[OSM-newbies] Opinions on my Work

[James Ewen]

On Sun, Nov 22, 2009 at 2:10 PM, Karl <karl at digitalattic.net> wrote:
> I've just spent over an hour updating the "public" facilities near my
> house, as they where far from accurate.
>
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.06426&lon=-2.99666&zoom=17&layers=B000FTF
>
> I'd like opinions on how I've drawn the school with the pitches included
> on it, as well as the field with two football pitches.

I can't comment directly on the accuracy of what you have tagged, but
I can make some general observations... you're not alone here, as I
struggle with the same issues.

Off the top, I see that you have multiple polygons describing what I
would guess are features at the same physical location. You have a
fence, the edge of a pitch, and an area all drawn. I would guess that
the fence delineates the edge of the pitch which belongs to the school
grounds.

My thoughts are to place nodes at appropriate points describing the
outline of the area, and then create ways between those nodes to
describe the area. One problem that I have however is being able to
differentiate multiple ways that run between the same nodes. (ie. 2
ways in the exact same spot.) It's easy to put them on the map, but
harder to deal with them afterwards.

Is the whole area around the school actually a playing field for a
sport? From what I read, only the actual playing field should be
described as a pitch. You mention 2 football pitches, but the map
shows one odd shaped pitch.

You also describe the whole area as amenity=school. I would call the
building a school, not the whole grounds.

I'd probably make the fence a single way rather than multiple
segments. One thing I don't see in the fence, however is a gate...
have you got the little darlings locked in or out? 8)

In my community, the land that the schools are sited upon belong to
the municipality, not the local school board. I have tagged my local
school grounds as leisure=park, as the area is open to the general
public, with the school being allowed to have priority use for school
based events. Within that area are football/soccer/baseball fields,
playground apparatus, water spray decks, tennis courts, and hockey
rinks, as well as the school building itself.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/23212591

Looking at the other areas that you list, including the community
centre, and the church, I see similar issues. I see that you are using
layer tags to try and drop things on the map in the correct order.

To save yourself some work, what about creating a big rectangle
defining the land that the church sits on, then draw the outline of
the church on top of that, the parking area beside the church, and use
the layer tags to place them appropriately. You are currently trying
to draw the outline of the church twice, once for the building, and
again to show the edge of the grassed area.If you modify one, you have
to modify the other... extra work. This is similar to the multiple
ways sharing the same nodes issue. If you move one node to correct the
corner of the building/fence/area or whatever, everything else
associated to the node gets updated at the same time... if it's been
done right, then it's a lot less work for the person making the edits.

Remember, these are just my thoughts and opinions... I could be
totally wrong! I'm not professional cartographer, just another bloke
across the pond!

James
VE6SRV