[OSM-talk] Is it technically and legally possible to add the Open Location Code to the OSM search?
Blake Girardot HOT/OSM
blake.girardot at hotosm.org
Fri Aug 10 20:06:40 UTC 2018
Hi Frederick,
I appreciate the thoughtful reply.
I think for the most part we all agree on the technology solution
really looking like the best option. But it is the best option in the
medium and long term.
In the short term, putting a few thousand plus-codes in as addresses,
while the local community tries them out. Who know if they work for
local folks, but just jamming a few thousand in will allow all the
stake holders to trial these codes. Print maps, put signs on
buildings, communicate with each other using them.
While that goes on, the other technological support can happen if
people wish to do that or maybe we find some funding to add support to
some of the most popular community apps and the nominatum.
But we will still be learning from the small scale tag based trials.
Learning the real world use cases and where the proper technological
solutions work and if there really genuinely are places where dynamic
generation is just not possible.
This seems totally in line with things done in the past and should
work well here.
I am fairly sure I know the local on the ground community that might
like to explore this. The Mugumu Safe House
http://www.tanzdevtrust.org/portfolio-item/mugumu-safe-house-for-girls/
who have to perform rescues. They are first responders to gender based
sexual violence and might be just the sort of organization that would
like to start using plus-codes, and they are local and understand the
local culture and customs better than any other living group of
people.
So, lets take this all down a degree and Vao and whomever else is
interested and formalize the testing of plus codes in a rural tanzania
setting.
But lets leave the address that are imported, they are hurting nothing
at the moment and we should look at them and review them and learn
from them being there now.
Respectfully
blake
On Fri, Aug 10, 2018 at 3:26 PM, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:
> 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"
>
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Blake Girardot
Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team
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