[Openstreetmap] Re: [Geowanking] freeing the postcode database

[Paul Ramsey]

Steve,
   I'm from Canada, so I may not have the UK situation sussed, but it  
seems to me that it would be far better to use the Google Maps API to  
provide a street base map, and set up a UI so people can (a) find  
their house and click on it to add a marker and (b) enter their  
postal code. Once you have enough information entered, depending on  
how accurate you want to be, you post-process the whole database to  
find average centre points for each postal code.
   As with Canada, you will have the problem of the "migrating postal  
code".  Our codes are of the form A0A-0A0, and the back three digits  
change with moderate frequency while the front three (the so-called  
"forward sortation area" are quite static over time).  So some  
metadata about when data was entered will help you keep your  
calculations clean over time.
   Basically, requiring a GPS seems overkill, unless I completely  
misunderstand the UK problem.
Paul

Oh, corollary hack: Google Maps UK can be made to do geocoding,  
right? Search the web for full UK addresses, push them through the  
Google Maps geocode, then store the postal code / location pairs in  
your database.  Again, gather a pile of data so you can do some  
statistical data cleansing at the end.

On 8-Aug-05, at 2:50 PM, SteveC wrote:

> As a little side project to openstreetmap I thought it would be  
> good to
> nail the postcode database problem:
>
> http://www.freethepostcode.org/
>
> The site will backend to OSM just as soon as I can get the work  
> done. I
> think it's useful to have a simple side thing like this. I don't think
> it would be that hard to get a large number of postcodes with a
> (relatively) few core people taking a GPS everywhere.
>
> Comments? Suggestions? Bugs?
>
> I'm happy to open up the site to places other than the UK, and see  
> what
> other things we can do specifically to nail the postcode database.
>
> have fun,
>
> SteveC steve at fractalus.com http://www.fractalus.com/steve/
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