On Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 7:12 AM, Serge Wroclawski <emac...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Clifford, > > I'm afraid I didn't entirely understand the question, but will try to > give it a shot anyway. > > On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 8:13 PM, Clifford Snow <cliff...@snowandsnow.us> > wrote: > > I have been asked by a friend involved with Washington State nonprofit > > organizations with OSM could be used for a searchable gis database like > the > > one in Colorado. You can find the Colorado database at > > http://www.coloradononprofits.org/gisportal.cfm. > > When you say "could be used for a searchable GIS database"- what > information are you intending to put in the database? > > That is, are you looking to collect names/addresses/etc of > organizations, or are you looking for OSM as a base layer for display > on the map? > > Looking at the site that you've pointed to: > > http://cna.civicore.com/customCode/map.cfm > > It appears they're just using Google as a base layer, that they have > their own database and then simply call out to Google to make the > display. > > And if you're asking "Can we do this, but instead of Google, use OSM" > then the answer is "Yes, absolutely, and easily." > > > If you're suggesting instead that you'd like to use OSM as the one and > only database, then the answer is a "Yes, you probably could, but it's > not the right tool for the job." > > Some of the data would be valuable to OSM, such as name, address and area of focus. Assets and number of employees I agree would be better served elsewhere. > > Are there similar OSM applications available? > > If you just mean pointing to a location on the map (ie the first > scenario I laid out) then I think the easiest thing to do would > probably be to load the non-profit dataset, along with the address > dataset (or congressional district dataset, etc.) into a PostGIS > database, using something like GeoDjango to manage the database, and > then have it handle calling out to OpenLayers or your display engine > to display your data on top of OSM tiles. > Being relatively new to OSM, I'm not aware if congressional districts are mapped. Adding all the district boundaries if they don't already exist would be a major undertaking. I need to explore OSM more to see what all is included. > > > The data for Washington State is available. > > It would seem that it could be entered with tags that could be searched > by a from a web site > > This sounds a bit more like the second scenario, so let's dive a > little into that. > > First, when you say the data for Washington State is available, we > have to be very careful about what exactly that means. In essence, > you'd be doing an import into OSM, and generally imports have not been > overall good for the project and are /generally/ frowned upon. > > Even in the best case, you'd need to do a great deal of work not only > making sure the tags are right, as you point out, but also ensuring > that the data you enter is not already present in someone else's > contributed data. And you would need to ensure that the data is > properly integrated, and then properly maintained, with a plan for > handling updates. > Actually I had not even considered uploading the data. I was thinking of interns and volunteers to add the data. They would need training of course. Doing the whole country manually would be a challenge. Doing a single state might doable. Steve Coast has this new tool that allows people to mark the front door location. If he could be prevailed upon to give us a version of his front door tool that would allow us to email and organization to have them move the marker to their entrance. > After all this, you'd need to be aware that others might go in and > change the data. > I would hope so. I think that that is one of the biggest advantages of using OSM as the main database. If someone in Roslyn, WA noticed that the food bank moved to a new location they could just input the change. > > And we haven't even discussed the licensing issues. > I need to make sure that the nonprofit organization understands the incensing of OSM data. Just because I believe information wants to be free, doesn't mean they believe that. > > I'd say that OSM is not the right choice for putting data in where you > need tight control. You may find a way to make the model fit your > need, but OSM's view of the world is shared contributorship and shared > authorship, which in my experience does not integrate with the needs > by some for only using authorized datasets put out by certain > organizations. > > > To summarize: > > I think OSM is a poor choice for storage and retrial of very specific > data that needs to come from a specific, authorized dataset, but I > think it's a great thing to make that data available to OSM to add in. > I also think that OSM is an excellent choice for the display of that > data either by overlaying it visually, or possibly (depending on > license factors), for direct data integration on your own GIS > database. > > Does that answer your question or did I miss the mark entirely? > Great answers. Gave me plenty to work with. Especially the PostGis database software. Thanks, Clifford
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