[OSM-talk] Is it technically and legally possible to add the Open Location Code to the OSM search?

[Frederik Ramm]

Blake,

On 10.08.2018 19:23, Blake Girardot wrote:
> I think an approach based on local buy-in, with a small scale test of
> adding the PlusCode address to the objects is the fastest, OSM'ish way
> forward.

Christoph was a bit harsh in his response but I think he is right on teh
fundamentals, and I urge you to reconsider.

As I have explained in another post just a few minutes ago, taking the
"adding tags to OSM" approach is a cynical form of aid - it makes people
using it depend on your aid. It wastes effort with those adding the
data, it wastes storage space in OSM, it has *nothing*, absolutely
nothing going for it.

The sensible approach is to add the logic that converts plus codes to
locations and vice versa to those places where people interface with the
map - be that the osm.org web site, or the offline application they're
using, or the machine that prints a map. It would not be difficult to
modify e.g. the humanitarian map style to print plus codes onto
buildings, computing them on the fly, if that's desired. Doing this
means you develop it once and it is immediately usable everywhere by
everyone. That is the only sensible approach. Otherwise you'll be stuck
running one project after the other ("add plus codes for X community",
"add plus codes for Y community", etc.), and not only that: The generic
approach will automatically work for everything built in the future. It
can be used to address not only houses but wells, mountains, bays, even
trees. It is better in *every* respect.

We must let reason prevail here and not do something on a whim based on
a misunderstanding of how things work.

It is sad that it has come to a point where some people seem to have
already built "projects" around importing plus codes in a way that
everyone here would have told them is the least useful of all, had they
botehred to ask! Let us stop the madness before it spreads further, and
work on doing it right.

Bye
Frederik

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