[Talk-GB] OSM Analysis New Data and bot

[Andy Robinson (blackadder-lists)]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Frederik Ramm [mailto:frederik at remote.org]
>Sent: 10 June 2011 3:39 PM
>To: SteveC
>Cc: talk-gb at openstreetmap.org
>Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] OSM Analysis New Data and bot
>
>Hi,
>
>SteveC wrote:
>> Or as close to it as possible, yes. I don't care what the result is,
>> it's just too fashionable to automatically believe the imports are bad
>> thing.
>
>Funny that you should use the word "fashionable", as if to discount those
who
>say it as merely following a fashion instead of possibly having a mind of
their
>own.
>
>If I remember correctly, it used to be the other way round; when TIGER was
>imported, everyone went aaah and oooh - myself included -, and even when
>AND became available there were very few, if any, complaints. It is only in
the
>recent past that a more critical view of imports has established itself in
the
>community. One should ask: What has happened (or has not happened) in
>the mean time? - That would perhaps go some way to explain the "fashion".
>
>I have a feeling that "no imports" is fashionable in the same way as "no
>smoking". It's a fairly recent development, that's true, but it is based on
>experience and observation; it's not just a fad. And it is unlikely to turn
around
>again any time soon.

+1

My feeling is that we did most of the early (and perhaps current) imports
fairly blindly. TIGER needed two attempts and we still ended up with a bag
of marbles despite much valuable work by Dave Hansen and others. The AND
data was discussed and pulled apart by the NL community for quite a while
but still it raised some questions afterwards. All this should be telling us
something that’s actually quite obvious. Other peoples data is exactly that,
other peoples data. If we want it in OSM then as long as we accept it
doesn't fit our expectations (and most of it never will) then perhaps we can
live it (or not). I recall when AND data was imported we also had some data
from them for China, which when a bit of checking was done by someone with
some knowledge of reality on the ground turned out to be more fiction and
fantasy than useful geographical information. Hence we ignored it.

It's always going to be a difficult call to agree that an import is good or
bad for OSM, even if many folks spend many hours working the mapping of tags
etc etc. And it's not so easy to do anything about a poor import once it's
in OSM. So in reality we are dammed if we do and dammed if we don't.

Cheers
Andy


>
>Bye
>Frederik
>
>--
>Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"
>
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