[Imports] Importing a list of (business) locations?

Anthony osm at inbox.org
Wed Nov 25 19:17:46 GMT 2009


On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 1:59 PM, Marcus Wolschon
<marcus.wolschon at googlemail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 7:54 PM, Anthony <osm at inbox.org> wrote:
>> On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 1:06 PM, Mark Gray <mark-imports at vatavia.net> wrote:
>>> I imagine some companies have a shape file, but others will just
>>> have addresses and not have Lat/Lon. Is there a geocoder we are
>>> allowed to use? Perhaps we need to wait till we can geocode
>>> addresses ourselves? Perhaps we cannot even use their lat/lon if
>>> they have them because they may come from a geocoder we can't use.
>>
>> Within the US, you could use TIGER.
>
> As the discussion on the international mailing-list shows
> TIGER contains "potential addresses". Meaning that
> it only tells you what range of house-numbers is reserved
> for a block. Not where each house is or if a number is in use
> at all.

We're talking about geocoding businesses using an address.  You
already know the number is in use - in fact, you know what business is
located at that address.  You stick the address into a TIGER-based
geocoder (http://maps.huge.info/geocoder/, or build your own using
http://search.cpan.org/~sderle/Geo-Coder-US/US.pm), and you get out a
lat/lon.  The position won't be perfect, but it'll probably show up
close enough that someone can grab the node and move it into position
using a Yahoo aerial, hence my suggestion to use "something
semi-automated".

Something semi-automated: Get a page with the name and address of the
business on the left (maybe a link to the website) and an OSM Potlatch
on the right.  There's a node in the approximate location of the
business with the address, name, amenity, etc. already filled out.
Move the node into position and hit "save and add another".  Another
page comes up with the same thing.  Process 20, 30, 50 nodes at a
time, which you can select as the nodes which haven't yet been
processed and are closest to your particular location of interest.
Not enough information?  Click on "skip this node - not enough
information", and it'll be flagged for more detailed review.




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