[OSM-talk] Geographic names and lat/long pairs

[SteveC]

* @ 28/02/06 08:43:39 PM evan at prodromou.name wrote:
> So, the eerily-named National Geographic Intelligence Agency (NGIS) of
> the United States has a huge database of geographic names and lat/long
> pairs, updated monthly, available for download online:
> 
> http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/cntry_files.html
> 
> Being the product of a US government agency, the data is in the public
> domain and free for any use.
> 
> It doesn't cover the United States -- for bureaucratic reasons, that
> stuff is covered by another agency. US data can be downloaded here:
> 
> http://geonames.usgs.gov/stategaz/index.html
> 
> Of course, the files are in different format. I guess we should all be
> grateful that you don't have to buy reel-to-reel tapes by mail order.
> 
> Now, that all said: this seems like valuable information that could be
> useful for OpenStreetMaps. Is there a way that this could/should be
> uploaded to the OSM server? Kept up-to-date on a monthly basis, without
> overwriting local modifications?  There are several million data points,
> and a non-trivial number of them are synonyms. How would that work?

It's whats used in the city search... but yes it should go in to OSM
proper. Somehow.

have fun,

SteveC steve at asklater.com http://www.asklater.com/steve/