Upload pictures to Panoramax instead of Imgur

[pietervdvn]

With a libre solution for streetview images coming to life (and Imgur potentially removing unused pictures), it is time to switch to a different image provider.

• Load linked images from Panoramax in MapComplete
• Implement an SDK for Panoramax
• Select a default host to upload to
• Move all the pictures from Imgur to Panoramax #2189
• Have 'nearby pictures' also show Panoramax images
• Actually implement uploading to Panoramax + redo the upload flow
  - This will fix Imgur upload breaks if you prematurely close window #1466, Uploading multiple images UI stuck #1472, "uploading your picture" stuck #1492
  - Also see Drag and drop images #1496 to improve discoverability of 'drag&drop' (on desktop)
• Update the mastodon-bot to download from panoramax

[pietervdvn]

Why Geovisio and not Mapillary?

Why Geovisio

1. Geovisio is open-source
2. Geovisio can be selfhosted, which means there will be a range of hosts to choose from. Even if none would suit MapComplete, one could be setup
3. Some form of federation should get implemented (but this is still far away)
4. Funded by the French IGN/OSM
5. Comes from people within the OSM-ecosystem -> big chance a server with "login with OSM" will be setup

Why not geovisio?

1. It is a very young (and thus immature project)
2. There is no easy to use SDK (yet)
3. Still some uncertainties

Why Mapillary?

1. It has been around for years and is well-known

One could argue that Mapillary has a big community of contributors. This is absolutely true - but also irrelevant as we still support showing pictures from Mapillary. It's just that pictures from MapComplete will be contributed to a different project.

Why not Mapillary?

1. It is closed-source
2. It is owned by Meta (aka Facebook inc.)
3. Even though it has been around, the API often does change significantly
4. No "login with OSM" - even though this used to exist
5. Big chance of enshittification

Wikimedia

Why Wikimedia Commons

1. It is open source
2. It is well-funded
3. It is well-known and has an ecosystem
4. It has been alive for a long time

Why not Wikimedia Commons

1. Very hard to interface with, AFAIK there is no simple-to-use library
2. Unclear whether they are the place for street-level imagery They don't want street-level imagery; pictures should depict "a noteable object" and should be "of high quality", two requirements a typical MapComplete image doesn't meet
3. Needs a ton follow-up in case that someone marks an image for deletion
4. No login with OSM

Totals

Geovisio: 5 pro - 3 con = 2 points
Mapillary: 1 pro - 6 con = -5 points
Wikimedia: 4 pro - 4 con = 0 points

[thibaultmol]

Might be good to mention here as well:
Currently Openstreetmap in general (regardless if it was added using Mapcomplete) has 26421 imgur urls.
I have a backup of all most all of them in this repo: https://github.com/thibaultmol/OSM-image-archiver
Only 18 of those 26421 are currently not working.
It seems like the imgur deletion policy, while potentially very aggressive, hasn't actually resulted in many deletions for these urls.
(It's assumed they mainly used it for NSFW images and very very very old images). So openstreetmap Imgur urls are safe for now. (and as I mentioned: the backup of the images can be found on my github repo)

[pietervdvn]

Api reference: https://panoramax.openstreetmap.fr/api/docs/swagger#/Editing

BE test instance: https://panoramax-test.thibaultmol.link/

[pyrog]

Why Geovisio

3. Some form of federation should get implemented (but this is still far away)

Already working 😄

5. Comes from people within the OSM-ecosystem -> big chance a server with "login with OSM" will be setup

Already working for the French OSM instance.

Why not geovisio?

4. Don't have yet a search engine on metadata like Wikimedia Commons

Apps like OSM hydrant can't display images of i.e. https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/6187978703

Why not Mapillary?

6. Don't have yet a search engine on metadata like Wikimedia Commons

Why not Wikimedia Commons

1. Very hard to interface with, AFAIK there is no simple-to-use library

Not so difficult to upload pictures.

2. Unclear whether they are the place for street-level imagery

A thousands of images of point of interests are uploaded in Commons

3. Needs a ton follow-up in case that someone marks an image for deletion

The author of the picture get message in his Wikimedia account.

4. No login with OSM

Both OSM and Commons use OAuth 2 ?
So the app could store both tokens.

[pyrog]

I would also like to share a few thoughts:

• One could setup a "proxy" that upload picture to the chosen platform, and return it's id.
  This proxy hide all the complexity and more platforms could be added later without modifying the application.
  Any applications could use it (MapComplete, StreetComplete,Every Door, Organic Maps, Osmand…).
  Picture could be uploaded to several platform.

• Same suggestion with a library.

• Storing permanently or temporarily pictures is not an issue.
  The code is the same for the application point of view.

• Some users prefer one platform, some others.
  So leave the choice to the user (if possible).

• Getting accurate coordinates isn't so easy.
  The application could store the OSM object id in the picture metadata before uploading it.
  It could also store categories (i.e. fire_hydrant, guidepost, drinking water…)

• geovisio is best known as Panoramax

[thibaultmol]

(to clarify the geoviosio/panoramax thing: at the time of making this issue the term geovisio was still being used. This is now being hidden basically. it's all going to be panoramax but they're still transitioning atm

[matkoniecz]

Note that Wikimedia Commons is fine with photos such as "specific bicycle parking" or "shop interior" taken by smartphone.

It is not place to dump automatically taken aerial imagery that may be blurry and not picturing anything specific, but photo of say specific non-notable bicycle parking is fine. See https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Commons and https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=Wikimedia_Commons&diff=1998496&oldid=1890095 and https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Archive/2016/11#%22realistically_useful_for_an_educational_purpose%22_-_how_broadly%2Fnarrowly_it_is_defined%3F

[thibaultmol]

(there are some bugs still, but lot's of progress has been made)

[thibaultmol]

btw, about the Have 'nearby pictures' also show Panoramax images I added to the TODO: you probably want to check the metacatalog for panoramax so you get all images from all instances:

(maybe also query the mapcomplete because the sync from mapcomplete to the metacatalog only happens every 5 minutes)

[pietervdvn]

it to check the metacatalog for panoramax so you get all images from all instances:

This is included

[pietervdvn]

As I moved the "image move" into a separate issue, I'm closing this issue now.

[pietervdvn]

Also see #2189 , #2178 which forced our hand and #1384 which can be considered a duplicate