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

[Roy Wallace]

On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 5:51 PM, John Smith <deltafoxtrot256 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm sorry, but accuracy is important to some of us, and using
> commercial data is inaccurate, visiting is one way to get correct
> information, as is contacting the council responsible for the roads.

Absolutely, but consider these scenarios:

1) map by survey only, slow progress and for several years: excellent
accuracy in dense urban areas and near to blank in other areas
2) map by survey & alternate legal methods, extremely fast progress
right now, with fairly good accuracy widespread, and for several
years: correct the errors

It isn't *entirely* clear that 1) is better than 2). E.g.
hypothetically, the immediate wider (albeit arguably less accurate)
coverage resulting from 2) may lead to increased popularity and an
influx of new mappers, making it faster overall to correct the errors.

Therefore it's worth at least briefly considering alternate legal
methods, which is all that Steve is suggesting.