[u-u] OSM bits...

[Colin McGregor]

On 1/18/09, Doug Lee <douglee-Ja3L+HSX0kI at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Sun, 18 Jan 2009, Colin McGregor wrote:
>> Recently there was a discussion going on the Toronto Linux user group
>> list about  about which GPS to get (with Open Street Map stuff in
>> mind). Likewise outside the meeting proper at the last Unix Unanimous
>> meeting one of the people mentioned he was interested in getting into
>> Open Street Map but didn't have a GPS.
>>
>> This of course all misses a key point, for a lot of Open Street Map
>> contributions, you don't need a GPS, and it is becoming less critical
>> to have a GPS.
>>
>> Already much of Toronto has been mapped. Much of the mapping came off
>> aerial photos, so one has a street grid without street names. Just
>> printing off a map of an area which doesn't have street names, then
>> going, collecting the names off road signs, then entering those names
>> would be a great help. Further, there is a lot of room for additions,
>> like where are the houses of worship, or schools, or fast food places,
>> or arts centres or ... in an area. Toronto's downtown core is fairly
>> well covered already, but as you get away from the core the room for
>> improvement increases...
>
> There is also a map with street names on the city of Toronto website as
> well as Google Earth unless these are not considered authoritative or free
> enough. Some parks and large public buildings such as schools are marked
> too.

They are not free enough is the bottom line I'm afraid.

Open Street Map needs to depend on sources where there are no
copyright restrictions. So, data from sources like the US Census
Bureau, who offered their "Tiger" database data to OSM are fine, the
people who collected the data can offer it without issue. The problem
comes in when a data source has not given permission, then there could
be problems.

Beyond that, we want a map that is more authoritative than the
proprietary maps :-) . Seriously, the way the proprietary map makers
catch copiers is to drop in deliberate errors on their map. Start
mapping and yes you will start seeing errors in proprietary maps...
Bottom line is that the amateur map makers can do better than the
proprietary map makers.

Some examples of where the amateurs can do better is being better able
to deal with on the ground changes. Last fall we had the renaming of
Dominion stores to Metro stores, with Open Street Map those changes
showed up within 2 weeks... I have family living in Perth ON, and I
was there in Sept., saw a small new housing development, with a road
one could not dive on being built. I was back in Perth at Christmas,
and a road that didn't exist 6 months ago is now in Open Street Map.
OSM can deal with changes faster than the proprietary maps.

> <snip>

Colin.
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