[OSM-talk] [OSM-dev] Developers requested to help provide "completeness" tools

[David Earl]

On 12/05/2008 22:51, Andy Allan wrote:
> On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 8:16 PM, David Earl <david at frankieandshadow.com> wrote:
> 
>>  I think it is terribly hard to know whether you have all the footpaths,
>>  and I think we'd hardly ever mark anywhere "complete" if we did that.
> 
> I think it's terribly hard to know when a map is correct and complete,
> regardless of what you're considering.

There will always be some unintentional errors, but I am confident 
enough of mapping villages and sections of towns systematically to be 
able to assert that I have completed it to that measure of completeness 
- that I have visited every street and got every name possible. (But I 
don't mind using some other word for it if you like, e.g. a confidence 
level or some such).

I think I would have a much harder time being systematic about 
footpaths, especially the rural ones, so I wouldn't have the same degree 
of confidence in my mapping of a footpath network. Maybe if that's what 
I specialised in my confidence would grow, but the concept of junctions 
where you can note the other routes from from need attention seems a 
much less well defined concept for footpaths.

But the main point about footpaths is that using that as the only 
measure would be very dispiriting because it would be so hard to 
complete any reasonable areas to that standard, and completeness at the 
street level is very useful for lots of purposes that doesn't require 
footpaths so is worth showing to consumers.

David