, but I think more people would contribute if OSM had a more usable product.
- Freak_NL 8y agoAs opposed to doing unpaid volunteer work for megacorporation Google? With OpenStreetMap the data I contribute is placed under a free software license and can be reused by anyone; I actively contribute to a community resource, rather than a proprietary database increasing some company's shareholder value.