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Not really. But Linux would not be what it is today if not for Red Hat historically and Ubuntu today. There needs to be a canonical (no pun intended) use case.

libpcap has tcpdump. linux has ubuntu. http has nginx (and previously, apache).

It would be great if there were a canonical frontend stack for OSM that we could all hack on to make as usable as Google Maps. It should be hosted somewhere central but also ship with easy chef or puppet configs to deploy a stack yourself easily.

I'd get tons of use out of something like that, and I'd contribute to the code, too.



Having used a few map services and utility libraries, I prefer that we aim towards more modular and distributed territory with geospatial technologies.

Monolithic engines are great for getting 80% of what your exact requirements are, then you're stuck with a bulky system that you're probably only using 10% of, and it doesn't do the other 10% of what you need.

Something like leaflet.js is nice because it gives you a simple way to present layers on a device, and it's modular meaning you can plug in extra behaviors or develop your own easily.

If a similar approach were taken for the other problem areas, like route finding, traffic monitoring, etc, I'd much prefer that over a bulky platform I'd never want to use the entirety of for any one project.

Of course once these modular components mature enough, no doubt soon, they will be packaged into some service that with a few simple clicks of a button generates the right combination to suit your requirement.

tl;dr OSM should do the data collation and serving and be good at that. Other services should spring up to do their magic with that data. And yet other services should provide easy ways to thread it altogether for a whole world of possible use-cases. (all IMHO of course...)


There are already several javascript libraries that use OSM tiles out there, most popular being OpenLayers[0] which offers an comprehensive API and Cloudmade's Leaflet[1]

[0] http://openlayers.org/ [1] http://leafletjs.com/




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