[OSM-talk] clean gpx tracks

[Lambert Carsten]

On Thursday 25 September 2008 18:53:00 Andy Robinson (blackadder-lists) wrote:

> It is not intended to "protect" OSM against infringement at all. It's there
> as a statement about the ethos of the project that you don't upload data
> from copyright sources. Of course we all know it's possible to circumvent,
> but that goes against the ethos of the project and hence the community
> wouldn't stand for abuse if it was spotted.
That is why we want all the tracks that we can get so anybody trying 
to 'infect' the data with copyrighted material doesn't have a hope in hell 
since there is so much more from non copyright sources.
>
> As far as I am aware the requirement for a timestamp was established by the
> project founder SteveC when he first set up the system all those years ago,
> it's engrained within the very basis of the project and thus unlikely to
> ever change. 
I really don't get this. Although I am not a programmer I find it very hard to 
believe that the 'importer' cannot be changed to accept tracks without time 
stamp data.
O.k. so the decision was made at a very early stage, so that is why there is 
no real record of it. But if it is a bad decision (with hindsight of course 
and under different circumstances: geotagged photos, Yahoo imagery etc)), 
that is to say it has negative effects, it seems only logical to change it.

> As has been pointed out, if you don't want to expose the 
> timestamp simply don't make your trace public. 
What I personally want is to upload clean data because it helps me as a mapper 
when there is as little noise as possible in the gps data. So therefore I 
don't want to burdon others with my noisy data.
I want to upload my tracks because when I enter data I like every bit of 
confirmation that my data is good, that I can get. Obviously if I like others 
to upload their tracks I need to upload mine, that's the basis of why a 
project like this works! 

If I could cut out the garbage out of my tracks as easily as I can in Josm but 
without destroying the timestamp info the issue that triggered this 'quest' 
would be gone (or rather would not even have come up).

However the other issues I hadn't thought about before remain.
If people are not uploading their tracks because of privacy issues it is a 
loss to everyone. 

The question with any 'rule' always remains: is it useful, is it adding or 
taking away?

> Anyone wanting to know about 
> the map data will be looking at the history of the data item for the
> contributor details rather than who made perhaps one of the many GPX tracks
> that lie underneath.
Absolutely, common sense approach is best!

Lambert