Free software, proprietary maps?

Hanno's Blog

Saturday, September 20. 2008

Free software, proprietary maps?

If you didn't know it, today is Software Freedom Day.

Just noticed that, when you surf to http://cgi.softwarefreedomday.org/map.shtml to look if there's something happening around you on SFD, you'll get a proprietary google map.

It seems that the organizers of the SFD can't look beyond one's own nose. I often saw this behaviour in parts of the free software movement (being ignorant about proprietary stuff if it's not software), but found this example especially frightening, as we have a well working alternative.
Posted by Hanno Böck in Computer culture, English, Linux at 07:33 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)
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I, too, am unpleasantly surprised.

Further, the Ubuntu Launchpad folks recently announced integration of Google maps into their online presence [1]. Great feature, but I'm curious to know if they looked into OSM. (My comment there has been in moderation for several hours as I submit this).

[1] http://news.launchpad.net/cool-new-stuff/where-is-everyone-maps-on-profile-pages
#1 Hugh Barnes on 2008-09-20 14:45 (Reply)
SFD and Launchpad are both Canonical projects. Please see https://bugs.launchpad.net/launchpad/+bug/264138 for the LP bug report.
#1.1 Bruce Cowan on 2008-09-20 23:01 (Reply)
Well done, Bruce! You already did the next step I was considering. (Might also be worth raising on the OSM talk list?)

Still no reply to the questions on Launchpad of where OSM/Openlayers falls short in functionality (and why not help it get there, even if only with feedback?). Surely they documented this decision somewhere?

… and my comment to the Launchpad News team is still in moderation! Weekend, I guess.
#1.1.1 Hugh Barnes on 2008-09-21 03:48 (Reply)

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This blog is written by Hanno Böck. Unless noted otherwise, its content is licensed as CC0.

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