[talk-ph] POIs Part 2

[Ahmed Farooq]

Right - it isn't just about the rendering, but about the underlying data. A
POI should be considered a universal point of interest - ala a landmark of
building that would be included in a 'Guide to XXX City'. Loading up on all
the businesses is changing from being a map to a yellowpages - which is fine
if that is the idea of the project. Keeping this data upto date is far
harder than actual pathways - and once businesses are no longer operating,
the data will be bad - and that is a dangerous path to go down.

 

-A

 

 

From: Eugene Alvin Villar [mailto:seav80 at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 11:58 AM
To: Ahmed Farooq
Cc: maning sambale; OSM
Subject: Re: POIs Part 2

 

On Wed, May 6, 2009 at 11:40 PM, Ahmed Farooq <ahmed at enthropia.com> wrote:

I have to add - have you seen the Boracay map? While it looks fantastic that
it is all mapped out, naming each resort/business there has lead to a map
that looks absolutely bloated and is unreadable at times.

For example
http://www.openstreetmap.org.ph/map/c/11.960549689657205/121.925368309021/17
/ - "Mango Ray Shenna's Resort" - are those two places? One? Which building
is covered by their name? Multiple buildings or just one?

This is a rendering problem, not a problem of data collection. It's
theoretically possible to add more metadata to those resorts (like N-star
rating) so that a renderer can choose to, say, display only 4- and 5-star
resorts so as not to clutter a general-purpose map. This can be tied to zoom
levels so that at a low zoom level, only Boracay Regency, Discovery Shores,
Friday's, Shangri-La Boracay, etc. will be displayed or labeled. At higher
zoom levels, more detail and labels can then be displayed.

A POI should be a notable location that a tourist may be interested in - a
statue, a building, even a public transit location. But specific businesses
(be it fast food joints or specific resorts) only create clutter and a mess
- which will only get worse as businesses are created and others go out of
business.

Having too much data (especially as part of the primary data set) is
contrary to the spirit of an open user-maintained map.

Well, I generally think that some types or classes of data are good
additions to the primary data set.

For instance, Asiatype publishes a paper map of the Makati CBD and Ortigas
business districts showing the locations of all the buildings. I don't think
having those buildings in OSM is "too much data". Likewise, I think the
location of all resorts in Boracay is a class of data that would be a good
addition to OSM.

Detached (as in stand-alone) restaurants and other dining places are OK in
my opinion; they provide vital landmark info as Rally has said.

On the other hand, I oppose the systematic addition of *all* tenants inside
shopping malls. Some are OK (like the anchor tenants that I've mentioned in
a previous e-mail).


-- 
http://vaes9.codedgraphic.com

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