[Legal-general] So what's the deal with OpenStreetMap/PD?

[Sunburned Surveyor]

Tim,

I'll post my response to Eric from yesterday below. I think it answers
your question.

Landon

The OSM PD topic was pretty hot a few months back (maybe a year go). I
was close to setting up a very simple OSM PD repository, with the idea
that that OSM PD data would be migrated to the regular OSM database on
a regular interval.

My very simple OSM PD repository was basically going to be a folder
tree representing a grid based on latitude/longitude. (One folder
representing the area covered by a degree of latitude and degree of
longitude, or some smaller increment.) When you started work on OSM PD
in an area, you would create the folder you needed. If no one else was
working in the area you would become the "steward" of the folder and
would have some minimal oversight over the quality of data in the
folder. I thought each of these folder would contain more than just
the vector data, but would contain photos, background maps, and other
supporting data.

There was some encouragement to fully duplicate the OSM software stack
for OSM PD instead of going with this simple repository concept. That
was something a little beyond my technical knowledge. (I'm do some
programming, but I am not familiar with the OSM software stack at all,
and I am certainly not a web application programmer.) I also didn't
have the time or resources to dedicate to this type of task. I never
followed through on the OSM PD repository idea.

It sounds like the USGS has already duplicated the OSM software stack,
which is interesting. Of course, you still have the problem of
maintaining the stack.

I would still like to contribute high-quality geospatial data to OSM
in my own local area, and have been thinking about the best way to do
this. I know I certainly will be maintaining my own separate
repository of public domain data, since the OSM licensing causes me
some heart burn as well. I'll release the data in the repository under
the public domain before uploading to the main OSM database.

If you can imagine my simple OSM PD repository organized into 7 1/2
degree cells that corresponded to the current quadrangle maps, you
could start to see the OSM PD concept as a great replacement for the
former National Map Corps, a program I was very enthusiastic about and
dissappointed to see killed.

Those are just some of my own idiot ramblings on the topic. Its been a
good while since there was a lot of discussion on this list about an
OSM PD repository. I'd certainly be interested in helping with some
sort of OSM PD repository if there is wider interest. I've got space
on a web server I can make available for trial efforts if needed.

On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 9:08 AM, TimSC <mapping at sheerman-chase.org.uk> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I wondered why Openstreetmap/PD effort is currently stagnant? The wiki page
> has not changed much in 2 years and the traffic on the mailing list is
> light. Can someone bring me up to speed? My guess is the sysadmins are too
> busy doing hard work on the exiting database - is lack of people and time
> the issue?
>
> Thanks,
>
> TimSC
>
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