Ushahidi Mailing Lists

Hi all,

This reminds me of an extra requirement I have for a project:

"I want my ushahidi instance to completely run open source and open data"...
and also to completely run offline.

Using TileCache and OSM makes it fairly easy (although an option in
the admin interface would be fantastic). I've not done anything about
geonames, though, but I can't imagine it's too hard to make offline.

Aside, another great extra I've found with using OSM is that you can
then make it easy to let users edit the map (with a simple
click-on-the-map-to-potlatch addition to your markup), which is an
important feature of some projects.

Max.
PS. Happy new year all!


On 1 January 2011 21:12, Erik Hersman <erik@...> wrote:
> It's the right place Chris, just most people are offline this week for the
> holidays.  :)
> Erik Hersman
>
> www.ushahidi.com | www.iHub.co.ke
> www.afrigadget.com | www.whiteafrican.com | @whiteafrican
> US: 407.427.0412 | Kenya: +254 729.157.257 | Skype: ezungu
> On Jan 1, 2011, at 10:46 PM, Chris Blow wrote:
>
> Cool thanks Erik.
> Let me know if there is a more appropriate forum for brainstorming stuff
> like this!
> Cheers
> c
> On Dec 31, 2010, at 12:09 PM, Erik Hersman wrote:
>
> Hey Chris,
> Thanks for putting so much thought into this.  I can see by your mockup that
> you're trying to help us with a solution that could work for both sides.
>  All the devs are on this list, but since this has to do with design and
> usability, I'll talk it over with Caleb once the holiday is over.
> Erik Hersman
>
> www.ushahidi.com | www.iHub.co.ke
> www.afrigadget.com | www.whiteafrican.com | @whiteafrican
> US: 407.427.0412 | Kenya: +254 729.157.257 | Skype: ezungu
> On Dec 30, 2010, at 12:50 PM, Chris Blow wrote:
>
> Really interesting thread! I've been thinking about it all day.
> I see Ushahidi as a major catalyst in the open geodata community — and so I
> think it would be a missed opportunity to remain completely neutral on this
> important choice. But naturally I can see Erik's perspective that, on a
> practical level, some people just don't care about this, they just want a
> detailed map. I have a mockup (below) to split the different.
> But actually, my initial concern was purely pragmatic, about the usability
> issue with the error popping up. I just have seen that error so many times,
> on every installation, just when I think I am done with the install. :P
> I realize this seems trivial to fix for everyone on this list! But I fear
> that many of Ushahidi's users:
> - will not understand the term "API key"
> - will not have a Google account to create an API key
> - will not understand the concept of map baselayers, that they can be
> changed
> So in this sense the OSM option can be seen as the "easy setup" option —
> which is the very boring reason why I use OSM on all of my local development
> instances. It's just faster to get it running.
> Also, notably, in some cases OSM is actually more detailed than Google. (And
> for many major cities, OSM is functionally equivalent.)
> I remember last year when a high-profile Afghanistan instance was set to
> Google Maps even though OSM had a vastly more detailed map. It really was
> frustrating — we were trying to communicate with the map administrator, but
> he just didn't understand it, or was unwilling to change it. There was so
> much parallel work going into the map in the OSM community ...
> This was Kabul in Google during the
> elections: http://www.flickr.com/photos/unthinkingly/3838485026/in/photostream/
> The same view in OSM at the
> time: http://www.flickr.com/photos/unthinkingly/3838483594/in/photostream/
> And I can see this happening again in the future, especially now that OSM
> can use Bing for tracing. OSM has velocity now, and a team of humanitarian
> mappers who are deploying in many of the same areas as Ushahidi. So, some
> areas are exploding with mapping in response to humanitarian problems, and
> the OSM vs. GOOG equation is not the same as it is globally. (For example
> Ivory Coast has seen a bunch of edits lately in response to conflict and may
> eclipse Google quickly.)
> Anyway, I did a mockup of what I think would be a win-win:
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/unthinkingly/5306122918/
> Design goals in this mockup:
> - to avoid the API key error by moving the final map setup step into the
> installer process
> - to make sure the values of each map's strengths are more clearly stated in
> plain language
> - that the map coverage is easy to compare on a per-city basis
> - help the user generally understand that they can change this aspect of the
> page
> - make it clearer that choosing Google will require an extra step
> would love feedback,
> c
>
> On Dec 29, 2010, at 5:22 PM, Milo van der Linden wrote:
>
> Would it be an option to select something like:
>
> "I want my ushahidi instance to completely run open source and open data"
>
> which gives people the possibility to follow their ideal? In that
> case, geocoding through google and geonames would also need to be
> turned off and replaced by nominatim?
>
>
>
> 2010/12/29 george chamales <george@...>:
>
> In addition, I believe that the system uses Google to do geolocation of
>
> addresses that are entered into the submit report form.
>
> George Chamales
>
> Konpa Group
>
> Mobile: +1 718.288.7718
>
> Fax:  +1 857.488.4002
>
> Skype:  notgeorge
>
> http://konpagroup.com
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 10:35 PM, Erik Hersman <erik@...> wrote:
>
> The only problem is a practical one Chris, that is that the OSM maps don't
>
> have nearly as much detail as Google does in many locations globally.  We're
>
> neutral on this topic, just pragmatic, as you saw when we switched from
>
> Google to OSM in Haiti.
>
> Erik Hersman
>
> www.ushahidi.com | www.iHub.co.ke
>
> www.afrigadget.com | www.whiteafrican.com | @whiteafrican
>
> US: 407.427.0412 | Kenya: +254 729.157.257 | Skype: ezungu
>
> On Dec 29, 2010, at 9:12 AM, Chris Blow wrote:
>
> hello, happy Christmas everyone,
>
> to me, it makes sense to me to use an OSM baselayer as the default map for
>
> several reasons:
>
> - legal: keeps the default install free of licensing issues
>
> - design: removes the google logo from the page
>
> - UX: avoids the nagging API key error (which is always my first
>
> experience upon installation)
>
> - community: strengthens a partnership with OSM, some of our strongest and
>
> most important friends IMO
>
> thoughts?
>
> Cheers
>
> c
>
>
>
>
>
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