[OSM-talk] Actually using OpenStreetMap and the usability of the current maps

[Brian Quinion]

> One would think that getting all of the capitals tagged would be easy,
> however going and grabbing it from sites linked to google I'm assuming would
> almost certainly be a no no.
>
> Can we use information from wikipedia?
>
> For example.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_capitals
>
> If I can use that, then I can find all the capitals, and just tag them.

How about geonames database - is that usable?

A quick scan shows 142,000 locations with population data (accuracy
unknown!).  There are also feature codes to define which locations are
major cities, etc.

country_code |  ansiname   |   latitude   |  longitude   | population
| feature_code
--------------+-------------+--------------+--------------+------------+--------------
 GB           | Abbotts Ann | 51.183333300 | -1.516666700 |       2112 | PPL
 GB           | Aberaeron   | 52.250000000 | -4.250000000 |       1537 | PPLA
 GB           | Abercanaid  | 51.723611100 | -3.366111100 |       5061 | PPL
 GB           | Abercarn    | 51.647222200 | -3.136944400 |      10118 | PPL
 GB           | Aberchirder | 57.550000000 | -2.616666700 |       1159 | PPL
 GB           | Aberdare    | 51.715000000 | -3.454166700 |      32756 | PPL
 GB           | Aberdeen    | 57.133333300 | -2.100000000 |     183790 | PPLA
 GB           | Aberdour    | 56.050000000 | -3.300000000 |       1742 | PPL
 GB           | Aberfeldy   | 56.616666700 | -3.850000000 |       1937 | PPL
 GB           | Aberfoyle   | 56.183333300 | -4.383333300 |        577 | PPL

--
 Brian