[OSM-talk] Scientific/Species Data in OSM Database - Collaborators

[Peter Wendorff]

It's not directly against policy to store all of these in the OSM DB 
(without F), but it's kind of bad practice.
You should ask yourself the following questions:
- is the data more or less static (stays the same for a while)?
- is it possible to describe species data as nodes, linestrings and 
polygons, probably relations/multipolygons in a reasonable way?
- is it more easy to do that in OSM than to do it in a separate 
database? Probably to help answering this question, additionally: is the 
data connected to the map, or a "transparent" overlay, which might be 
interesting to see in comparison to the map, but is not 
connected/interleaved with it?
- is the data verifyable by the average or at least by the engaged 
mapper without performing scientific studies?

I guess, that most species don't have fixed areas, where one can say 
"species X resides inside this area, but not outside".
I think, it's more like a "this is the core area for that species, and 
there's a fuzzy margin around where they sometimes occur.".
Features like that have discussed before already, e.g. for fuzzy 
geographical regions like the alps etc., but there's no good solution 
yet, as far as I know.
For species I would not use osm directly for all of the above reasons 
for now: it's not static (at least for some species), it's not 
verifyable by mappers, it's not connected to the map itself (but fit's 
perfectly as an overlay for visualization).

regards
Peter

Am 22.10.2012 17:16, schrieb Alex Rollin:
> Is it against policy to store all of it in the OSMF DB?
>
> a
>
> On Mon, Oct 22, 2012 at 10:03 PM, John F. Eldredge 
> <john at jfeldredge.com <mailto:john at jfeldredge.com>> wrote:
>
>     Mikel Maron <mikel_maron at yahoo.com <mailto:mikel_maron at yahoo.com>>
>     wrote:
>
>     > Hi
>     >
>     > I'm interested in the topic, but haven't been contributing
>     information
>     > yet.
>     >
>     > Some immediate issues that come to mind: Most areas would have more
>     > than one species of flora, but not clear how to use the species
>     tag in
>     > that way. Fauna ranges are often not well defined in terms of
>     existing
>     > landuse tags, so not sure if it is "appropriate". Some cases could
>     > clearly be, such as a protected area set up for a particular
>     > endangered species.
>     >
>     > -Mikel
>     >
>     > * Mikel Maron * +14152835207 <tel:%2B14152835207> @mikel
>     s:mikelmaron
>     >
>     >
>     > >________________________________
>     > > From: Alex Rollin <alex.rollin at gmail.com
>     <mailto:alex.rollin at gmail.com>>
>     > >To: talk at openstreetmap.org <mailto:talk at openstreetmap.org>
>     > >Sent: Monday, October 22, 2012 2:12 AM
>     > >Subject: [OSM-talk] Scientific/Species Data in OSM Database -
>     > Collaborators
>     > >
>     > >
>     > >Hi,
>     > >
>     > >
>     > >I have been looking through the wiki for more information about
>     > "appopriate data".
>     > >
>     > >
>     > >I would like to meet more of the people storing information about
>     > "presence of species", flora or fauna, inside the OSM db.
>     > >
>     > >
>     > >I see
>     > >
>     > >
>     > >http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:species
>     > >
>     > >
>     > >and
>     > >
>     > >
>     > >http://tagstat.hypercube.telascience.org/tagdetails.php?tag=species
>     > >
>     > >
>     > >Any feedback about this is very welcome.  We are just researching
>     > this now.
>     > >
>     > >
>     > >Alex
>     > >Bogor, Indonesia
>     > >_______________________________________________
>     > >talk mailing list
>     > >talk at openstreetmap.org <mailto:talk at openstreetmap.org>
>     > >http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
>     > >
>     > >
>     > >
>     >
>     >
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     >
>     > _______________________________________________
>     > talk mailing list
>     > talk at openstreetmap.org <mailto:talk at openstreetmap.org>
>     > http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
>
>     The practicality of storing this information in the OSM database
>     depends in part on how many species you are tracking.  If only a
>     few species are being tracked, there isn't a problem.  If you try
>     to record all of the species in an area, including the insects and
>     microbes, then you are talking about tens of thousands of entries
>     for even a small geographical area.
>
>     --
>     John F. Eldredge -- john at jfeldredge.com <mailto:john at jfeldredge.com>
>     "Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
>     than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria
>
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>
>
>
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