[Talk-ca] Why import all of Geobase/Canvec?

[Matt Wilkie]

I've been following the conversations with interest, and find myself 
wondering what is the value for OSM in ingesting wholesale the public 
geospatial offerings of Canadian federal and regional governments? These 
are big organisations with full time staff and big budgets dedicated to 
processing and updating the data. Why should/would a handful of 
volunteers expend the effort in digesting this volume of data? Wouldn't 
it be simpler to utilise WMS services?

The usecase for ingesting roads and trails is fairly clear, people are 
actually adding attributes and adding and adjusting geometry to more 
closely match the reality they see. I don't see the same potential value 
adding activity for natural features like hydrology, contours, satellite 
imagery, etc. Am I missing something?

best regards,

-- 
matt wilkie
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Geographic Information,
Information Management and Technology,
Yukon Department of Environment
10 Burns Road * Whitehorse, Yukon * Y1A 4Y9
867-667-8133 Tel * 867-393-7003 Fax
http://environmentyukon.gov.yk.ca/geomatics/
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