[OSM-talk] Import of buildings in Chicago

[Gregory Arenius]

>
> This is Yet Another import from a database being maintained by someone
> else. This is why we need a "closedstreetmap.org", which publishes, in
> OSM format using the OSM API, data which cannot be sensibly edited.
>

I disagree that buildings can't be sensibly edited.  I trace them, add
addresses to them, give them tags such as school or hospital or restaurant
or fire station or library or.... Sometimes I even delete them if they're
not there anymore.  Same as streets, or parks, really.  Also, I know in San
Francisco some people were experimenting with adding more information to
buildings such as number of units and construction materials, to make the
data more useful for emergency response. (eg, after a large earthquake,
maybe we should check the unreinforced masonry buildings with a lot of
units first....)

I also don't see the problem with importing a dataset that someone else is
still maintaining.  We're just forking their dataset.  Pretty much every
municipality has a database of their streets...so do we.  If they have one
of their buildings, why can't we?


> In the Dutch community we've been discussing this a while ago, because all
> buildings in the Netherlands are available in a high quality PD dataset,
> called BAG (Basisregistratie Adressen and Gebouwen: base registration of
> adresses and buildings). Ironically, exactly the reason this dataset is
> existing and freely available, it makes it not worth while the effort to
> import this into OSM, and impose the burden of updating it onto ourselves.
> It is much more convenient to take OSM without buildings (and addresses)
> and merge this with the other dataset.
>

I disagree that it would be more convenient to have to merge two different
datasets, that are probably in different formats, than it would be to just
use one dataset that has all the information in it.  Especially seeing as
how everyone who wants to use the data will have to do that work, where as
if it is in OSM it only has to be merged that one time.  If that data were
in OSM then all the apps and routers and maps that use OSM, and there are a
ton of them, would be able to locate addresses and render buildings.  As it
is they aren't able to because the data isn't there and each application or
map  would have to find the data for the Netherlands (and if we do things
that way everywhere else, the data for everywhere else, too!) and then
figure out how to merge it or how to work with a non-OSM format.  More
likely this doesn't happen and everybody ends up with much less useful
data.

Cheers,
Greg
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