[Talk-us] [Imports] Zipcode Import

[Kate Chapman]

Mike,

How do you plan to make money off of this?  When you buy road data from
Navteq and Teleatlas you can get their ZIP code boundaries with it so
everything lines up all nicely.  Though the quality of that data is usually
more up to date than the ZCTAs.

Unfortunately I don't see the ZCTAs as being the best way to create ZIP
boundaries.  I don't see people fixing the boundaries, I have no idea where
my ZIP boundaries are for my area.  I do know my own ZIP code, but that's
because I need it to give people my address.  Creating ZIP boundaries from
address data makes the most sense to me, though on the other hand I don't
see us creating point level addressing for the whole country anytime soon
either.

If you want to import data I would suggest looking at some other sources.
There is a ton of local GIS data available that people want to put into OSM
they just need assitance doing so.  If in the U.S. we are going to do a
combination of imports and community mapping I think starting at a local
level is the best answer.  There is a ton of datasets out there and we
haven't really started asking around for them yet.

Kate Chapman
user:wonderchook


On Sun, Dec 20, 2009 at 3:39 PM, jamesmikedupont at googlemail.com <
jamesmikedupont at googlemail.com> wrote:

> I understand! The counties are fine for splitting up the data.
> These zip codes are very interesting anyway, but it looks like some
> real work will be needed to process them. After looking on the net, I
> think there will be a big market for such data and I am facinated by
> the idea of being able to make money from this....
> need to think about it some more.
>
> mike
>
>
>
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