[Talk-us] tiff, dwg and nad83

[Charlotte Wolter]

Dale,

         Well said, especially the part at the end about making software easy.
         The wiki lacks specificity or even contradicts itself on so 
many topics. Is there some way to form a group whose job would be to 
distill the discussions into a consensus on the wiki?
         As for step-by-step instructions, do the experts on the list 
consider it beneath them to explain these things for the beginner? 
And, if imports are, indeed, very technical, is there some way to 
provide a guide for the less technical--many of whom may have access 
to good data--to take the first steps toward obtaining data and 
grooming it for upload? Then, lacking great software for easy 
imports, it could be turned over to those more knowledgeable to 
complete the process.
         There must be a way to make this better.

--C


At 08:43 PM 4/15/2012, you wrote:
>Documentation!  I think what you did is exactly what is needed.  It 
>may or may not need improvements.  If what is "decided" in the 
>newsgroups is not put down in the wiki then the discussion was not 
>finished to a point someone could sum it up for the masses to 
>follow.  Then post a link here for everyone to review.
>
>There are always different types of people.  Some need step by step 
>instructions, other just an overview and they research it from 
>there.  Sometimes simply stating which type of instructions before 
>starting is fine.  If it is something that others will need to know 
>then make a wiki page and answer by pointing them there.  Especially 
>if it took much work to answer the question.
>
>Stating up front:
>"Importing is generally a technical endeavor and anyone not willing 
>to do a bit of digging to learn new things will find it 
>frustrating.  This is just an overview of the steps.  Detailed 
>instructions for some or all of the steps may be on the wiki under 
>imports (link) and learning to use each piece of software may also 
>be required."
>
>That said great software design would make imports easy...  It just 
>take a great programmer that understands the beginner mapper, but 
>can map with the masters and a LOT of programming. :p
>
>Dale
>
>On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 9:10 PM, Josh Doe 
><<mailto:josh at joshdoe.com>josh at joshdoe.com> wrote:
>On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 2:37 PM, Charlotte Wolter 
><<mailto:techlady at techlady.com>techlady at techlady.com> wrote:
> > The exchange between Frank Cox and others about importing data is a perfect
> > example of an ongoing problem with this list: Many of the discussions and
> > "answers" are simply too GIS geeky for the vast majority of us.
>
>I'm not entirely sure this is helping to address your concerns, but I
>just created a checklist for importing which should help:
><http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Guidelines#A_checklist>http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Guidelines#A_checklist
>
>The goal is to provide a quick overview of the steps in importing
>data. This can certainly be expanded, so please do so.
>
>Replies should probably go to the imports@ list rather than talk-us@,
>since it's not talk-us@ specific.
>
>-Josh
>
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>
>
>--
>Dale Puch

Charlotte Wolter
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