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<div><span><div>Heikki</div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>I am impressed with beta.aprs.fi! It is great that there is an alternative.</div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>I obviously do not understand the fine points, but beta.aprs.fi looks good.</div><div><br clear="none"></div><div>Ron Stordahl, AE5E<br clear="none"></div><div><br clear="none"></div>
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On Tuesday, October 16, 2018, 1:33:56 AM CDT, Heikki Hannikainen <hessu@hes.iki.fi> wrote:
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<div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Hi,<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Here's the current status of aprs.fi, Google Maps API pricing, and <br></div><div dir="ltr">Leaflet/OSM mapping.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">As most of you already know, Google bumped up the pricing of the Maps API <br></div><div dir="ltr">significantly this summer, so that aprs.fi would have paid about <br></div><div dir="ltr">4000-5000€ (4500-5700 USD) per month to use the fine maps, and assorted <br></div><div dir="ltr">services (superb address search, and a few other goodies). Understandably, <br></div><div dir="ltr">that'd be more than I could pay, and a difficult amount to come up as <br></div><div dir="ltr">donations or subscription fees, every month.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">As a contingency plan I made a port of aprs.fi using Leaflet for mapping. <br></div><div dir="ltr">Leaflet can load map tiles from tile servers (or services) which generate <br></div><div dir="ltr">PNG map images from, for example, OSM data. A few individuals and <br></div><div dir="ltr">companies reached out to me and offered to provide access to their tile <br></div><div dir="ltr">servers for PNG OSM maps, either for free, or for a discount. This version <br></div><div dir="ltr">is still running on <a href="https://beta.aprs.fi/. " target="_blank">https://beta.aprs.fi/. </a> It uses Geonames for address <br></div><div dir="ltr">search, which is not that great. Google can actually do proper searching <br></div><div dir="ltr">of street addresses in Finland (or Japan, in Japanese), for example, while <br></div><div dir="ltr">Geonames will only find cities and towns. OSM maps are better than Google <br></div><div dir="ltr">maps in some places in the world, and less good in others.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">At the same time I exchanged several emails and some phone calls with <br></div><div dir="ltr">Google's representatives in the sales support, and eventually in the Maps <br></div><div dir="ltr">API team, and explained the situation. The advertisement income for a site <br></div><div dir="ltr">like this is simply nowhere near the Maps API fees; it's on a different <br></div><div dir="ltr">decade, and there are other costs to cover, too.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Google has some programs for nonprofits, crisis response organisations, <br></div><div dir="ltr">news media and startups, but I'm not eligible for any of those options, as <br></div><div dir="ltr">I'm not a registered nonprofit organisation or a growth-mode startup with <br></div><div dir="ltr">venture capital; I'm a one-man-and-a-cat sized private limited company, <br></div><div dir="ltr">which doesn't make practical profit from the web site though. It's just <br></div><div dir="ltr">easier to do the finances and taxes this way, and it helps me do some odd <br></div><div dir="ltr">consulting jobs sometimes. It's a hobby.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">Crisis responder organisations (Red Cross, local ARES teams, etc) use <br></div><div dir="ltr">aprs.fi from time to time in some form, but they're only eligible for free <br></div><div dir="ltr">Maps API for up to two months at a time. <br></div><div dir="ltr">(<a href="https://developers.google.com/maps/billing/understanding-public-programs" target="_blank">https://developers.google.com/maps/billing/understanding-public-programs</a>)<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">In the end, the good folks at Google Maps figured they still would like to <br></div><div dir="ltr">support aprs.fi. They configured additional monthly credits for my billing <br></div><div dir="ltr">account, so that I won't be charged for the time being, and indicated that <br></div><div dir="ltr">a more permanent process/solution would be figured out later.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">As the combination of Google Maps, their reliable tile servers, address <br></div><div dir="ltr">search and street view is pretty good, I plan to keep using it as the <br></div><div dir="ltr">primary solution for the time being.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr">The Leaflet variant does work, and I plan to keep it available, perhaps at <br></div><div dir="ltr">a more permanent address than the current 'beta'. It's also useful for <br></div><div dir="ltr">running separate service instances for different purposes than APRS.<br></div><div dir="ltr"><br></div><div dir="ltr"> - Hessu, OH7LZB, AF5QT<br></div>_______________________________________________<br>aprssig mailing list<br><a ymailto="mailto:aprssig@lists.tapr.org" href="mailto:aprssig@lists.tapr.org">aprssig@lists.tapr.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/aprssig_lists.tapr.org" target="_blank">http://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/aprssig_lists.tapr.org</a><br></div>
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