[Talk-GB] GB License Change Readiness

[Michael Collinson]

The upcoming move to the Open Database Licence means that a small number 
of users have chosen for their contributions not to continue within OSM. 
Since we want OSM to remain the best map in the world, we can remap the 
affected areas now, so that little difference is noticeable on 
changeover day. The License Working Group would now like to formally 
urge UK mappers to look at  your local mapping areas, contact anyone who 
still might agree and then remap. This is a pilot project to engage 
global mappers on a country-by-country basis.

Critical mass for the change-over has certainly been achieved.  On a 
global basis, over 96.8% of nodes and 96.3% of highways [1]  are by 
folks who have accepted the new terms. However, we still have globally 
36 million nodes that may not survive the license change and 4.2 million 
problematic ways where some or all value will be lost [2].  This is 
still a large number, (particularly if they are in your local mapping 
area!), and we would like to reduce it. In the UK, the situation is 
slightly less rosy, with 96% of nodes and 94% of highways coming from 
folks who have accepted the new terms.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Remapping is a specific up-to-date 
resource on remapping and 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Help_preparing_for_the_license_change 
give broader background information.  I myself used Frederik Ramm's 
excellent License Change View on OSM Inspector [3], [4] to pin points 
problematic locales. I then clicked the Potlatch icon and used that to 
identify mappers and what information was from acceptors and could still 
be used, (click the way or node ID in the Advanced View), and to remap.

I strongly recommend that first you look at your areas and contact 
undecided mappers via the OpenStreetMap messaging system or directly if 
you know them. Ask if they would not mind logging into their account and 
accepting even if they no longer wish to continue mapping as their 
previous contribution is important to you.  I have just finished 
remapping my Wharfedale and Yorkshire Dales stamping ground and it took 
me about four weeks of contacting folks, waiting and then remapping 
using a combination of NPE, OS OpenData StreetView, Bing and reasonable 
memory.  I found lots of small contributors who are no longer mapping 
and probably did not realise that their contributions are still 
important and that other edits rely on them. Response was modest but 
enough to make it worth while. With Bing imagery now available, they 
also may start mapping again.

Lastly, if your own area is looking good and you fancy some winter 
armchair mapping, take a look at South-West England.  Many of the roads 
in this area have been traced from NPE by a contributor who has since 
declined the new terms, and not further modified.  I find it very easy 
to replace them with much better since we now additionally have Bing for 
position and OS StreetView for names ... but there are a lot of them and 
its definitely a crowd sourcing project.

Regards,
Mike

Michael Collinson
LWG

[1] Based on node count, http://odbl.poole.ch/
[2] "Nodes Created" http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/munin.html
[3] 
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=wtfe&lon=-4.21344&lat=54.58575&zoom=6&opacity=0.69&overlays=overview,wtfe_point_clean,wtfe_line_clean,wtfe_point_harmless,wtfe_line_harmless,wtfe_point_modified,wtfe_line_modified_cp,wtfe_line_modified,wtfe_point_created,wtfe_line_created_cp,wtfe_line_created 

[4] A guide to the License Change View on OSM Inspector 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Remapping/License_Change_View_on_OSM_Inspector