OpenStreetMap 20 週年創辦人 Steve Coast 文章翻譯

The Days Are Long but the Years Are Short

日子還是要過下去但已經過不少年歲了

Steve Coast
史帝夫‧科斯特

Two decades ago, I knew that a wiki map of the world would work. It seemed obvious in light of the success of Wikipedia and Linux. But I didn't know that OpenStreetMap would work until much later.

20年前，我知道 wiki 方式運作的世界地圖能夠運作，因為已經出現維基百科與 Linux 的成功案例。但我並不知道要過比我想得還要久的時間，開放街圖才被證明能夠運作。

I was showing someone new to OSM how to add data to the map. I would ask for a place they knew well, zoom in to that area and then find something to fix. The key was to get a quick win by showing the map before and after they had made it better. Get a little shot of dopamine for making the world a slightly better place.

以前我曾經向新人介紹如何加資料到開放街圖上面，我通常會問他熟悉的地方，放大那個地方的層級，並找出可以改善的地方。而最重要的事情，是要比對改善前與改善後的對照圖，讓投入者如同沉浸在多巴安當中改善這個世界

This person asked to look at Cuba.

那天遇到的人卻想要看看古巴。

This presented a challenge, and I had to manage expectations. OpenStreetMap at the time had okay maps of major Western countries but my expectation, as I explained to them, was that Cuba would be a blank empty slate.

我預期結果可能不會太好，並且也事先提醒他降低他的期待，開放街圖主要為歐美人士參與的計畫，歐美國家大都已經繪製到可接受的程度，但古巴卻可能會呈現一片空白。

Cuba was doubly tricky not just because of economic factors that limit peoples free time and ability to contribute to open projects, but also the internet was (effectively if not actually) banned and computers illegal.

古巴的狀況是雙重挑戰，一來經濟狀況限制人民時間與能力參與開放計畫，另外是網路狀況 (有效但非實際) 被禁止而用電腦是非法行為。

Zooming in to Cuba that day was the last time I was surprised by OSM, and when I stopped worrying about it working as a project: Cuba had roads, parks, hospitals and everything else imaginable already mapped.

那一天放大到古巴是我最後一次對開放街圖感到驚訝的一天，並且不再煩惱整體計畫了：古巴不僅有道路、公園、醫院，任何你想得到的事物都有繪製上去了。

…

OpenStreetMap has grown exponentially or quadratically over the last twenty years depending on the metric you’re interested in. My involvement has waxed and waned like soul mates oscillating between rapture and, inevitably, wanting the best for each other in our post-relationship new lives.

視你所採用的指標，過去二十年開放街圖以指數會倍數成長。我的參與如同悲喜參雜的靈魂伴侶一樣，彼此祝福關係結束後的發展。

The story isn’t so much about the data and technology, and it never was. It’s the people.

這整個故事並非資料或是技術，而且從來不是，而是參與其中的人。

Like John Boyd said, it’s the people then the ideas and then the technology. Not the other way around.

就如同約翰‧伯德所說，參與的人大於想法大於技術，而非反過來。

People: The people that wanted to map just weren’t in the existing camps by definition. They largely didn’t work in geography at all. They just wanted a way to make a map better. Governments, universities and companies had lists of reasons why public mapping wasn’t possible, but no actual solution.

人：參與的人並非定義當中既有領域的人。絕大多數人都不是地理領域的人，他們只想製作更好的地圖。而政府、大學與公司列出無數理說公眾地圖並沒有可能，也不會有實際的解決方案。

Ideas: Allowing volunteers to edit a map in 2004 was simply anathema and bordering on unthinkable. Map data was supposed to be controlled, authorized and carefully managed by a priesthood of managers.

想法：2004年時允許志工編輯地圖只不過是惡夢與不可想像的事情，地圖資料本應被管制，應該由廟堂當中的權威人士小心管理。

Technology: For those not in the industry, you might not know that OSM essentially did the opposite of what academic and the leading technology platforms at the time advocated. It needed a data model designed for volunteers not paid editors. So, we did tags not ontologies, and nodes and ways, not web feature service.

技術：對於非業界的人來說，你也許不知道 OSM 基本上在做學界與業界龍頭公司相反的事情。OSM 需要設計出志工參與其中而非付費編輯的資料模式。所以，我們訂出標籤而不非本體，採用節點和路徑，而不是網路圖徵服務。

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. - Newton

我並不知道什麼會出現在這世界，但我自己只不過是海灘玩耍的男孩，被分心在現在與之前，找到更滑順的珍珠或是比一般更漂亮的貝殼，在我面前是未被發現的真相大海。 - 牛頓

OpenStreetMap managed to map the world and give the data away for free for almost no money at all. It managed to sidestep almost all the problems that Wikipedia has by virtue of only representing facts not opinions.

開放街圖管理世界的地圖，並且將資料自由釋出，並且幾乎不用錢。並且避免維基百科所遭遇的問，只記錄事實而非觀點。

The project itself is remarkable. And it’s wonderful that so many are in love with it.

計畫整體達成相當大的成就，難怪大家都會愛這個計畫。

…

For me though, I’m far more fascinated with what are the other pebbles on the beach. What else can we make for almost no money that will radically change the world for the better?

對我來說，我對海灘的其他珍珠更感興趣，有什麼比起幾手不用錢就能夠劇烈改變世界更好？

If OpenStreetMap is a medium, what is the message?

如果開放街圖是媒介，那什麼是訊息？

For me it’s that we can go from nothing to something, or zero to one. Many of us love critiquing something that exists or maybe even improving it. But, my boyish naiveté was assuming that there were lots of other people out there also trying to build new things. Tautologically this simply can’t be true, for if everyone was making new things for any period of time we’d be much further along the various technological curves.

對我來說是從無到有的過程，許多人批評既有事物，或是投入改善。不過我相當男孩氣的一面卻假定有其他人重新造輪子。套套邏輯來說這不可能為真，假若每個人都在做新東西，那麼我們的技術發展曲線進度會飛快。

What stops us from doing new things? There seems to be a million reasons and two opposing forces keeping us in inaction: fear and vanity.

什麼阻止我們從事新事物？可能有上萬種理由，而有主要兩個原因阻止我們行動：恐懼與虛榮。

Fear of actually building something and showing it to people will push you from one side, and vainly falling in love with the idea itself will pull you the other way. These forces will perfectly balance like the tides. You’ll be stuck in the gravity well of some dead Lagrange point neither executing on the idea nor killing it.

恐懼你向別人展示新事物，而別人反應不佳，而虛榮心導致往錯誤的方向進行。這些力量會如同海浪般完美平衡。你會被重力井吸住或是其他死結，或是執行你的想法而捏熄新事物火苗。

Not everyone has ideas, but if you do, I encourage you to go do the thing.

並非每個人都有想法，但如果有的話，我鼓勵你盡情可能發揮。

When you do the thing, most likely you’ll have to kill it. New things tend to not work, or you have to change them drastically. OpenStreetMap’s first 4 or so major versions were all radically different from each other and relied on feedback from the world to make it something that would work.

當你著手進行事情的時候，絕大部分情形需要親自捏熄。新事物傾向無法運作，而且你需要大幅調整。開放街圖的前四個版本或是其他主要版本都彼此差異甚大，並且需要分佈在世界上各地的人的回饋意見，才能達成可以運作的版本。

Killing all the new things means you have to try many of them. This too is reflected in OSM, where I actually started about ten ideas at the time. OSM took off. One was taken over. The rest were strangled to death by reality meeting vanity.

捏熄新事物火苗意味著不停嘗試很多事情，而這在　OSM 過往都曾發生過，我曾在那時候有十項想法。最後是 OSM 成功了。每當有一項成功了，其他的火苗都會被現實所捏熄。

…

So, celebrate all that we have achieved. It’s been amazing.

所以我們來慶賀我們已經達成的目標，成果已經相當驚奇了。

And then please turn the wheel and look to windward and consider how to kill it, by making something new or better.

接著繼續轉動輪子，感受風向並藉由做新事物或改善事物的狀況結束原來的事物。