[Geocoding] Local Mirror of OSM Data...

[Tom Hughes]

On 23/10/09 17:47, Anthony wrote:

> Well, I am an editor.  And I'm not sure if the ways I'm using it
> qualify as "bulk usage".  I've been using it to, for instance,
> download all the changesets made by *me*.  AFAIK there's no reasonable
> way to do that without using the API.

I wasn't entirely clear on what you were planning, but it sounded like 
you were planning to update your database by querying the API for each 
object in your database? If that isn't what you're planning then fine 
but if it is and your database is likely to have a significant amount of 
data in it then I think it may be a problem.

> If you have a better suggestion, feel free to suggest it.  Or if you
> can point me to a policy which forbids what I'm doing, I'll be happy
> to stop contributing to OSM.

The policy is, broadly speaking, that if you put sufficient load on the 
api that is causes a problem and comes to my attention then you're 
likely to find yourself blocked. That is especially so if it looks you 
are crawling the data in some way.

The point basically is that the API is designed to provide small chunks 
of data and people that want larger chunks of data are encouraged to use 
planet instead.

Tom

-- 
Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
http://www.compton.nu/