[Imports] Value of imports in general

[Randal Hale]

+11 (also +42 for Carol a few days ago)

OSM (as I saw in one comment) is coming up on 10 years old. I guess as a 
mapping person - I don't understand why there isn't a policy/process for 
imports into OSM. So far I see the process goes something like:

  * I wish to import this data
  * constantly quote  "imports destroy the OSM communities" with no
    clear evidence of this occurring.
  * question  the license with no list anywhere of what licenses are
    acceptable
  * No clear list anywhere about what data OSM would like
  * References to an undefined OSM community.
  * Import begins or doesn't
  * Imprt completes or fizzles

There are a lot of smart people on this list. Serge has done wonders for 
cleaning up the process.  While Geographic Data is all different - it's 
fundamentally the same. Develop a policy for imports. Develop tools. 
Develop some sanity on this process. List what data that would benefit 
OSM.....or keep the process exceptionally foggy and ill-defined for some 
reason.

Randy

-
OK Import your data----------------
Randal Hale, GISP
North River Geographic Systems, Inc
http://www.northrivergeographic.com
423.653.3611 rjhale at northrivergeographic.com
<mailto:rjhale at northrivergeographic.com>
twitter:rjhale
http://about.me/rjhale

On 02/07/2014 06:29 AM, Johan C wrote:
> Imports are bad when: "In this case, an import cannot happen when 
> there is no local community to keep it actual."
>
> I could have written the following lines Pieren used two days ago: 
> "When a country or a municipality is publishing and opening its 
> address database, it's also not falling from the sky. This data is 
> also the result of many contributors, skilled workers, collecting and 
> keeping the data up-to-date (at least, trying to)."
>
> In The Netherlands we have a law for keeping address and building data 
> up to date. By that law the entire government (local, provincial and 
> and country level) are obliged to use and update that single database 
> on a daily basis. It's also used for addresses when citizens receive 
> financial support, when the tax authorities deliver mail, when 
> passports are updated etcetera. Maybe there are more than 1.000 
> professionals in the Netherlands working fulltime on keeping this data 
> accurate. I would count that in as being (a sort of) part of the 
> community. Unfortunately, except for Nominatim, the current technical 
> structure of OSM does not make it possible to use that data directly 
> in Mapnik, in the planet downloads etcetera. So at the moment I'm very 
> glad that already 7 community members (and rising) in The Netherlands 
> are enthousiastic about importing this data into OSM.
>
>
>
> 2014-02-07 Jo <winfixit at gmail.com <mailto:winfixit at gmail.com>>:
>
>     OK, the value of imports. There is value in imports as long at
>     it's not a mere dump of loads and loads of data we cannot hope
>     maintain as a community.
>
>     What we need is a staging area where available data can be made
>     available, ready to be merged in. Then when contributors feel like
>     adding it, they can do so object per object with the advantage of
>     being able to compare several sources and imagery and what already
>     existed in OSM.
>
>     In this case, an import cannot happen when there is no local
>     community to keep it actual.
>
>     Polyglot
>
>
>     2014-02-07 11:46 GMT+01:00 Dan S <danstowell+osm at gmail.com
>     <mailto:danstowell+osm at gmail.com>>:
>
>         2014-02-07 Johan C <osmned at gmail.com <mailto:osmned at gmail.com>>:
>         > 2014-02-07 Jo <winfixit at gmail.com <mailto:winfixit at gmail.com>>:
>         >
>         >> Real newbies won't even realise they are there, so how
>         could it bother
>         >> them.
>         >>
>         >> Real old hands can make use of them to validate or
>         conveniently download
>         >> data.
>         >>
>         >> So I fail to understand what the big deal is with
>         associatedStreet
>         >> relations. Contributors are not dumb and incapable of learning.
>         >
>         >
>         > Well, there is a lot of documentation*  that the
>         associatedStreet relation
>         > is difficult for newbies.
>
>         Maybe we could talk about the value of _imports_? The change
>         of topic
>         to associatedStreet means we're now off-topic for this list, and
>         there's no benefit in opening a second can of worms.
>
>         Dan
>
>         _______________________________________________
>         Imports mailing list
>         Imports at openstreetmap.org <mailto:Imports at openstreetmap.org>
>         https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/imports
>
>
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     Imports mailing list
>     Imports at openstreetmap.org <mailto:Imports at openstreetmap.org>
>     https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/imports
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Imports mailing list
> Imports at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/imports

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/imports/attachments/20140207/62cb9e11/attachment.html>