[Imports] How good can an import be?

[Mike N]

On 4/5/2011 4:58 AM, Andy Allan wrote:
> I nearly fell off my chair laughing when you implied that TIGER and
> NHD were good datasets.

  Actually they are good reference datasets.  NHD is better than anyone 
could obtain by mapping without access to private property.  TIGER 
quality varies from location to location - much of it is based on 
municipal data which is much more accurate than can be obtained with a 
GPS unit walking under trees; the trees obscure the street from accurate 
aerial mapping.   And some TIGER is scribbling - much like contributions 
of a new OpenStreetMap user that hasn't learned the tools or techniques yet.


>Sometimes I wonder if one of the problems OSM
> is facing in the US is the relative paucity of examples where OSM
> volunteers have mapped to higher standards

    Are you claiming that nearly everything people have surveyed in the 
US is crap?

  - instead you have endless
> amounts of poor, basic TIGER data with broken buildings

  TIGER didn't include buildings - are you making fun of buildings 
traced from aerials?  (Which, due to parallax and tracing the roof 
instead of the base, often have as many errors as TIGER roads)

   The biggest issue in the US is that people's reaction is that we 
already have "Free Google, Bing, Yahoo and Mapquest" maps.   Why is 
there even another map?