[Talk-GB] GB License Change Readiness
Michael Collinson
mike at ayeltd.biz
Sun Jan 8 13:49:06 GMT 2012
The upcoming move to the Open Database Licence means that a small number
of users have chosen for their contributions not to continue within OSM.
Since we want OSM to remain the best map in the world, we can remap the
affected areas now, so that little difference is noticeable on
changeover day. The License Working Group would now like to formally
urge UK mappers to look at your local mapping areas, contact anyone who
still might agree and then remap. This is a pilot project to engage
global mappers on a country-by-country basis.
Critical mass for the change-over has certainly been achieved. On a
global basis, over 96.8% of nodes and 96.3% of highways [1] are by
folks who have accepted the new terms. However, we still have globally
36 million nodes that may not survive the license change and 4.2 million
problematic ways where some or all value will be lost [2]. This is
still a large number, (particularly if they are in your local mapping
area!), and we would like to reduce it. In the UK, the situation is
slightly less rosy, with 96% of nodes and 94% of highways coming from
folks who have accepted the new terms.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Remapping is a specific up-to-date
resource on remapping and
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Help_preparing_for_the_license_change
give broader background information. I myself used Frederik Ramm's
excellent License Change View on OSM Inspector [3], [4] to pin points
problematic locales. I then clicked the Potlatch icon and used that to
identify mappers and what information was from acceptors and could still
be used, (click the way or node ID in the Advanced View), and to remap.
I strongly recommend that first you look at your areas and contact
undecided mappers via the OpenStreetMap messaging system or directly if
you know them. Ask if they would not mind logging into their account and
accepting even if they no longer wish to continue mapping as their
previous contribution is important to you. I have just finished
remapping my Wharfedale and Yorkshire Dales stamping ground and it took
me about four weeks of contacting folks, waiting and then remapping
using a combination of NPE, OS OpenData StreetView, Bing and reasonable
memory. I found lots of small contributors who are no longer mapping
and probably did not realise that their contributions are still
important and that other edits rely on them. Response was modest but
enough to make it worth while. With Bing imagery now available, they
also may start mapping again.
Lastly, if your own area is looking good and you fancy some winter
armchair mapping, take a look at South-West England. Many of the roads
in this area have been traced from NPE by a contributor who has since
declined the new terms, and not further modified. I find it very easy
to replace them with much better since we now additionally have Bing for
position and OS StreetView for names ... but there are a lot of them and
its definitely a crowd sourcing project.
Regards,
Mike
Michael Collinson
LWG
[1] Based on node count, http://odbl.poole.ch/
[2] "Nodes Created" http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/munin.html
[3]
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=wtfe&lon=-4.21344&lat=54.58575&zoom=6&opacity=0.69&overlays=overview,wtfe_point_clean,wtfe_line_clean,wtfe_point_harmless,wtfe_line_harmless,wtfe_point_modified,wtfe_line_modified_cp,wtfe_line_modified,wtfe_point_created,wtfe_line_created_cp,wtfe_line_created
[4] A guide to the License Change View on OSM Inspector
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Remapping/License_Change_View_on_OSM_Inspector
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