On Mon, Mar 28, 2011 at 3:01 PM, Michael Leibowitz < michael.leibow...@intel.com> wrote:
> Here is a popular perspective from the OSM community, "If parcel data >> can't be measured, confirmed or improved by OSM editors, why import >> it?" Use it as an overlay somewhere, somehow. >> > > What makes postal codes different? > > In my mind only a few (major) things: - If I remember correctly, in the UK postcode data were (are?) not free (in any sense of the word), so someone decided to start trying to collect that data. I think it was one of OSM's first "project of the unit-of-time"? Either way, it was a good thing to get the community together and give an example of what free and open data mean. - Post codes are vastly different in size than parcel data. Parcel data is (usually) property boundaries on the order of <2 acres. These are small, 4-node polygons that have little use other than a county's tax collection and property owner's dispute resolution. The tons of nodes and ways make editing difficult, don't necessarily line up with building boundaries (buildings frequently cross a parcel boundary), and don't necessarily contain addressing information. - Most importantly, OSM mappers can not make the data any better. By their very definition, any changes to the imported parcel data make them invalid and useless. If OSM participants can't improve the data then it should not be in the OSM database. -Ian
_______________________________________________ Imports mailing list Imports@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/imports
