[Potlatch-dev] [OpenStreetMap] #4578: Add indication that a mergeable external data layer exists in current location

[OpenStreetMap]

#4578: Add indication that a mergeable external data layer exists in current
location
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 Reporter:  Cyclestreets  |      Owner:  potlatch-dev@…
     Type:  enhancement   |     Status:  new
 Priority:  major         |  Milestone:
Component:  potlatch2     |    Version:
 Keywords:  layers        |
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 This is an idea I was discussing with @gravitystorm a few months ago, and
 it came up again with a recent discussion with @smsm1 in the context of
 the England Cycling Data project. (I'm not speaking on their behalf
 though.)

 The suggestion is that, while editing in P2 on the main OSM website, an
 indicator would appear that there are external data layers available in
 this area for merging. (Ideally this would only appear if the data hasn't
 been marked as merged already, but that is an extra step.)

 Background:

 There are likely to be an increasing number of data sources that are
 opened that might be useful to incorporate into OSM, but only through a
 manual inspection and merging process.

 Two recent examples of considerable relevance to cycling users (e.g. us)
 are:

 * The England Cycling Data project:
 http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/England_Cycling_Data_project which
 contains a wealth of useful detailed data about cycling attributes from
 the DfT (UK Department for Transport). For this project, we funded the
 creation of a merging tool that Andy was able to create using the P2
 layers infrastructure. Currently the merging layers are installed at
 http://www.cyclestreets.net/edit/locate/ and see
 http://www.cyclestreets.net/blog/2012/09/03/england-cycling-data-project/

 * Bike Shop locator: http://www.cyclestreets.net/blog/2010/09/10/get-all-
 uk-bike-shops-in-osm/ This is a dataset of UK bike shops supplied to us by
 the bike industry. @smsm1 wrote a specialised tool for this, but having
 this in P2 directly would make things easier.

 In both cases, these are not directly available in people's standard
 workflows - they require going to another location to do and thus are out-
 of-mind. I have often found myself on the P2 installation on the main site
 looking at a routing bug or thinking about data to patch, and thinking,
 "it would be useful to see what the DfT data has in this location".

 Getting layers pre-plugged in to P2 where the community feels that the
 data is worthy of manual merging, and indicating to people that it is
 unfinished in the area currently being edited, would thus become much more
 of an 'itch to scratch' and consequently increase the merging rate.

 It would also create a clear message that automated imports are to be
 avoided, and maybe create a norm for merging good practice.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/4578>
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