2009/11/5 Sam Vekemans <acrosscanadatra...@gmail.com>: > I use a headset & can have video with skpe & txt chat MUCH easier. > (its also free for everyone :)
Alas forces you to run closed-source software which some people are not going to do. > > Anyway, i wanted to go over comparing Canada vs. usa import (social impact) > > This is something thats not talked about on email, but VERY LOUD in the > subtext. > > This is the direct reason for the approach for the CanVec data im working > with. Here are some notes on the topic and some off-topic notes related to your other posts about CanVec that went by without much discussion. One reason the USA import didn't cause all the distruption, and the main difference between it and the other imports that I notice is that it was done relatively early in the project's lifetime and finished timely, so there wasn't much conflicting data. I really wish I could go back two-three years and do the import we're doing now in Poland, that would have saved us perhaps months of work. And every subsequent import is going to need more work. So the quikcer it's done the more work you save yourself and to any mapper who potentially maps the same data through surveying or other means, putting their work into it, while they could be mapping the finer details. Unfortunately there's also a tradeoff when importing live datasets (such as CanVec, TIGER and what we're importing here) because the earlier you do it the more outdated the dataset in OSM database will be at the moment when actual mappers pop up in the area -- this is considering we don't have any kind of strategy for updates yet, and for some datasets there isn't going to be one for technical reasons. This is one thing I recently noticed -- that like software our data is bitrotting where not maintained by local mappers. Importing data in an area you don't visit creates an unmaintained map. While the original dataset keeps being maintained by its authors (government or other volunteers). Nevertheless there is also a good reason to wholesale import all the data available at the given moment if you have enough time to do it, and it's one thing that I believe hasn't been considered in the CanVec import strategy yet (the strategy which you mentioned a number of times where you make the converted data available at a public site and let local mappers import as they wish). That's how the local import here was supposed to work too, however each imported piece means a considerable amount of work (fixing up the tagging & naming, deduplicating objects already in OSM, and eventually connecting the two datasets to make one), work that can easily be screwed up if done in hurry, if done by not-so-skilled users or if done by users who just ignore the guidelines. I find that if the import process is too easy because you have prepared nicely sized .osm files that anyone can load into JOSM and just upload, a lot of users will jump on it even not having the time to put enough work into it to produce good data, or even inform others that they've started the import in a given area. It's much like with the easy access to usenet or some chat networks (MSN?) where the culture is totally different than say on irc, and everything points at the ease of access. That's why I allowed myself to process and import some areas I've never visited, as much as the time allowed me, and that's also why I don't supply nicely sized, ready-to-use .osm files now. I just supply the converter script and the URL to the original repos that you can take and convert, it's still trivial to do but it's some kind of technical barrier that hopefully filters out people who have no will to do the whole task relatively properly -- some of these people are those who don't care much about the rest of the data in OSM but want to have a working gps routing in their area without doing the mapping on their own. The hope here is that the importers will either have the skills and time to do it properly or write to the local forums asking for instructions / asking for somebody else to the import, and likely someone will do it. Cheers _______________________________________________ Imports mailing list Imports@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/imports
