<html><head></head><body><div style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"><div>So far I haven't been able to make much of this Open Historical Map.</div><div>I am a huge contributor to Openstreetmap and would also like to help</div><div>with OHM. It occurred to me that it would make very good sense to use</div><div>deleted features from OSM.</div><div><br></div><div>For instance, OHM volunteers could access deleted OSM features and</div><div>pick out things to add to OHM from the whole data set of deleted features.</div><div>I am assuming, of course, that when a mapper deletes things from OSM</div><div>that they don't just go "poof" and are gone forever, but are stored as deleted</div><div>somewhere. I do HOPE they are. Are they?</div><div><br></div><div>This could be the biggest and best resource for OHM but I haven't heard anyone</div><div>mention doing this. There is always so much re-development going on, especially</div><div>in larger cities and metropolitan areas, so I am often deleting things that have been</div><div>demolished and adding new things recently built. And some items are even, more or</div><div>less, considered historic.</div><div><br></div><div>Here's one very good example. About a year ago, after a community effort to preserve</div><div>this historic architecture, the API (American Press Institute) Building in Reston, Virginia,</div><div>was demolished to make way for a new residential development featuring near-million-dollar</div><div>townhomes and condos. (Excuse me while I barf.) I was one former resident of Reston who</div><div>wrote to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to try to preserve it. I guess money talks</div><div>louder than citizens. So...having just heard about this, I am preparing to edit OSM to make</div><div>these revisions, and would like to add the building I delete to OHM.</div><div><br></div><div>If no one wants to set up a system where OHM volunteers review deleted OSM data, then</div><div>I propose another idea, which would also benefit OHM by raising awareness of it amongst</div><div>the OSM community. Some way could be given to people editing OSM to "send" selected</div><div>features they are about to delete to a repository for use by OHM volunteers, or directly add</div><div>the deleted item(s) to OHM from OSM. I wish I could automatically do that when I delete the</div><div>old API Building.</div><div><br></div><div>What say you all?</div><div><br></div><div>David Wisbey</div><div><br></div><div>Your Village Maps</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></body></html>