Comment by Freak_NL
5 years ago
> Organic Maps is an Android & iOS offline maps app for travelers, tourists, hikers, and cyclists based on top of crowd-sourced OpenStreetMap data […]
Good to see the source data mentioned right at the top, where it should be.
> […] and curated with love by MAPS.ME founders.
What does that mean? Not the nonsensical 'with love' part (that sounds unpleasantly sticky), but the curation; what is being curated? Is the source map data being hand-picked or modified, or is this just an opaque term for 'we built an app that gives you OSM in a handy offline format with custom rendering'?
Organic Maps is a fork of MAPS.ME, after MAPS.ME jumped the shark and pivoted to something involving cryptocurency.
I think that "curated" refers to maintenance/development of the open-source project.
By "curated ... by MAPS.ME fouders" they mean that the Organic Maps maintainers include founders of the original MAPS.ME project (e.e.g, biodrankik is Alexander Borsuk, a former co-foudner, CEO, CTO of MAPS.ME [1,2]), which suggests that they have the experience to continue updating the app.
[1]: https://github.com/biodranik [2]: https://alex.bio/
Should motorways be shown first at zoom level 3 or 4? Some countries will look cluttered with them at zoom 3, but they're useful for very long route planning.
Should railways be feint and almost invisible (like Google Maps) or dark (like the OpenStreetMap default theme)? In many countries, they're very useful even for pedestrian navigation, "turn right after the railway bridge" etc, but I assume in the USA they're considered clutter.
What points of interest should be shown first, major tourist attractions or landmarks, or large shops?
Should gardens be green (almost everyone), or do we just ignore them and leave them grey (Google Maps)?
There are a lot of decisions that go into designing a map, even using Open Street Map data.
It's a reasonable word for the many interpretive choices that go into translating data into a map. What to include, when to show it, etc.
I realize it's no small feat to take the firehose of data you get from OSM and turn it into something usable. Other apps like OsmAnd have several presets and lots of knobs you can tweak to (hopefully) display the map exactly as you want it, but most users are too lazy for that, so there is definitely a niche for an app using a single algorithm that fits most use cases...
...but "curated with love by MAPS.ME founders", with "OpenStreetMap data" right before it, definitely sounds like some kind of manual process is involved - because that's what a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curator does, and that's usually a real person, not an algorithm. So, if it's an algorithm, the text is misleading.
But it isn't "an algorithm", it's hundreds or thousands of decisions about how to interpret data.
For instance, https://cycle.travel uses different rules to interpret data in different countries, because between differences in mapping practices, differences in infrastructure and differences in laws, you need to do that to have a good experience.
3 replies →
I was previously a big fan of Maps.me but they recently introduced a "Wallet" feature which is just really wired for a Navigation app to offer. Just looking at the UI of this app it looks like an "OSS" version where all the extra features are tossed out.
Huge thanks to the authors of this.
Openstreetmaps provides a lot more data than you see in the OSM map. You choose which data, such as terrain and road types, the user sees and therefore you could call it curation.
> What does that mean?
Most likely it is a direct translation from Russian by a non-native English speaker. I guess "curated" should have been "developed" or some other similar word.
Unlikely, as there’s no Russian verb that directly corresponds to “curate”; the loanword курировать kurir|ovatʹ is (of course) etymologically related but refers to managing, mentoring, or otherwise overseeing people or organizations, not things, and the sense of using one’s judgment to choose and present a subset of a collection is instead usually expressed by a word (roughly) meaning “select, choose” that does not convey an implication of being in charge. Neither has much to do with the words for “code”, “program”, or “develop”.
(Source: native speaker.)
I’m somewhat surprised by the reaction here. Does “curating” a map really sound so wrong? One can curate libraries, museums, exhibitions, bibliographies, or other sorts of collections, so is sifting OSM data in order to get something presentable so different? I’d have said “lovingly curated” rather than “curated with love”, but that’s another matter.
They are balking simply because "curated" is a word that's become trendy for years in the tech/startup world and they are tired of hearing it.
I think it's rather about the amounts of data we're talking about. It's not practical to manually select OSM data for the world. An open source project of this size could maybe do it for a bigger city. But this is obviously not limited to a city.
So what does "curate" mean in that sentence?
2 replies →
There's nothing wrong with the English word "curated". I think pp is being a little punctilious. The writer just means that they aren't giving you a random data dump, they've engaged in some activity analogous to e.g. the curator of a museum, to select which data is worth showing. Pp is asking "does this mean that they have made a specific decision about all the data that is shown?" when I think it means they've probably tweaked parameters to show information they find useful given various densities and contexts.
How good their curation is remains to be seen of course.
Yes that is what I thought. They have developed a style, icons, colour scheme etc for the app. To show you the data in a visually pleasing for that they think is good.
The standard osm app is already offline, although the ux could be improved
There is no standard osm app on iOS. Top hit is OsmAnd and it's not free.
OsmAnd has two versions on the Play Store. One free and one paid (OsmAnd+). On F-Droid OsmAnd+ is available for free.
7 replies →
There is a free version, but with the free version you can only download a limited number of "regions" (a "region" could be a small country or a subdivision of a larger country).
I thought a highly functional version was Magic Earth.