Talk:Commercial OSM Software and Services

Discuss the Commercial OSM Software and Services page here:

---

Link format

The [[Wikilink]] ([http://example.com example.com]) style that was used before today's edits is the standard link format. Omitting the wiki links is not a good choice, these internal links should always have first priority within the wiki. Please undo these changes. --Tordanik 12:28, 29 January 2013 (UTC)

Due to the lack of response I've now reverted this myself. --Tordanik 10:38, 30 January 2013 (UTC)

Cleaning Up the List

The list on this page contains some entries which are outdated because the companies do not exist any more or do not offer OSM-related services any more.

• Cloudmade shut down all its OSM-based services and is now a company which develops/sells software for connected and "intelligent" cars. OSM is only mentioned once on their web site – as a possible data source to be imported into their software.
• Gaigo: The domain gaigo.fr cannot be found via DNS. There is a company with a similar name but it offers "natural and innovative fertilizers".
• Geolodi: The link returns 404.
• GIS Vision: Domain not in use any more.
• IndieCartographer: The web site (a Wordpress blog) still exists but the latest entry is from 2014 and it does not offer anything and has no contact information.

There are probably more but I have just looked at A to I.

I will wait for two weeks if any complains arise here before I will update this wiki page (i.e. remove them). --Nakaner (talk) 15:16, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

I agree that maintaining such long list is now a nightmare.

Just using categories would facilitate the maintenance by separating it service by service. And would help differentiating them by purpose.

Also I do not see any value in the "Headquarter" column. May be the country/region (where the service offers maintained data) is still useful; the "languages" column tends to grow over time but will most frequently include English. It has lower value than the country/region column. If needed, it should be better to just have individual pages describing each service being translated.

That list should contain minimal info, focusing on their primary goal even if they include other features (that can be part of the last column for the summary description)

Making this list sortable gives no specific value : sorting on names when these names can easily change over time or be translated; country/regions are not easily sortable; sorting languages also does not work when there are multiple values; sorting descriptions makes no sense. If sorting the list has no value, it would be probably better to restructure it into subsections, and possibly split it on multiple pages (matching some categy names as the categories will contain more items, including historic apps/sites or those that are late in updates.

There are many ways to categorize apps/sites (just consider the many parameters that are now in individual pages for their infobox).

May be people don't like categories, but categories can be pleasing to navigate when:

• translations are properly sorted per language
• there's a navigation bar that helps traversing through sister categories (though one or several criteria) instead of having to return to parent categories, when these criteria are easily enumeratable with few values.

This is general for all wikis where list pages have open items. Lists should only be used when the sets are easily determined to be complete in a known set with few changes over time, which are related to some public announcements. Otherwise they'll be selective and will only focus on most interesting topics, or most frequently used/referenced ones.

But here we just have a long boring list of mixed items which is in fact not really easily readable and searchable (and complicate to translate with too much maintenance if there are many languages, when each translation will focus primarily only on items related to services available with basic support in their language). — Verdy_p ^(talk) 15:58, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

So I think this page (both overpopulated and still deficient with missing items) should no longer focus on listing software and services, but contain links to several categories of interest. Or it may just be archived and replaced by a redirect to a parent category containing some nav bar for direct access to the secondary sublevels on a few axis (the primary level for primary axis is already part of the category itself and will include "services by region", "services by language", and categories such as "OSM-based site design", "OSM data visualisations", "Tile hosting", "Mobile applications", "Gratis services", "Paid services"...: these categories can be structured progressively as its contents grows and needs simpler navigation with fewer choices). — Verdy_p ^(talk) 15:58, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

Here is the list of the letters K to Z I would like to remove:

• MangoMap does not seem to offer OSM based services. They offer a service to publish/share your data on top of a base map, e.g. OSM. This does not qualify for "OSM software and services" from my point of view.
• "Map Illustrator": URL points to a directory listing, containing only the directory "cgi-bin"
• Metrico: does not offer OSM services any more, it is just a surveying company
• Polymap: OSM is not mentioned on that website
• Poppy: OSM only used as a base map.
• salwach.pl: SSL certificate has been revoked, unencrypted HTTP not supported. If the problem persists, I will remove this entry.
• urbanlabs.in: website down – I hope that this is a temporary problem
• VAMOSYS: OSM is not mentioned on this website
• tepcon GmbH: OSM is not mentioned on this website

I will wait for two weeks if any complains arise here before I will update this wiki page (i.e. remove them). --Nakaner (talk) 11:43, 10 April 2017 (UTC)

Removal of companies which do not mention OSM on their website

I intend to remove the following companies from the list because they do not mention OpenStreetMap on their website apart from the required attribution and blog/news entries. This means, they do not identify themselves with the idea of a community-driven free and open map database and should not be advertised on this page.

• YellowMap
• WhereGroup
• Webmapper
• Vizzuality
• Verso
• Stadia Maps
• Targomo (mentions OSM in blog and documentation only)
• StepMap
• ScaleableMaps

List to be continued because I have not checked all companies yet. --Nakaner (talk) 14:32, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

I object on principle to the removal of companies because of some superficial criteria of not being "aligned" enough. While I don't know anything about most of these companies, I do know some WhereGroup employees are involved with the QGIS and other open data ecosystem projects. And as one of the founders of Stadia Maps, well, you can see my OSM contribution regularity (Ian Wagner (on osm, edits, contrib, heatmap, chngset com.)); we VERY much care about improving OSM data and are actively contributing back. We also contribute extensively to other "community-driven free and open map" projects built around the OSM ecosystem like Valhalla and MapLibre. We are also corporate sponsors of the OSMF and other open data projects (OSMF page; our public announcement). Ianthetechie (talk) 15:03, 11 November 2024 (UTC)

I also object to the removal on a single "mention" criterion that is not even explicitly stated anywhere. I can only speak for my company Verso, but while we do not mention OSM on our website (for now), we do not need this to "identify [ourselves] with the idea of a community-driven free and open map database". We're a corporate member of the OSMF, we're founding members of the FPOSM (French corporation of companies promoting OSM), we attend and contribute to many SotM events. We develop VROOM, an open-source optimization engine that is usable with all major open-source routing engines (OSRM, OpenRouteService and Valhalla). So we definitely fit into the OSM ecosystem -- by choice -- and help drive adoption of OSM in logistics and transportation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jcoupey (talk • contribs) 14:31, 12 November 2024‎