Dair Grant <dair@...> writes: >>Lastly, I don't believe that adding data from external sources discourages >>contributors. Quite the opposite. It is a blank canvas that puts people off. >>The way to bring in contributors is to show a map with a few missing details >>that are so tempting to fix 'just one thing'... > >Is there an example of a road import that has led to an increase in >contributors? I thought that in most cases it had the exact opposite effect.
I was thinking in particular of the Yahoo tracing. In the beginning OSM was largely blank and the only way to add new ways was to go out and make GPS tracks. I suggest, but cannot prove, that seeing an entirely blank canvas doesn't entice you to start adding to the map, which must necessarily involve adding small bits at a time. Once the Yahoo aerial photos became available and many OSM contributors traced large areas from them (yes, even though they had not visited those areas on the ground!) then anyone could contribute small bits and pieces such as the name of their local street or the pub on the corner. This is how I got started. Now importing ways from OS data is not quite the same as tracing from an aerial photo but I suggest a similar principle applies. >IMO the blank canvas is what pulls people in: an area that's 90% already >there finds it harder to attract new mappers as it already "looks done" >(filling in all the footpaths, post boxes, pubs, etc, is something you tend >to do once you're already hooked). On the other hand what you say here sounds plausible too. However, we do have some real-world evidence. There are towns which have been blank for a long time on OSM. If a blank canvas were a good way to encourage contributors, they would have been filled in by now. The fact that they are still missing suggests that the strategy of deliberately leaving an area blank and hoping for somebody to go out and survey it from scratch is not always effective. The way the OSM project has grown is by the principle of 'do what you can'. Map something roughly using the best of your knowledge, which is still better than leaving it entirely unmapped. Then somebody can come along and improve it later. >If you want a 1:1 copy of the OS data, why not just use the OS data? What I want (and I think what others want) is a map in machine-readable form which corresponds to the real world. The source it originally came from does not matter. -- Ed Avis <e...@waniasset.com> _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list Talk-GB@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb