[OSM-dev] A new take on the "mutable" idea

[Matt Amos]

On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 3:33 PM, Russ Nelson<russ at cloudmade.com> wrote:
>
> On Jun 21, 2009, at 10:15 AM, Matt Amos wrote:
>>
>> we went over this before: if it isn't editable, it shouldn't be in
>> OSM.
>
> And yet state and county borders are already in OSM.
>
> You seem to not be paying attention to my point: that if we DON'T have
> these important legal boundaries in OSM, people will add them.  Don't
> believe me?  Try deleting the New York State border with Pennsylvania,
> and see how long it takes for somebody to revert your edit, or worse,
> add it back in as a new set of nodes and ways.

and you seem to be not reading the remainder of my email: yes, they're
already in OSM. yes, they're already editable. yes, people do alter
and improve them.

> Yes, I acknowledge your point about people being able to edit things,
> and being able to verify things on the ground.
>
> If (as I assert) it's not possible to keep these things out of the
> map, shouldn't we take steps to ensure that when they're in the map,
> they're as correct as they can be?

absolutely. if you're interested in monitoring the state borders then
you'll be interested in a service to get emails or an RSS feed of that
area. that way you can watch over that area and ensure it's correct.

cheers,

matt