[Talk-GB] OS and OSM

[Andy Allan]

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 12:59 PM, Ed Avis <eda at waniasset.com> wrote:

> It is great to do a ground survey and then use OS Locator to check for mistakes,
> but it would be equally possible to populate names from OS Locator and then do
> a ground survey to check for mistakes.

Riiiigggghhhttt - that's not exactly an interesting day out for most
people. Of course, the worse a job you make of armchair mapping (and
boy am I sick to the back teeth of cleaning up the mess left by
armchair mappers) the more useful the ground survey.

> The total amount of work involved is the
> same, but by kick-starting from the OS data you get to the 90% mark faster, even
> though the final 10% takes time.  Again, I would re-iterate that the OS Locator
> names usually have a lower error rate than OSM ground surveys, so I would have
> more confidence in a street name populated from OS only than in one that had been
> found on the ground but not checked against OS.

Great. An OSM database filled with only OS data is a) at very best,
only as accurate as OS data and b) a massive disincentive to people to
go out mapping.

I really don't understand why you keep arguing against the sequence of
a) send some mappers out then b) use OS as a check for the minority of
mistakes. Doing it your way leads to vast areas with names filled out
and nothing else. If I could find a way to stop you from damaging our
community in this way, and damaging the long-term prospects for the
OSM project, then I would.

Cheers,
Andy