[Talk-GB] Fwd: Map layer with OS Locator comparison from ITO - apostrophes

[Chris Hill]

Ed Avis wrote:
> Kevin Peat <kevin at ...> writes:
>
>   
>> <http://oscompare.raggedred.net/?zoom=15&lat=50.72407&lon=-3.52609&layers=B0TF>
>> Three-quarters of the differences reported here are in the presence or absence
>> of a single apostrophe.  This masks the more important discrepancies and makes
>> the report less useful.
>>     
>
>   
>> Ed - I think specifically for Exeter as there are only 118 total differences if
>> the OS names are added where we don't have a name at all and any obvious typos
>> fixed then what is left (max 50?) could easily be surveyed in a couple of
>> trips.
>>     
>
> Sure (if you accept that the street sign put up by the council is more
> authoritative than the Ordnance Survey's database, which actually I doubt).
>
> However, given only an hour or two to survey Exeter this weekend I would prefer
> to concentrate on more important things than missing apostrophes.  Others have
> different priorities, of course.
>
> For my own use I would prefer to see a report that flagged only the real
> differences in name, ignoring punctuation.  I expect some other mappers would
> feel the same - while others might still prefer to flag every difference in name,
> no matter how small.
>
> The ITO report is also useful for armchair mapping, adding names to roads that
> lack them or fixing obvious and definite typos or spelling errors (but only when
> you can be 100% sure the OSM data is a spelling mistake).  Here too the
> punctuation-only differences tend to crowd out the more important and more
> easily fixable mismatches.
>
>   
I map what's on the ground, apostrophes and all. The only way to do that 
is to go and take a look. When I do I invariably find something else to 
add or improve at the same time. So checking street names for 
apostrophes, along with other different spellings or omissions always 
seems productive to me. Ordnance survey certainly do make mistakes, 
after all their data is gathered and processed by people. They 
acknowledge their mistakes too - if you send them documented anomalies 
they investigate them and correct accordingly, though it's not as quick 
and easy as OSM.

-- 
Cheers, Chris
user: chillly