[Imports] tiff, dwg and nad83

[Paul Norman]

(replying to this part of the thread instead)
> From: Frank Cox [mailto:theatre at melvilletheatre.com]
> Subject: Re: [Imports] tiff, dwg and nad83
> 
> On Sat, 14 Apr 2012 16:53:43 -0400
> Richard Weait wrote:
> 
> > Please consider joining the talk-ca list for topics relating to
> > uniquely Canadian aspects of OSM.  There are also IRC channels for
> > general OSM talk and for Canada-specific stuff.
> 
> I just signed up on talk-ca since you're now the second person who's
> pushing me over there instead of here.  Is that a better list to move my
> questions to?  If so, I'll start in there instead of here.

imports@ is good for technical questions. Talk-ca@ is good for more
community related questions.

> > We'll want to settle the license stuff.  We can probably discuss that
> > off-line.
> 
> As I just stated in another message here, I don't want to raise a set of
> expectations that I subsequently find I can't meet for whatever reason.
> 
> If I can get a set of directions that tell me to do x, then do y, my
> idea is to get a small subset of test data from the engineering
> department and try this thing out.  If it works, then I can approach the
> City Council if needed and get everything sorted out with them.

If they have GeoTiffs that are of a higher quality than bing they would be
useful for tracing. It just takes some computer time and hard drive space to
host it so that you can view it, and it sounds like you have enough of
those.

I would ask them what resolution the tiffs are (e.g. 40cm/pixel or
10cm/pixel), when they were taken and how many gigabytes they are.

Geodata like Engineering maps is a lot more hit and miss. It takes some work
and a fair amount of experience to be able to convert it to .osm, carry
through the consultation with the community, integrate changes and then
merge it with existing OSM data. It requires a particular mix of OSM
knowledge, GIS knowledge, technical skills and social skills.

What I would suggest is to start with the GeoTiffs and go from there.