[Imports] Bulk import of POI's

[Richard Weait]

On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 4:36 PM, Aaron Lynch <aaronl at ontheboat.net> wrote:
> Hi All.
>
> I've just started working with the OSM maps in my area. I'm very excited to
> try and completely replace the data in my garmin device.
>
>
> On road trips, the only thing I really care about is finding gas, and
> sometimes motorcycle dealers.
>
> So, I've been adding gas stations manually in my area as I've come upon
> them.  But then I thought it sure would be easier to add ALL chevron's or
> whatnot.
>
> So I decided to start small by trying to add a list of all of the Husqvarna
> Brand motorcycle dealers in the country.  I've been able to get a
> spreadsheet listing all of the dealers, and I can convert it to gpx.
>
> But then I get stuck as far as potential licensing issues, and how to
> convert the gpx to osm and the next step(s) after that.
>
> Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated

HI Aaron,

Welcome.

This question just came up on help.openstreetmap.org as well.  And it
comes up fairly often.

The respondent there said,
"Please read the Import Guidelines and Code of Conduct. Automated
imports have many, many difficulties and are not universally welcomed
in OSM.

At the very least you should discuss your proposed import on the
national mailing lists of every country that will be affected, and if
it's of worldwide scope, on the international talk@ list as well."

I'd add that we need permission to add data from other into OSM.  And
finding data on the internet is not sufficient permission.  Having a
Husqvarna representative say, "yes, you can add our data to
OpenStreetMap" would be great.  Or if they have published and licensed
the data under PDDL or another compatible license.

In the interim, keep mapping locally, that's how we get the best, most
up to date data in OSM.

  [1]: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Guidelines
  [2]: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Automated_Edits/Code_of_Conduct