Re: The status of Maps right now

[Jonas Danielsson <the sator gmail com>]

Hi again!

So we have tiles again! Thanks to Mapbox[1] tile API.

Thank you so much to all that helped out! Thanks for getting in touch
with tile providers.
And thanks for asking how you could help. Thanks to Amisha, our former
Maps intern who now
works at Mapbox, for getting our teams in touch with each other.

And a big thanks to Mattias Bengtsson who took lead in putting a
concrete solution together,
with proxy schemes and setting up phone meetings. Leaving just the
mechanical making of releases to me.

We now have a way forward for tiles, which is great, and a better
situation than before really. Minus the outage.

Jonas

[1]: http://jonasdn.blogspot.se/2016/07/maps-has-tiles-again.html
[2]: https://www.mapbox.com/


2016-07-13 7:16 GMT+02:00 Jonas Danielsson <the sator gmail com>:
> Hi!
>
> As of recently GNOME Maps can no longer fetch tiles to display. This
> is because MapQuest,
> which we use as a tile provider, changed its usage policy[1].
> And we are no longer able to use the service without paying. We have
> as of know no clear alternative.
>
> We _could_ switch to OpenStreetMap own tile servers, see patches in
> bug[2]. But we would probably
> violate the terms of service[3]. Unless we, as GNOME, could argue we
> should be allowed.
>
> This all brings me to a general status report for Maps. I have been
> absent from the project lately.
> The reason is lack of time and motivation. Day Job and family have
> been  taken front seat for awhile.
> Marcus, Andreas, Amisha and the rest of the team have been keeping up
> with some things. But we
> no-one have been making releases.
>
> I will need some help. Help with contacting OpenStreetMap. Help with
> finding solution to our tile
> issue. I think we are going to need our own tiles.gnome.org for a map
> appplication/platform
> to be feasible.
>
> Also help with making releases and reviewing patches. It is something
> I would gladly help
> someone get started with. Making a release is something anyone could do really.
>
> I am sorry for my neglect. And I hope I have not caused to much frustration.
>
> Regards
> Jonas
>
> [1]: 
> http://devblog.mapquest.com/2016/06/15/modernization-of-mapquest-results-in-changes-to-open-tile-access/
> [2]: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=764841
> [3]: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tile_usage_policy