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

[Mikel Maron]

> 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.

This seems to me to be a fairly good upper guideline, but I also think we need to allow for exceptions.
There is good reasoning to include some kinds of political and land use boundaries in OpenStreetMap, 
these aren't always physically visible, and are often included in maps. The names of rivers and hills
are not always posted, but we'd want to include relevant names.

As well, the majority of physical things we'd consider outside the bounds of OpenStreetMap. I don't think
we'd be attempting to document every bike rack, trash can, or street lamp.


So bus routes are probably outside the scope of OpenStreetMap, though not bus lanes.
However routes are more tightly bound to the underlying map than a simple mashup/overlay. 
We'd want a facility analogous to designating a way, but storage of this data in a supplementary database ..
so more tools that worked with planet.osm beyond simple visualization.

-Mikel