[OSM-talk] Bing maps is misplaced

Steve Bennett stevagewp at gmail.com
Wed Dec 8 21:59:55 GMT 2010


On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 8:33 AM, davespod <osmlists at dellams.fastmail.fm> wrote:
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Beginners_Guide_1.1
>
> See item 3.*

Very interesting. That line was added by "Ben" in January 2009, and
that sentence hasn't been touched since.

So the question arises: does the community support this view? And if
it does, then we should add it to some policy pages, which we would
expect everyone to follow.

(Personally, I would be arguing against it. "Don't do X because the
result would be less accurate than if you did Y" is an unhelpful kind
of perfectionism. The line makes the point that accuracy is important.
Well, coverage is also important. And you could argue that it's much
more efficient to map from aerial imagery first, then correct errors
with a local visit.)

> This was almost the first wiki page I read when I joined OSM in 2008. It was
> there then, and it's there now. I haven't always followed it, for instance
> in Haiti, but I have always assumed that if it is in the Beginners Guide it
> is as close to "policy" as OSM will ever get.*

I'm not sure I've ever even seen that page before. And no, there's a
big difference between advice for beginners, and actual policy.

> * I'm not saying it is "policy", as I still don't know what that means in
> OSM!

I don't think the term is yet used. I'm borrowing from Wikipedia,
which went through this whole process of formalising community
expectations into policy more than 5 years ago.

Steve



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