Migrate from Stamen to different map provider

[tfmorris]

There are currently no map tiles being displayed at all on the web site, just markers plotted on a blank screen. This makes the web site basically unusable.

This appears to be because Stamen stopped serving the map tiles that were being used back in October, 2023. One possibility would be to create an account on Stadia and follow the migration instructions: https://maps.stamen.com/stadia-partnership/
There are probably a myriad of other options such as self-hosting vector tiles from https://openmaptiles.org/

Of course another possibility is that having it be broken for the better part of a year without anyone complaining is a sign that its time has passed and it should be gracefully shut down.

[todrobbins]

Thanks for the note, @tfmorris. Is your last sentence directed at the map tiles or this project?

[tfmorris]

Is your last sentence directed at the map tiles or this project?

The web site, dataportals.org. Is there the possibility that the site is being actively used, but no one bothered to report the broken maps for over 6 months? I took it as a sign that perhaps no uses the site any more.

[todrobbins]

Good questions. I think it's worth exploring whether the project still fills a void in the open data ecosystem, if not perhaps it is time to sunset.

As for the map tiles, the issue is upstream since the site relies on the old recline library. It seems the site's architecture would need a reworking to function the way it's intended.

[tfmorris]

It looks like https://github.com/okfn/recline is a redirect to https://github.com/datopian/datahub. I don't understand the political motivations or technical implications of that move, but it looks like they now default to Mapbox tiles datopian/datahub@97e43fd

[todrobbins]

@augusto-herrmann any thoughts on this?

[augusto-herrmann]

Over the years we have seen many other sites appear that serve as an entry point for people looking for lists of data portals:

• https://datashades.info/ backed by LinkDigital, but only covers data portals that use CKAN
• https://opendatainception.io/ backed by OpenDataSoft, with 2600+ portals, but contains many broken links and does not seem to have a very consistent definition of what a data portal is (I have seen even a single dataset being listed as if it were a portal)

Besides the aforementioned limitations, all of them are backed by companies that develop data portals. Does anyone know of an independent curated catalog of world-wide dataportals besides dataportals.org? I don't. If you do, please comment below.

That in itself is IMO a reason not to shut down the project permanently. However, myself and @todrobbins do not have had the time to commit to the project. There are many accumulated issues and requests for addition that need review, the technology stack is ancient and is in urgent need of a revamp, etc. So, unless we can find someone with the necessary skills to volunteer to maintain it, or look for funding for the project, and considering the aforementioned lack of complaints about the breaking of the map functionality, the idea of putting it in hiatus due to the lack of resources for maintaining should be considered.