[Imports] Importing USNG Sign Locations

[Greg Troxel]

Sofia <kozidis.sofi at gmail.com> writes:

> I am interested in importing data from Bayfield County Land Record’s
> Department to support emergency responders in the Cable, WI area and
> throughout the county. Along with a volunteer group, we have mapped out
> trail intersections to place USNG (U.S. National Grid) signs. Then the
> volunteers have installed those signs at those specified intersections.
>
> Now that we have installed the signs, I need to upload my sign locations to
> OSM so that first responders can download it to their devices at any time.
> This will help them locate citizens when then need assistance when
> hiking/biking/skiing.
>
> This is a collaboration effort between Bayfield County Land Records, Fire,
> Police, SharedGeo.org, and the Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association.

A few things to think about:

  Usually "import" is when an OSM mapper (mapper being someone who has
  signed up for an account and agreed to the terms) wants to take data
  that has been published by some entity and add it to OSM.  There are a
  lot of procedural controls on this activity because it can cause
  trouble if done wrong.

  What I think you want, is to add data that is relatively modest in
  number, and which your organization has gathered from the field, and
  presumably stored in a GIS or something.   A mapper (note that mappers
  are people not organizations, but some people map to meet
  organizational goals) normally maps by observing things about the
  world and adding them to the map.

  A conservation area near me (MA) has about 10 map kiosks, basically a
  weather shelter, a laminated map, with an index on it (K7, K9 etc)
  with all the symbols shown on the map.  I have added these to OSM,
  with e.g ref=K9 and tourism=information.

  What you really need is to find the people in your county who are
  already participating in OSM.  They already know the culture and rules
  of engagement.  Probably someone from WI will help you get coneected.

  One thing that would help this process is if you publish the data,
  basically a shapefile (geopakage, geojson) that has coordinates, type
  of sign, and what's on it in terms of USNG data.  I am saying that
  very loosely; if you have some data schema that you think makes sense,
  just use that.  But the key point is that you must grant permission
  for it to be used under the OSM contributor terms.  I suggest that you
  put a CC0 license on it, trying to be as close to Public Domain as
  possible.  You can look at MassGIS's FAQ for inspiration.  Then put it
  on your website with the clear license, and a description of how the
  data was generated and quality controlled (just write what you know,
  don't agonize).  Then, any local mapper might be able to pick it up
  and add it.

  Alternatively, someone could learn enough about OSM and add the data.
  If someone is adding data that they or a colleague directly observed,
  and can explain how they know there is very good validity to it, and
  looking at each point to make sure it isn't already there it's not
  really an import.  But it's very close if there are a lot of points.


I really encourage you to publish the data under CC0.  That will take a
lot of concerns off the table.

Greg
(who maps trails in MA)
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 194 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/imports/attachments/20220203/8c93c08c/attachment.sig>