On Wed, 21 Jan 2009 11:53:55 -0500, Yaakov Nemoy wrote:
2009/1/21 Beartooth <Beartooth(a)swva.net>:
[...]
> Can people without linux-savvy, cartography-savvy, nor
> electronics-savvy use OSM at all?? Will this spin, perhaps, enable the
> likes of us to use it in the same way we use Garmin, Delorme, and
> MapTech products under XP?
I don't know yet. Part of it depends on the tools that OSM people use
for doing their things. Some of the tools require you understand a bit
about cartography. This is similar to Wikipedia requiring writers to
have some decent writing skills in their languages. But this just
applies to writing for Wikipedia, as in it also applies to editing OSM.
Let's keep this on the Fedora list a while, in hopes that no one
will call it too far off topic, and that others who know more than I will
join in.
I'm sure you can read wikipedia already, and there are a number
of tools
that render the data in OSM, and make it readable to the layman. There
are also a number of tools that can take OSM information and give you
good route planning on top of it. These are as easy to use as the
developers make them, but a number of them are in Fedora already. The
ultimate goal is to consolidate these packages into a single Spin.
I've been known to do a certain amount of expository writing and
make a living at it, but on very specialized topics; I wouldn't want to
add anything to wikipedia. It's a reference tool to me.
And similarly with my GPSs and topo maps. I bought the first one
ten years back, planning on its help learning my way around a new
location as soon as we both retired. To learn it, I started making my own
maps, to scale (a big difference!) of a public hunting ground where I'd
spent a dozen years' worth of weekends, hunting in season and doing trail
maintenance the rest of the time.
The results soon enthused and amazed me; two of my favorite
trails ran within fifty yards of one another for a furlong, and I hadn't
known it.
The second aspect is the overall user interface. There are a number
of
tools people use to make decent interfaces for MID devices. The real
trick is going to be integrating them, so that people will have easy
access to the OSM related tools on their MIDs.
Sorry -- what's an MID?
Are you looking to be a producer of topographical data or a consumer?
Strictly a consumer, so far as others are concerned.I doubt many
will be greatly interested in squirrel den trees and stands to watch them
from, other than an occasional old hunting buddy; and anyway, such things
change whenever a big tree falls, and also according to the mast crop.
If you're looking to become a consumer, there are a
few options, but they all rely finding a way to get the topographical
data in the database first.
I have recent proprietary topo map software from Garmin and
Delorme, and may yet acquire more from Maptech. Can I use those? (If I
don't put them into the public database, which likely already has the
same *topo* data from the same Coast & Geodetic Survey, it shouldn't
violate their copyright, nor my license to it for my personal use. Things
like rest stops and burger joints don't interest me; I'd prefer to delete
them.)
Try lobbying your local wildlife agency that
publishes this data to participate in OSM. Once the data's there, you'll
need a tool that can display it for you on a MID or similar device. If
such a tool exists that is open source, we can look at including it in
the spin, of course.
The F&W in Virginia (
http://www.dgif.virginia.gov), where I live,
and the one in Tennessee (
http://state.tn.http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/
gis/us/twra/), where my in-laws are, both already have maps, though I
don't know what sort. (VA says it has designed its own (http://
www.findgame.org/about.asp) and also mentions GIS (http://
www.dgif.virginia.gov/gis/) -- something of which I know only the
initials -- as does TN, in a couple places.) Maybe they're already usable?
> Knowing of your project, I've skimmed through the
lists carried
> on Gmane, and discovered, although 99 44/100% of what I see is over my
> head, that it does include some topographic stuff (I can't yet really
> tell what.)
It's a hobby, you have to at least start somewhere ;)
Precisely. Where? Is there already a site for true beginners? Or
might I perhaps best wait for the new spin, and work from that?
I'm strictly a user of Fedora (who wouldn't know a line of code
if it bit me), but not a completely clueless one -- I've been running it
since it was RH7. That might be worth a little bit.
> I am not sanguine that it may be user-friendly enough for
the
> likes of me, nor become so in what is left of my time; but hope springs
> eternal ....
This is one of my goals though.
Oh good. Maybe I can help a little with that; I used to swap
drafts with colleagues, asking one another, "Am I making sense to general
readers yet?)
One of the first targets i have in mind
is Windows users who show up at a Mapping Party. The goal is to provide
something they can use out of the box to participate. There will be
people there familiar with the Gnome Desktop anyways, so they will be
able to show the participants where to find applications and tools.
Hmmm ... I heard of these yesterday for the first time; I'll have
to try to find out if any are scheduled hereabouts. Is there a central
listing, like the one for LUGs? Google seems to get a lot of adventitious
hits.
--
Beartooth Staffwright, PhD, Neo-Redneck Linux Convert
Remember I know precious little of what I am talking about.