[OSM-dev] Straw man design for OSM postcode database creator

[Gervase Markham]

Here are a few thoughts about how one would build a web page allowing 
people to take addresses and quickly mark postcode locations.

(The other half of the project might be something which finds addresses, 
perhaps from Google. But even this half could be used with e.g. your 
Palm's address book exported as CSV and munged to remove extraneous data.)

The interface would be a web page containing:
  - <textbox> for pasting in a list of addresses and postcodes, one per
    line
  - Namefinder box, which shows a list of the results for each address
  - slippy map (hardcoded to zoom=17?) which shows the currently-selected
    result
  - Buttons: "That's Right" and "Beats Me"

The procedure would be as follows:

- Paste a load of addresses into the box
- Code immediately goes away and gets all the necessary Namefinder
   and slippy map data in the background (to work around slowness of some
   APIs)
- First Namefinder result comes back
- Slippy map displays first hit
- If it's not right, click on other results to find the right one
- If it is right, click on "That's Right"
- Postcode is submitted with the lat/long returned by Namefinder
- If you can't find it, click on "Beats Me"
- Page automatically moves on to next address
- There is a "Back" button in case you mis-submit

Note that you don't actually click on the map to mark the postcode. 
Instead, it uses the lat/long returned from Namefinder, which is 
(ideally) in the middle of the road in question.

Perhaps we might want to allow map clicking if the person also has local 
knowledge...

Comments?

Gerv