[OSM-talk] Wikipedia POI import?

[Jochen Topf]

On Tue, May 05, 2009 at 11:03:56PM -0700, Richard Fairhurst wrote:
> Actually, I think an OSMer said it best on Twitter.
> 
> "Openstreetmap is about gathering map data and sharing it. Some people seem
> desperate to import data from anywhere. GATHER IT YOURSELF."

Well, actually its not. It might have been once, but now there is more
data imported from somewhere (mostly TIGER) than there is collected
data. I see the OSM projects goal as providing free geodata, doesn't
matter where that came from. Lots of interesting data is not
"collectable". You dont' see border lines painted on the ground.

While I love the aspect of collecting data myself and it is good for
public relations to talk about moms pushing a pram and collecting
geodata, thats only part of the project. Going out and collecting data
was absolutely necessary to get this project jumpstarted. But now that
OSM is accepted people are standing in line wanting to get their data
imported. For better or worse, the project has changed.

Jochen
-- 
Jochen Topf  jochen at remote.org  http://www.remote.org/jochen/  +49-721-388298