[OSM-talk] OSM Data Scope (was "wikiproject rail?")

[matthew-osm at newtoncomputing.co.uk]

On Tue, Oct 03, 2006 at 05:40:36PM +0100, Tom Chance wrote:
> I think everyone would benefit at this point from an exercise in defining what 
> counts as "core" OSM data, so we know what should probably go elsewhere.

<snip>

> Unless an agreed definition of core data is agreed on, and there is some way 
> of stopping plonkers like me from adding more and more extraneous data 
> (whether to the db or to the map features page), the database is just going 
> to fill up with all sorts of crap :)

This is something I've been thinking about for a while. The same question (for
me, anyway) seem to come up continuously behind lots of different masks. For
example

  "What should go in to the database, and what not?"
  "How should these roads be marked up / how should Map Features be designed?"
  "Can I put county/town/village/constituency boundaries in, and where do I get
    the data legally?"
  "Should OSM contain bus routes?"

  etc etc...

Personally I think that OSM should primarily be a map of what is actually
physically there. In other words, if I can go out and see that there is a road,
I can map it and upload it. I can see on a road sign that it is the "A6", so I
can tag it thus. It has a name, so that can be tagged, too.

However, I cannot go out and visibly see a bus route that runs along the road. I
_could_ mark the bus stops, though (they are real things, like benches/post
boxes/telephone boxes etc).

Again, town boundaries; they are not a physical thing, and can't be easily
discovered. Guessing based on town signs is not an option. Easy answer: don't
put them in.

I think this is a fairly easy way of determining what goes into the map. There
is a distinction between physical and political, but it seems hard to see that
sometimes.

[ There is another Map Features anomaly... "highway=trunk" should not exist; it
should be "highway=...", "trunk=yes", as any road in the UK can potentially be a
trunk road. On the other hand, "motorway" etc are political designations, maybe
it should be "phy:highway=ECCC|CCCE"*, "uk:class=motorway"? ;-) ]

Comments...? am I going off the "rails"? ;-)

-- 
Matthew


* E - emergency lane, C - carriageway, | - reservation, for example