The status of Maps right now

[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