Should we be charging to upgrade businesses details on OSM? I think it should be free. You could pay OSM to have a OSM member put all the details onto the map for them, saving them signing up etc. But I would not like to see charging being the norm. Only because OSM exists as a free map service, the same I believe should go for the Business data on it.
I love the idea of a busniess directory that is linked to OSM an visa versa. For several reasons; a) postal information would be improved by extra nodes with postcode data b) often people want to navigate to a given location. Often a business/shop we can take them to the correct building. c) with OSM we have the chance to locate things properly by pin pointing by observation rather than the sometimes useless method of postcodes (how often have you done a search for a business and because they have a map based on postcode data it shows them at the other end of the road). d) we can keep a more up to date and accurate POI database to be used on GPS devices. I am fed up of the Petrol Station ones that have stations that closed over 10 years ago still on it. e) we are mapping buildings and with the business name on them we can then use this to create very pretty maps of trading estates, and shopping centres. So what is the next step? I have got some basic business data that we can use already. Not much though. One idea would be to have an editor that pulls data from OSM and allows you to edit the information in the database in a simple manner, ie to filter businesses by operator, name then edit them enmass. There are many businesses already in OSM that just need extra info added, typing errors corrected, or just to have operator info added. Jack Stringer _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
