I don't understand why they don't just open source an engine that uses OpenStreetMap .. Why do we need a new project and new foundation? .. It just seems like a new wall around it so that AWS et. al. can lock people into EC2 and data charges.
> Overture is a data-centric map project, not a community of individual map editors. Therefore, Overture is intended to be complementary to OSM. We combine OSM with other sources to produce new open map data sets. Overture data will be available for use by the OpenStreetMap community under compatible open data licenses. Overture members are encouraged to contribute to OSM directly.
It sounds to me like this Foundation wants to be less of an "open Wiki" for data and more of a QA/QC "task force" for OSM data: both contributing known good data back to OSM and trying to curate the best of OSM data back out.
Also, it sounds like there's an AR/3D spatial data focus here that goes beyond what OSM currently maps.
Though everything is still vaguely worded and lacking examples, so who knows.
If you just want the latest data in a usable GIS format and not to just view it. OSM can be a huge pain to get what you want, especially if you are not intimately familiar with it and the tools around it. I took part of their messaging to be about being focused on usable data. Here is a nice clean road network in a standard format for each country and the world. Or things like that.
