[OSM-talk] Bing maps is misplaced

[Alan Mintz]

At 2010-12-08 04:53, Joseph Reeves wrote:
>OpenStreetMap is still a wiki though? So if I find a future travel
>destination missing from OSM, but covered by Bing, where's the harm in
>tracing it? In many parts of the world there is no such thing as
>"local mappers" and even if I did trace a load of crap into the
>database, anyone else can come along  and, providing they've got a
>better data source than I, fix it.

Exactly. Creating something where there was nothing leaves the map better 
off. In some cases, you might be creating some features that are no longer 
there, but I'd expect these to be a minority.

Where people should be careful, IMO, is in moving existing features based 
on satellite imagery when you do not know the accuracy of the imagery. Even 
GPS traces, when made in low-accuracy environments, may not be accurate 
enough to prove the "ground truth", as you will see if you look carefully 
at your GPS receiver's estimated accuracy while driving around with it 
inside a car, in mountainous or tall building areas, etc. It takes real 
work and research to establish reference points that can be used to 
correctly georeference an image.


>We should all map place we know nothing about. Period. If nothing else
>it may provide a vital spark in developing local interests and
>efforts. It's a wiki, it doesn't need to be perfect first time.

I, too, believe it is useful to have _something_ present in an area in 
order to ignite local interest. If someone on an island goes to OSM and 
sees nothing, they might likely just move on. If, however, they see the 
land mass and the main road with some other features that may not be 
correct, they are more likely to get interested in fixing them.

--
Alan Mintz <Alan_Mintz+OSM at Earthlink.net>