On 17/02/2020 17:10, Simon Poole wrote:
it would be really nice if the community was
equally upset about misusing the OpenStreetMap brand and marks by so
many other organisations with the goal of profiting from OSMs popularity
oh, this reminds me of something!
the community is aware of the misuse of the name "OSM" for promoting
mapping activities which have very little to do with OSM? I'm referring
to, for example, courses where you learn mapping with QGIS, or whatever,
using all sources available, and which culminate with a final step of
exporting the produce into OSM. and we volunteering our time for OSM
realizing about these activities when they are closed and finished and
abandoned, and we may clean up their mess.
in one case where I managed to get in touch **before** the start of the
activity, I advised following OSM norms and respecting OSM values, and I
hinted to make a start by informing the OSM database about the locations
of their institution, as shown on a Google-based map. I got this
literal answer:
»Primeramente en ese mapa no se uso información de OSM. Pero ya veo que
en este grupo usted Mario es un burócrata.«
(obviously, the guy did not understand I was not alerting them against
using OSM data, I was hinting at putting their data into OSM, and
against importing data from Google into OSM.)
That was in David, Chiriquí, Panamá. The group had performed various
exports to OSM, some have been rolled back (they explicitly mentioned
Google as a source of data), and they shut all communication with me and
the Panama OSM Telegram group. "Our" people in David could not care
less, and I personally have not been able to contact them any more, and
I'm not sure what they now do to promote their courses to the local
university (couple of hundreds km from where I reside currently). the
OSM logo was part of their strategy. (oh, and something similar happens
occasionally from the University of Panama, Panama City.)
The events flow I observed:
- individuals interested in GIS form a group
- they can give an introductory GIS course
- they want to sell their time to a local university
- they use the name OSM to sell it better
- the local university professors know nothing about OSM, or don't care
- everything is agreed upon, prepared and executed, outside OSM
- they complete the activity on OSM: opening accounts, uploading data,
celebrating, all the same day,
- they disappear until the next year, where new people will use new
accounts.
what could go better according to me:
- we were more active promoting OSM, its existence, its strong values
and the few resulting norms. I'm not so sure how. opening some
preferential communication channel? who can do that?
in the cases I observed, I should have contacted the institutions
involved (as I tried to do), and should have reached the responsible
departments (which I did not manage), with some sort of authority (which
I do not have).
or I don't know.
can we black-list IP addresses from which such unchecked activities came in?
but yes, this is much more of an issue to me, than a antifa logo.
bests to all, and happy mapping,
MF
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