[talk-au] Vic mass address import Dec 2024 - a merge or not question

[Andrew Harvey]

The goal of the import was not to create an immutable authoritative
representation of Vicmap addresses inside OSM but rather to do the heavy
lifting to add most missing addresses to be then further refined as part of
OSM. If addresses that were imported aren't right, delete them, if they
should be in a different location, move them, if they shouldn't be a node
but should be a way, update them, if they should instead be on another
feature, move the tags across.

Even with the import I still don't see OSM as being a dataset that contains
every single address that could exist or does in theory exist, but rather a
representation of what's on the ground.

In terms of the specifics you can merge a new or existing business or other
feature with the address node if you like, but I wouldn't make this a
blanket rule, things should still be looked at case by case.

The Vicmap data includes a "Display Address" field
https://gitlab.com/alantgeo/vicmap2osm/#display-address where the address
is 75-77 but only displayed as 75. The import ignored this, but I think
it's fine to change the address imported based on the display address based
on OSM being a representation of the ground truth.

On Tue, 25 Mar 2025 at 15:48, Bob Cameron <bob3bob3 at skymesh.com.au> wrote:

> What is the best approach here? Should the import data be left alone when
> (say) adding a business node to the same address, or merge them? My concern
> is actually more a business can use "one" of a dual street number address.
> eg the import may be "75-77", but the business is either known as or has a
> street facing sign/box for (just) 75.
>
> Thanks to those that did this BTW. Made my cross check of physical imagery
> buildings (overhead and my own street images) a lot easier. Had to rely on
> comparing tree plantings and street furniture/markings solely before!
>
> Cheers Bob
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