[OSM-talk] How to perfect the map

[Andy Allan]

On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 10:47 AM, Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se> wrote:

>  I went to
>  http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Mapping_techniques

Hmm. See below.

> I
>  think we should make wiki pages that start with real world objects
>  instead of tags.

This is something I've been campaigning (quietly) for a long time, and
it's what I try to do every time I add stuff to the wiki - concentrate
on explaining how to map something, rather than explaining the meaning
of tags.

As for the page you've linked to, I spent a long time in December 2006
making that a tight, well edited page, leading off to detailed pages
on the different mapping techniques. Now I see that it's wiki-rotting,
with scrappy bits about using Google Earth for mapping and dancing
around the copyright issues therein and other scrappy bits and bobs.

If anyone out there wants to make a really valuable contribution to
the project a great way would be to *edit* the wiki - i.e. chop out
lots of fluff, tease together the different parts where people have
dumped their brains onto Yet Another Introduction Page without having
looked around yet and found the same thing phrased 10 different ways
already, bringing sets of pages together into proof-read, well written
- even illustrated - articles and so on. I'm tempted to offer rewards
to anyone who can demonstrate that they spent more time tidying
documentation than simply writing more, which is what almost everyone
else is doing. Charging 5 euros for every new page might help too :-)

As for the actual point behind your post, I think most buildings come
from imagery rather than walking around them with a GPS.

Cheers,
Andy