[Talk-ca] OSM New-York - Import de contours de batiments et adresses

Richard Weait richard at weait.com
Mon Jan 6 17:49:04 UTC 2014


On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 8:58 AM, Pierre Béland <pierzenh at yahoo.fr> wrote:
> Richard
>
> I dont think that we should advocate against import.

Then we differ.

I've been advocating for "better imports" with every import I've seen
since 2006.  While the tools have improved, the results for the most
part, just haven't.

>  Let's try in 2014 to
> be more positive with that and suggest ways to do it better.

You might continue to believe that "imports are just fine", I do not.
Imports are harmfull to OpenStreetMap and to the OpenStreetMap
community in all except extremely limited circumstances.

Invariably, when I add that "except in extremely limited
circumstances", the listener will presume that they are in fact the
exception.

Invariably, they aren't the exception.

They are well intentioned.  They are in love with data.  They want a
better OpenStreetMap.  And then they make an import of some sort and
cause harm to the data base and community that they then never clean
up because it is too much work.

The linked thread regarding the NYC building import discusses ways to
do it better.

The after action report on any decent effort at an import has
discussed ways to do better in the future.  Technically, essentially
every import has been better than the one before.  To date,
overwhelmingly, better is still just not good enough.

My recommendation is never to import.  "Import" should be a very dirty
word in OpenStreetMap.

By comparison, I think we should focus on doing the best mapping that
we can with our surveys, and with external resources that we have
permission to use.  Use external resources* by comparing each item
with all of the other existing resources, including imagery, existing
OpenStreetMap data, your survey, local knowledge, and curate the
external source before placing it into OpenStreetMap.

But never import.**

Yes. It's way slower.  Yes, it takes more time, and a more-experienced
mapper.  But it is what you owe to the project, the community and to
your reputation as a mapper.

To be clear, I love that external resources are becoming available to
OpenStreetMap in greater numbers.   I have every bit as much "data
love" for a new data set as the next mapper.  Dumping huge amounts of
un-curated data into the OpenStreetMap data base at one time is not
the way to use that data, or OpenStreetMap to best effect.

* Only the ones for which we have explicit permission to use.
** except in those extremely limited circumstances which don't apply here.



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