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Comment by foepys | Hacker News Reader

Some local public transportation "companies" in Germany (which are called "Anstalt des öffentlichen Rechts" - literal translation "entity of public law" - and are more or less non-profit businesses funded by the city) are using OSM data for their apps and websites and they often edit the bus/tram/train routes and stops if they change them. This is where OSM shines: public entities keeping their data up to date for the benefit of all.

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"Anstalt des öffentlichen Rechts" - literal translation "entity of public law" - and are more or less non-profit businesses funded by the city

As a point of interest, the American equivalent of this is called an "Authority." Examples include the Chicago Transit Authority, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Is that really so much different than those same companies pushing their timetable feeds directly to Google for display in GMaps?

Where does OSM provide value here and how can it beat GMaps in mindshare and keep suriving?

It’s simply more efficient to update OSM, which makes OSM more up to date.

Google maps pulled data from OSM so the government had ~zero incentives to publish to GMaps and every other mapping service directly. It’s simply more work without benefit.

PS: If I remember correct Google was on a 2 week delay for OSM data at the time, but that wasn’t considered meaningful. Also, what’s with all the hate here?

I don't know. Just ignore them, the hate is not relevant.

I can pull, analyze, and use the data I paid for with my taxes instead of having to beg Google or any other company for access to the data.

OSM is non-profit, Google is not. Google tracks the users, OSM does not.

My guess is the license is the key differentiator.

It's not just about market share. In both cases there is an intermediary between the (public) service provider and the users, which is the public. In one case the intermediary is a private entity that answers to no one; in the other case the data belongs to all of us. If you go beyond a mercantile view, it's easy which one is the best for the public in the long term.

> Where does OSM provide value here and how can it beat GMaps in mindshare and keep suriving?

OSM data is on open license, so you can take it and adapt for your own use.

In case of errors you can fix it instead of begging Google t do this.

In some places and for some types of data it is much better than Google Maps.

Google is sole entity controlling Google Maps and may suddenly do 1400% price hike (they did one already).

If you want to do anything with data - with OSM you can, with Google not.

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BTW, it is not necessary to beat GMaps in mindshare to flourish and grow.

It's easier to justify spending public money on public data, as opposed to spending money to help some foreign company.

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