[Talk-ca] Canadian imports: good or bad?

[Andrew Allison]

On Sun, 2012-04-15 at 11:09 -0400, Richard Weait wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> Let's talk about it again.  How do we feel about the bulk copying of
> information from a permitted source into OpenStreetMap in Canada?
> 
> To be clear, I'm not suggesting that we discuss whether external data
> sources are good or not.  External data sources are good.  I'm
> suggesting that we review how we best make use of those external
> sources.
> 
> You go first.  :-)
> 
> Best regards,
> Richard
> 
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From what I see there are some conflicting arguments here.

1	Building a community of mappers to add features to the map. Ideally
local.

2	Canada is a huge country. I doubt that there are that many people
willing to commit to mapping every nook. I'm sure the amount of No
Trespassing signs itself would prevent it. 

3	OSM is promoting itself as a "competitor" to google.

4	I would suspect most mappers are not aware of the license change
coming and the resulting impact.

	Given the size of Canada, and the few mappers we have. I my self could
not and probably would not have never walked / driven on every road,
trail, river, lake forest etc without some else doing an import first
which I myself used a base to improve OSM.

	I don't see any possible way to have a map without an import to use as
a base.

	To counter my own points, Yes, you will find some people who see a
great white spot as a challenge. But looking at the changes made locally
I would think most people would rather tweak an existing road or park.

	Andrew
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