[OSM-talk] Id stability

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

Kate Chapman wrote:
> I'm not sure I understand why having the ability to link to external
> data through some sort of ID is such a bad thing.

This is about external data linking to us, not vice versa.

> This is common in
> many APIs and datasets.   It is an opportunity to mix data in new ways
> as well.

That's why it ought to be done right, in a way that places no additional 
burden on our project. (And if you need proof that it isn't easy - even 
Navteq and TeleAtlas do not promise stability of their IDs, and indeed 
they change often.)

> Frederik also this seems odd to me " I'm not a big fan of UUIDs
> because, again, it burdens *our* data with stuff
> that other people want to do with it."  Define other people, do you
> mean mappers, data users?

I mean the work of mappers becoming more complicated because people who 
are not mappers want their demands met.

For every mapper there are hundreds who want to use our data (and 
whereas the mapper never receives any money, many of our data users 
actually make money or save money by using our data). This means, to me, 
that if data users want to have it easier, want stable linking to OSM or 
whatever, they ought to shoulder the burden themselves rather than 
asking us to shoulder it for them IN ADDITION to what we are already doing.

And, as I have explained, it would be a simple matter of programming 
(plus a little funds to run the service) to do this properly.

> Why aquiesce to use tags at all, making
> data more consistent just burdens *our* data with stuff other people
> want to do with it.

Like it or not, most of our mappers are in it for the map. That's why 
they use tags. If most of our mappers were in it for the general idea of 
a semantic web and a linked data store that encompasses the planet, 
things might look different.

> I think being able to link between datasets can be beneficial.  Maybe
> versioning on the API makes sense, maybe UUIDs, but I don't think the
> linking is such a bad thing.

My main point was that any additional burden caused for us by linking - 
be that a reuirement for constant IDs, the introduction of additional 
tags, or warnings that pop up when someone tries to make an otherwise 
normal edit - is hard to accept for me, and I'd prefer a third-party 
service that does all this without affecting us negatively. It's 
technically possible so if someone is really eager to have proper 
linking then why not just do it.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"