[OSM-talk] Historical Data in OSM database

[Jukka Rahkonen]

Lester Caine <lester <at> lsces.co.uk> writes:

> In the past we have been told "If you want it - Add it - other people do not 
> have to use it". I just think this is another case of that which we need to 
> agree methods for since at least a few people DO want to share the information.
> If I'm mapping on some historic side port of the data why would I then bother 
> adding current stuff back to the main one ... I'd just be happy with the one I 
> was using ...

This historical information thing is another example, in addition to 
more and more geospatial data that could be imported into OSM, that perhaps
importing everything into a huge OSM trunk is not the only or even the best
way for combining data from different sources. For example the Finnish 
prototype of Inspire map portal can already show about 80 map layers 
together without any imports between the databases. All the layers 
(except the two OSM layers) are coming from the original data providers 
and combined at the client. Soon some of the layers will be downloadable 
as vectors or rasters through the same porta. The result is by no means 
nice cartography but still already usable for comparing datasets. For 
example the coverage of the official highway data and OSM, Digiroad and 
OpenStreetMap in the Transport networks category. The portal is at
http://www.paikkatietoikkuna.fi/web/en/map-window