[Talk-ca] Ongoing Canadian building import needs to be stopped, possibly reverted

[Nate Wessel]

Hi all,

I've just joined the talk-ca list, so please accept my apologies for not 
addressing this list earlier. I'm happy to take this thread off the 
imports list for now and onto talk-ca until things are ready to begin 
again. The next person to reply can please feel free to remove that 
email if they agree.

I've just made a note on the draft import plan wiki page noting that the 
import has been stopped:

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Canada/Canada_Stats_Canada_Building_Outlines_Import/Plan

I would really appreciate it if the person with admin access to the 
tasking manager projects could please take those offline for the moment, 
or perhaps place them in a validation-only mode if that's possible.

Like I said in my last email, which perhaps didn't make it to the 
talk-ca list 
(https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/imports/2019-January/005886.html) 
I'm now proposing that we leave the data that has already been imported 
and enter a phase of thorough validation on that data.

My plan, over the next several days, is to do a general survey of the 
quality of the data that has been imported so far and make a list of 
systematic issues I see that should be addressed before we can consider 
moving forward again. I'll add those comments to the conversation in 
talk-ca and on the wiki page (link above), as I feel is appropriate. As 
I said before, I'm of the mind that this import did not get adequate 
review or approval and did not follow all the import guidelines. I think 
therefore we need to take stock, cross the t's, dot the i's, and move 
this thing back toward where it needs to be. Step one is a thoroughly 
documented wiki page outlining the proposal and responding to everything 
required in the import guidelines.
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Guidelines

I know there are people excited about this import, and people who are 
eager to get back to work bringing buildings in, but I think everyone 
will be happier in the end if we take the time to do this right. We 
don't need to stop forever - we just need to stop until we get things 
right. I sincerely respect the good intentions of everyone involved in 
this and I hope we can all work together to make OSM a map known for 
it's coverage AND it's quality.

Best,

Nate Wessel
Jack of all trades, Master of Geography, PhD candidate in Urban Planning
NateWessel.com <http://natewessel.com>

On 1/17/19 9:05 PM, OSM Volunteer stevea wrote:
> The thread link is:  https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/imports/2019-January/005878.html
>
> SteveA
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