Hi, On 5 August 2010 21:46, Richard Weait <rich...@weait.com> wrote: > On Sat, Jan 8, 2000 at 4:20 PM, Katie Filbert <filbe...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Leaving imports to local mappers is good. They are best able to assess the >> quality of the data for that area an care about quality of their local map >> data. It also leaves "low hanging fruit" for them. Some areas without >> local mappers may take longer to "finish". That is okay.
Definitely there are advantages from the import being done by a local, but, as always, there are also advantages from the import being done by the author of conversion script, someone who understands exactly what parts need to be checked manually and someone who has done many such imports instead of only a limited area. (I have taken part in an import where I made converted data available on the web for locals to import and often had to spend longer fixing stuff after them than it would have taken me to do it myself). So it's hard to stand on one side or the other, probably best to look at it case by case. > > I have no arguments with this. > > Consider this: Does importing to an area where there is no thriving > OSM community inhibit the creation of that thriving community in > future? > > At SotM, one of our friends suggested that imports are, "okay except > road networks. Never import road networks." The suggestion is that > building the road network also builds the community. An existing road > network inhibits the community. I apologize for not attributing that > comment. I've forgotten who said it to me. > > Or from another point of view. If the local community isn't > substantial enough to maintain the imported data and keep it up to > date, is it better to not import until the community can maintain it? > Why import 2004 data, if it will be unchanged when the 2006 update is > published? Does that mean that you should only import once you have > such a thriving community and high quality local data that you no > longer would benefit substantially from that import? I totally agree here, it's a bit of a trade-off choosing the right moment. If you do it too soon, you get an unmaintained map of the area. If you do it too late, local mappers who didn't know about the datasource contribute their time to re-collect the data, which later clashes with the datasource and costs time to choose the better version, to merge, and it is frustrating when someone finds out they could have spent the time on the finer details. Cheers _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us
