[OSM-talk] OSM needs a measure for completeness

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

> OSM really needs a measure for local completeness to demonstrate its 
> progress externally. I hope enough people can be roused to discuss, and 
> hopefully agree, the principles, before deciding on an implementation.

I'm all for it but I would really try to deduce this completeness from
external sources.

For example:

* Get statistics about paved roads in certain administrative areas,
  compare with OSM paved roads, arrive at a percentage of
  completeness.

* Get population statistics and a good estimate for length of roads
  or ways per capita in the type of area you're looking at; use that
  to compute how many miles of road you should have and compare to 
  OSM.

* Get number of named roads for certain areas (even if the full lists
  might be legally problematic, it should be possible to call someone
  in the city administration and ask them for the *number* of roads 
  at least!) and compare with OSM data.

And so on. This will of course never be accurate but could help to
draw coloured maps that give us an estimate of how good we're doing.

Self-assessed detail complenetess ("Personally went to this quarter
and verified every road") is something that I see further down the
road, and that will probably require some technical infrastructure.
Whereever possible I'd like to try and have this completeness assessed
by people *other* than those who did the mapping; maybe through a web
interface where casual visitors can check their area of residence and
rubber-stamp it (or note down complaints).

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00.09' E008°23.33'