[OSM-talk] [OSM-legal-talk] In what direction should OSM go?

[Steve Bennett]

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 7:57 PM, Peter Körner <osm-lists at mazdermind.de> wrote:
> Imported data is dead data - there's no one that feels responsible for it.
> Imports can kill community and give "newcomers" the feeling that there's
> nothing more to be done. Imports *can* help osm but they can also *hurt*
> osm, because osm is about people, not data.

IMHO imports are at the best in these cases:
- the data cannot be obtained by surveying (eg, administrative boundaries)
- the data does not duplicate existing work, and is unlikely to (eg,
mobile phone towers)
- the imported data is small enough to be manually merged, but high
quality enough to make it worthwhile

It's probably at it its most problematic when there is already
extensive (but not comprehensive) coverage of the kind of data being
imported (eg, roads), because merging is then virtually impossible,
and you'll get the "what a lot of wasted effort" reaction.

Steve