Kenny, On 02/27/2016 06:10 AM, Kevin Kenny wrote: > Given the > difficulties inherent in getting changes made by local mappers working > independently (the data are a bit difficult to verify in the field), > it's arguable that we should always use third-party sources to make > our maps and have it be Someone Else's Problem. That said, we > unquestionably do have hydrography in OSM, and it doesn't in fact > require a lot of updating - these natural features are quite stable, > particularly in a remote area such as I'm considering here.
Is there not the danger though of the data rotting away in OSM, precisely for the reasons you outline - difficult to map in the first place, Adirondack being huge, and all this being a too big project for one or even a handful persons? IMHO you'd be scratching an itch for now and making it easier for people to make maps with OSM, but a few years down the line, people will again have to turn to the (regularly updated, presumably?) government data and say, just like you said, that OSM is "among the poorest of what I have available"? An import is great if it enables a community to go further, or forms the basis of solid work in the future. An import is great if it is one ingredient that makes OSM the best map of the region. But it sounds to me as if your proposed import is hardly more than a small time saver for people who want to make maps of the Adirondack - they *could* go to the original source at any time, and the likelihood of OSM hydrography being *better* than the official data is very low. In my view, a good import is a catalyst for future OSM data improvement. But you seem to say quite clearly that such is unlikely to happen with the data you are planning to import. Your main point is that it'll look better on the map, which for me isn't good enough. Can you point to areas where your import would encourage mappers, including yourself, to add more knowledge and surveyed data to OSM? Bye Frederik -- Frederik Ramm ## eMail frede...@remote.org ## N49°00'09" E008°23'33" _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
