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

[Marcus Wolschon]

On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 9:41 PM, Anthony <osm at inbox.org> wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 25, 2009 at 3:14 PM, Marcus Wolschon
> <marcus.wolschon at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> Let´s create something that works for the general case of addresses
>> we have mapped ourself and make optimisations for cases where we can
>> utilize third party data AFTER that is done.
>
> I've got a better idea.  I'll make a great map of where I live, using
> whatever resources I have available, and you can make a great map of
> where you live, using whatever resources you have available, and then
> we can combine them together into One Map To Rule Them All!

Already on it.
2 major cities mapping addresses of one part of the city after another.


> If I can map every McDonald's in Tampa using a list of addresses
> (legally obtained from McDonald's Corporation), TIGER, and Yahoo's
> aerials, I'm not going to let you stop me just because you can't do
> the same thing where you live, or worse, because you want to reward
> people for wasting their time and energy surveying things that don't
> need to be surveyed.

I`m not stopping you. I`m just delaying until you had the time to
read up on what you are dealing with because it´s not as simple as
you make it sound.
Please read the discussion regarding tiger-addresses on the talk-list.
Your McDonalds will be in the right block but not a single one will be
in the place in that block where the McDonalds actually is. With no hint
for mappers that they should visit that area and correct all the mistakes
because noone surveys areas that are already full of data.
You  will also have to deal with already mapped house-numbers that are
far more accurate then tiger (so you have to implement the general
case I spoke about anyway) and find out if your McDonalds is already in
OSM.

The last time I looked the concensus was to not import the Tiger-Addresses
1:1 as adresses in the Karlsruhe Schema but at most as something
like "allocate_housenumbers:first" and "allocated_housenumbers:last"
per block as that is all you have. In some areas they are perfectly located
while in others they are all off by hundrets of meters, taking more time
to correct then such an import saved.

This is not about efficiency but about not adding information that is
highly incorrect without reviewing it.
If you want to import data based on postal addresses, make sure
your address-geolocation is correct first. The address-lists will not
go away, they will still be there, ready to be imported, after doing step 1.
Noone suggested to not import them, just not located to these coordinates
without checking them.


If the addresses turn out to be good for your area, import the addreses.
If not, don´t import them and inform local people that addresses need to
be mapped in that region and what the additional benefit will be.
And all the time, import your address-based data but import it only to the
addresses that are in OSM and that are reviewed to actually be in that location.
Else you risk causing more harm then good in any number of areas without
even realising it.

Marcus