[Talk-us] Changing Data Attribution

Zeke Farwell ezekielf at gmail.com
Sun Jun 13 16:40:28 BST 2010


The way I see it, any given feature may have many components to it's data.
With a road you've got the geometry, name, classification, surface, etc…. .
 These components may all come from one source, or they make come from
several.  If the road is unmodified since the TIGER import then the source
of all these components is TIGER.  If I've taken a GPS trace of the road,
noted the name, classification, and surface, then I can make a new way (or
modify the old one) and tag it "source=GPS" (or source=GPS; survey if you
want to get detailed).  The source of the geometry is a GPS and the source
of the other components is my survey.  Since I've collected all new data
from the ground, TIGER is no longer the source of any component.  If however
I've re-aligned the geometry of a road off Yahoo imagery, I have not
verified the other components.   The name, surface, and classification are
still from TIGER alone so it should be preserved in the source tag
(source=Yahoo; TIGER).  Of course if it's a road in my neighborhood that I
know is called Spruce Ave, and should be tertiary then I'd tag it
"source=Yahoo; local_knowledge".  Geometry source from Yahoo, other
components from my own knowledge of the area.  Then the next mapper will see
that someone with knowledge of the area edited that way last and the data
can be trusted more than TIGER.  Basically I just think about what the
actual source of the data is, and since there are multiple pieces of data
about each feature it's perfectly reasonable to have more than one source.

The attribution tag is a bit different.  It's not about the source of the
data, but about giving credit to the person, organization, government, etc
who made the data available to OSM.  As long as attribution is required and
the source of any component of a feature is still said organization, then
the attribution tag should be preserved.  TIGER data is public domain, so no
attribution is required.  This is why data from the TIGER import only has a
source tag.  Source is really for the benefit of the next mapper, so they
can gauge if the data they have might be better than what already exists.

Zeke
Burlington, VT



On Sat, Jun 12, 2010 at 10:00 PM, Josh Kraayenbrink <jakraay at gmail.com>wrote:

> This is in relation to Lars' question with attribution on nodes and ways.
>
> I have been thinking, possibly incorrectly, about attribution on data. The
> Tiger import was great, but as you all know, not perfectly accurate. I have
> been "reviewing" and almost all roads, ways, etc that have been imported in
> my area are now corrected. The problem comes in the ways we review this
> imported data. If I go around and get .gpx traces and use that to move the
> imported roads and mark the road as reviewed, is it really still to be
> attributed to the Tiger import, or does the source/attribution actually
> change to my trace? And what about a trace of aerial photography, make a
> difference? I do believe attributing the data to Tiger is no longer
> accurate, but not one hundred percent
>
> On top of that, do I delete the current data and create a new, more
> accurate piece of data in its place, or simply move the Tiger data and
> change the attribution. While this makes absolutely no difference to the
> current state of the map, it does make a difference for the history of the
> data. Is my data actually a newer improved version of the Tiger data, or is
> it a new piece of data?
>
> This does not just apply to Tiger data either. If you map something, but I
> edit or move it, where does the attribution lie in this? Just something I
> have been scratching my head on as I have picked up my mapping
> and actually getting in the field as of late. Curious on the trains of
> thought or consensus on this.
>
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