OpenStreetMap charts a controversial new direction

Re:OpenStreetMap charts a controversial new direction by AshamedCaptain on Friday February 19, 2021 @12:32PM (#26195521)

"Difficult to access" here may have meant going to your national/state mapping bureau (or however it's called) and physically buying a printed copy of the maps. It's not necessarily that they "prevented people from accessing data that they funded", or at least it was not around here, just that getting maps required physical movement which I guess these days qualifies as "difficult to access".

I (and several others) used to trace these maps (by hand, using OziExplorer) then offer them for download in Garmin/MapDekode format. OSM didn't even exist at the point.

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Re:OpenStreetMap charts a controversial new direction by R0b0t1 on Friday February 19, 2021 @12:57PM (#26195836)

The data to generate the maps is likely digital, and not being able to obtain a digital copy of the data would qualify as inaccessible.

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Re:OpenStreetMap charts a controversial new direction by reaperducer on Friday February 19, 2021 @01:01PM (#26195888)

It was possible to obtain a digital copy, but you needed special equipment.

Most government data was only available on 9-track tapes. So few media outlets had the necessary equipment that reporters' groups would publish step-by-step information about how to get it done, and with what hardware.

On the consumer level? Forget about it.

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Re:OpenStreetMap charts a controversial new direction by fabianhjr on Friday February 19, 2021 @01:05PM (#26195936)

Cartography predates computers, many maps were kept as the majority of technical documents are kept: in a physical archive.

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Re:OpenStreetMap charts a controversial new direction by nitrogen on Friday February 19, 2021 @02:24PM (#26196925)

Yes, but digital maps are old enough that my elementary school had a networked GIS package to show us maps in the computer lab in the early 90s, and it's much older than that.

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Re:OpenStreetMap charts a controversial new direction by jlarocco on Friday February 19, 2021 @06:36PM (#26199527)

That hasn't always been true. USGS topo maps, for example, were originally drawn and plotted on paper and had to be digitized. At one point, I think they had a way to request a digital scan, but there was a processing fee.

Now almost all of that data available online for free from their website, and they have ways to access it in bulk and via API.

I think the bigger problem nowadays is accessing GIS data from different cities and local governments. Many states and cities put the data online, but each one organizes it differently, possibly in different formats, with different methods for accessing it.

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