[Wikimedia-l] TomTom does a Britannica

[Strainu]

2012/5/29 Anthony <wikimail at inbox.org>:
>> ...if you wanna go this way, I wonder if you "go to en.wikipedia.org
>> and just use it" if you want to plant tomatoes in your garden. I know
>> I wouldn't.
>
> I wouldn't use Britannica either.  The context of the article is GPS
> navigation for automobiles.

I'm sorry, I don't quite get it. When you said that Wikipedia was
usable in the real world, I assumed you meant that you can use
Wikipedia as an encyclopedia for reference in different aspects of
daily life. Now you're saying that you can somehow use Wikipedia for
GPS navigation for automobiles?

>
> One thing I do have to admit is that my experience with OSM has mostly
> been in the United States, which I hear is a place that OSM has been
> especially poor, and a place where Google (which is what I do use) is
> especially good.

That appears to be the case. In Romania, as well as most Eastern
European countries and some Asian countries, the Google development
model is _identical_ to the one used by OSM: crowdsourcing.

Before Google Mapper, the number of roads in Romania on Google maps
was a staggering... 3. Now the number of paved roads is indeed better
than OSM (due mainly to better satellite imagery), but the level of
details doesn't even come close, and geolocation is at street level
for both.

Strainu