[Talk-ca] License upgrade readiness - contact and remapping

Richard Weait richard at weait.com
Wed Jan 11 20:44:23 GMT 2012


Dear Canadian OpenStreetMap contributors,

The upcoming move to the Open Database License means that a small
number of users have chosen for their contributions not to continue
within OSM. Since we want OSM to remain the best map in the world, we
can remap the affected areas now, so that little difference is
noticeable on changeover day. The License Working Group would now like
to formally urge Canadian mappers to look at your local mapping areas,
contact anyone who still might agree and then remap. This is a pilot
project to engage global mappers on a country-by-country basis.

Critical mass for the change-over has certainly been achieved.  On a
global basis, over 96.8% of nodes and 96.3% of highways [1]  are by
folks who have accepted the new terms. However, we still have globally
36 million nodes that may not survive the license change and 4.2
million problematic ways where some or all value will be lost [2].
This is still a large number, particularly if they are in your local
mapping area, and we would like to reduce it.

In Canada, the situation is slightly better than the global average,
with 98.3% of nodes and 96.7% of highways coming from folks who have
accepted the new terms.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Remapping is a specific up-to-date
resource on remapping and
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Help_preparing_for_the_license_change
give broader background information.

Frederik Ramm's excellent License Change View on OSM Inspector [4]
helps pin point problematic areas and users who have not yet agreed to
the license upgrade and new contributor terms.  There are
license-status tools for both JOSM and Potlatch2, to aid you in
mapping.

I have found the following approach helpful in cleaning Cambridge and
starting to clean Toronto.  Contact mappers with problematic edits in
my area and ask them to consider agreeing to CT/ODbL.  Remap the
objects effected by accounts that do not then agree.  I'm not
contacting every mapper with problematic edits.  A very small number
of OSM accounts have already declined CT/ODbL for their own reasons.
Many more contributors have not replied either because they have lost
interest or contact with the OSM community.  Of those, I've found that
many have responded positively by agreeing with CT/ODbL. Some have
even started mapping again after a long hiatus.

I see no pattern in who agrees; some are accounts with only a few
edits and others with many edits over months or years.

I've also been remapping objects effected by declined or
non-responsive accounts.  Often, this remapping can be done to high
quality from a combination of aerial imagery and canvec data.  I've
gone out to resurvey some areas as well.

I've been able to clean Cambridge of non-compatible edits in the
course of just a few editing sessions with only small changes in my
mapping techniques.
1) I look at the license status of the area in the course of my normal
mapping. While mapping, I make sure to clean problematic objects
rather than just editing them. Every mapper should be aware of the
license status of objects while mapping.  If you ignore this, you
might be making improvements that will be discarded in the license
change.
2) By contacting a few non-responsive mappers, many objects have
"cleaned themselves" when those mappers agree. This is a really good
thing, especially when they become active mappers again!
3) Sometimes, I take a few extra minutes to clean some other
surrounding objects.
4) Sometimes, I plan and resurvey an area to clean it.

Please join me and many of the other mappers who are taking an
interest in making the license upgrade as smooth as possible.  As with
any mapping, looking at the map from a new perspective is interesting
and fun.  And every improvement that we make now, before the cutover
date will be made with the care and attention that local mappers bring
to every edit.

Below, I have included links to several Canadian cities in OSMI.
Sorry that the links are so long.  :-)

Best regards.
Richard

[1] http://odbl.poole.ch/
[2] "Nodes Created" http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/munin.html
[3] http://odbl.poole.ch/canada-20111208-20120111-poly.html
[4] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Remapping/License_Change_View_on_OSM_Inspector

Toronto
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=wtfe&lon=-79.36390&lat=43.74990&zoom=10&overlays=overview,wtfe_point_clean,wtfe_line_clean,wtfe_point_harmless,wtfe_line_harmless,wtfe_point_modified,wtfe_line_modified_cp,wtfe_line_modified,wtfe_point_created,wtfe_line_created_cp,wtfe_line_created

Montreal
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=wtfe&lon=-73.64826&lat=45.63385&zoom=10&overlays=overview,wtfe_point_clean,wtfe_line_clean,wtfe_point_harmless,wtfe_line_harmless,wtfe_point_modified,wtfe_line_modified_cp,wtfe_line_modified,wtfe_point_created,wtfe_line_created_cp,wtfe_line_created

Ottawa
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=wtfe&lon=-75.78236&lat=45.40967&zoom=10&overlays=overview,wtfe_point_clean,wtfe_line_clean,wtfe_point_harmless,wtfe_line_harmless,wtfe_point_modified,wtfe_line_modified_cp,wtfe_line_modified,wtfe_point_created,wtfe_line_created_cp,wtfe_line_created

Quebec
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=wtfe&lon=-71.23814&lat=46.77621&zoom=10&overlays=overview,wtfe_point_clean,wtfe_line_clean,wtfe_point_harmless,wtfe_line_harmless,wtfe_point_modified,wtfe_line_modified_cp,wtfe_line_modified,wtfe_point_created,wtfe_line_created_cp,wtfe_line_created

Winnipeg
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=wtfe&lon=-97.14939&lat=49.92173&zoom=10&overlays=overview,wtfe_point_clean,wtfe_line_clean,wtfe_point_harmless,wtfe_line_harmless,wtfe_point_modified,wtfe_line_modified_cp,wtfe_line_modified,wtfe_point_created,wtfe_line_created_cp,wtfe_line_created

Regina
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=wtfe&lon=-104.65717&lat=50.44801&zoom=10&overlays=overview,wtfe_point_clean,wtfe_line_clean,wtfe_point_harmless,wtfe_line_harmless,wtfe_point_modified,wtfe_line_modified_cp,wtfe_line_modified,wtfe_point_created,wtfe_line_created_cp,wtfe_line_created

Calgary
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=wtfe&lon=-114.12189&lat=51.02424&zoom=10&overlays=overview,wtfe_point_clean,wtfe_line_clean,wtfe_point_harmless,wtfe_line_harmless,wtfe_point_modified,wtfe_line_modified_cp,wtfe_line_modified,wtfe_point_created,wtfe_line_created_cp,wtfe_line_created

Edmonton
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=wtfe&lon=-113.48056&lat=53.54940&zoom=10&overlays=overview,wtfe_point_clean,wtfe_line_clean,wtfe_point_harmless,wtfe_line_harmless,wtfe_point_modified,wtfe_line_modified_cp,wtfe_line_modified,wtfe_point_created,wtfe_line_created_cp,wtfe_line_created

Vancouver
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=wtfe&lon=-122.99472&lat=49.13423&zoom=10&overlays=overview,wtfe_point_clean,wtfe_line_clean,wtfe_point_harmless,wtfe_line_harmless,wtfe_point_modified,wtfe_line_modified_cp,wtfe_line_modified,wtfe_point_created,wtfe_line_created_cp,wtfe_line_created

Victoria
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=wtfe&lon=-123.43005&lat=48.52856&zoom=10&overlays=overview,wtfe_point_clean,wtfe_line_clean,wtfe_point_harmless,wtfe_line_harmless,wtfe_point_modified,wtfe_line_modified_cp,wtfe_line_modified,wtfe_point_created,wtfe_line_created_cp,wtfe_line_created



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