

OpenStreetMap: The Next Wave Of Commoditization For Startups - bergie
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111228/13082217217/openstreetmap-next-wave-commoditization-startups.shtml

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bergie
The original post from Nestoria that this article refers to was already on HN
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3392851>), but I felt that this quote
plays pretty well also into today's discussion about why startups don't use
.Net:

 _Open source allows people to get prototypes up and running for the price of
a PC, which is great for trying out ideas with live code. And yet despite
these zero-cost origins, open source software scales up to supercomputing
levels - the perfect solution for startups that hope to grow._

 _Today, no startup would consider doing it any other way, which means that
the initial competitive advantage of taking the open source route has largely
vanished_

In my view, the big advantage with OSM is that you get the actual data, not
just pretty map pictures. This allows you to do all kinds of rendering
changes, but also to use the data for searches, geocoding, and other things.

