[Talk-us] mapRe: (Second attempt) Potential data source: Adirondack Park Freshwater Wetlands

[Frederik Ramm]

Kevin,

On 03/15/2016 03:46 AM, Kevin Kenny wrote:
> Since I received only a total of three comments about this idea, one 
> strongly negative (from Frederik Ramm)

My comment was intended to open your eyes to the fact that there's more
to a good import than simply putting precise data into OSM and getting
the tags right.

Frankly I felt that you had already laid out the negative bits in your
original message and you didn't need me to write a negative comments,
you just needed me to draw the logical conclusion from what you yourself
wrote ;)

I have zero knowledge about the Adirondack; I just echoed your own
words: You said that there are "difficulties inherent in getting changes
made by local mappers working independently", and I said if that's the
case then the import is not likely to be useful for a long time as it
will just "echo" third party data.

Brian May in his encouraging message talks about laying "the groundwork
for others to build on" and says "You will also no doubt spark interest
from more active contributors who will notice that there's major quality
improvements in your area and pitch in to help - potentially a lot."

While Brian seems to disagree with my "one strong negative comment", he
also seems to disagree with your very own judgement that it is very
unlikely that the data is going to be edited and improved; he seems to
believe that the import can be a viable foundation for original
surveying by volunteers in the Adirondack. I don't know if that's just
wishful thinking or if he has first-hand experience of the area that
goes against yours.

Like me, Brian sees an import not as a replacement for mapper activity
("nobody's going to go there anyway so let's take someone else's data")
but as a foundation ("let's import this data so others can build upon it").

I can't judge how likely it is that others will build upon it but I'd
say that if, five years down the line, nobody has built upon it while
official data has been improved time and again, then it's probably a
waste of time. We would only know with hindsight. (For the TIGER import,
which covers ground much more accessible than the Adirondack, the "five
years down the line and nobody has done anything while official data has
improved" is, sadly, true in many areas.)

If it is any consolation, I have rarely seen a so well reflected and
carefully laid out import proposal as yours. But as I said, I believe
that your proposal essentially answered the question "should this import
go ahead" all by itself.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"