Kate Chapman wrote:
Point 1: I'm not denying that the data in the U.S. is messed up. On
the other hand I can't count the number of times people say things
that I summarize to 'God, why are you Americans too stupid, lazy or
import crazy to map your own country?" It really makes people want to
continue mapping with the project.
Understood absolutely.
But put that out of your mind. No matter how I or anyone else phrase it,
no matter whether it's accompanied by a helpful smile or a superior
sneer, you do genuinely need to sort this shit out anyway. You do need
to make sure that your data is as consistently attributed as Google's
(or OSM's UK data), because otherwise people, like Mr 41latitude, will
compare the two to your detriment.
And you need to do that for yourselves. With the awareness of being part
of an international project, sure, but it needs to come from US mappers.
I mean, I personally dislike the overuse of relations to model
absolutely everything, but you should take no bloody notice of me
whatsoever and use route relations for your roads if you think it works
well and will be reasonably in keeping with the rest of OSM.
So if, say, you think you need eight levels of importance within your
highway network, yet OSM only has seven (motorway, trunk, primary,
secondary, tertiary, unclassified, residential), screw it. Invent
another one. Quaternary or minor or something. The Germans have done
that (motorroad=yes) and no-one has died as a result.
> Yes it appears when people compare OSM to Google/Bing/etc they seem to
> start in the U.S.
Funnily enough only US people do that. :) Personally I'm more used to UK
cyclists comparing OSM and Google. Google has no cycle paths or routes.
The cyclists love OSM!
I think, actually, you have an advantage in that the US community is
quite small: it's easier to get agreement. Whereas over here, where the
community is big and fractious, it takes forever to get anything done.
You're still young. Use the advantage while you can.
cheers
Richard
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