[OSM-talk] [Talk-us] Karlruhe Scheme addressing ways from 2009 TIGER data

[Andy Allan]

On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 6:22 PM, Dave Hansen <dave at sr71.net> wrote:

> There are still quite a few squeaky wheels that
> like to grumble about TIGER, but I haven't heard a single person say
> that it did more harm than good.

It did more harm than good.

As someone who has worked with TIGER data repeatedly, on a far larger
scale than most people, I will say: It did more harm than good.

As someone who spent 8 weeks working to clean up enough roads to make
one, solitary, viable connected road across the US, I will say: It did
more harm than good.

As someone who has actually tried to fix the disastrous double
imports, which have remained untouched for over 2 years, I will say:
it did more harm than good.

And as someone with a detailed knowledge of how OSM works on many
different continents and situations, I will say: it did more harm than
good.

And of anyone in the discussion, let nobody accuse me of not knowing
what I'm talking about. I have spent 10 times as much time on TIGER
fixup - both in projects and by helping other people - than anything
else in openstreetmap over the last 12 months.

But here's the worrying point, no matter how much time I spend trying
to explain the problems with imports, I'm just a "squeaky wheel" to
the pro-import guys. The tiger import has done more than anything else
to ensure that OSM in the US will be years and years behind what it
could otherwise be. The way to get back up to speed, build communities
and build the best map of the world is to move on from the failed
approach of imports, and to open your eyes to what is done day in day
out in Europe - without making excuses that the US is somehow
different.

But that won't happen. Despite all evidence to the contrary, many
people will continue with the idea that if only there were *enough*
imports, OSM in the US will stop being lame and start being awesome.
It won't. Every import just makes it take longer and longer and longer
to build the community that is needed. It'll get there in the end, but
every national-scale import sets back the end result by years.

Cheers,
Andy