[Imports-us] Baltimore Building Outlines Import

[Serge Wroclawski]

Matthew,

I think you've done a lot of really incredible work here, with a lot
of clear thought and attention to detail. Thank you both for being so
careful, and for being so transparent and working with the larger
community.

I have a few questions and suggestions, mostly a summary from others
but some of my own as well.

First and most easily, simplifying, as you and others have said, would
be a very easy and good thing. Nearly any simplification process
should render the data a fraction of its current size.

Secondly, I agree with Frederik that the source tag should be
As Paul and Jason mentioned, you have a few addresses oddities. Do you
have a list of buildings which have some unusual characteristics such
as they've found?

If the number of such buildings is low, then the import can be
supplemented with some directed surveying. But if the number is high,
then it might be worthwhile to adjust the conflation process.

You mentioned that the data is already being "informally" imported
into OSM. Is this the data in its current form?

And if that's the case, is there any conflation step in your process
to keep automated processes from running against manual imports?  For
buildings which are already present from tracing, it may be worth
manually working with the data to either keep the traced building, or
replace it with the Baltimore data.

Lastly, but most importantly, this issue of license needs addressing.
It's quite common in my experience to have a department say that their
data is under one term of use, but the hosting site says another term,
while an employee says another. This issue came up in DC (with a
proper resolution) and is an issue in NYC (without a resolution). From
OSM's perspective, we need something quite concrete, in written form,
before we can proceed. I'm hopeful that with the connections you have
at the various government departments, that you'll be able to provide
this.

I hope you can join us tonight at the US Import Committee Meeting.

- Serge