[OSM-talk] Sourcing street names - what's the policy, and why?

Steve Bennett stevagewp at gmail.com
Tue Jan 5 03:12:37 GMT 2010


On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 3:54 AM, Anthony <osm at inbox.org> wrote:

>
> I don't know if that's what Steve was asking about.  In fact, I get the
> sense that he was planning on being somewhat systematic about things, which
> would be more of a clear violation of the law of some jurisdictions (whether
> or not his jurisdiction is one of them, I don't actually know).


I haven't really decided, and I don't know where the line from
"non-systematic" to "systematic" is. If I know I need precisely three street
names, and systematically look them up in the street directory, am I being
systematic? Twenty? Two hundred? Five thousand? What if my "system" is, map
all the roads in a 200m radius, then look up the names, then repeat? What if
no one else follows my system? What if they do?



> One suggestion I made to Steve was to "Stick to the places that you're
> interested in, and not only will you get the most benefit, but we'll get the
> best maps."
>

With respect, I found this suggestion rather silly. If people only mapped
the places they were interested in, we would never fill in the white spaces.
Perhaps the non-white bits would be better quality, but white still sucks.
In any volunteer-driven project, individuals' interest will have a big
effect on the final product, but it's good to try and step outside your own
interest area.

Or hey, I'm "interested" in filling in white spaces.

Comment from Richard:
>Or as the help page in Potlatch says: "Don't copy from other maps!"
>and "Did we mention about not copying from other maps?"

I'm still not sure what "copying from other maps" means. Like the example
given, I have in the past been so curious about what a street name was, that
I looked it up in Google Maps. Presumably if I wait long enough, then enter
that information in OSM, this is no longer "copying from another map" but
"entering my local knowledge".

And I fail to see how carrying out a pilgrimage to the street in question
changes anything. Are people seriously arguing that, having looked up the
name of a street somewhere, I can't enter it in OSM, but if I drive all the
way to the street and back, and *then* enter it, this is ok? Does anyone
really believe copyright law works this way?

OTOH, I do accept the "cleaner than clean" argument - not only does OSM need
to abide with copyright law, it needs to be able to demonstrate this fact,
so that people can reuse the data with no fear whatsoever. They need to have
complete certainty that *they* can use the data without *them* being sued.

So...I still haven't reconciled these two points of view. Pilgrimages to
streets are clearly ridiculous, but might satisfy the "cleaner than clean"
requirement. (Although I would probably still need convincing that
physically visiting a street makes a piece of data in the OSM database any
"cleaner").

Steve
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