I'd be against loading all of it, for the simple fact that your
suggestion would cause far more headaches then its worth IMO. Take for
instance Calgary. Most of the streets are there (and a significant
number from GPS traces), if we imported even just the Geobase road data
in to the main database, you're talking literally tens of thousands of
ways that need to be gone over, many of which will be pretty much spot
on to the existing data, and thats only for one city, and as a result
most will either be left there (taking up enormous amounts of space on
the server) or deleted. It also doesn't get us away from one of the main
reasons we want the Geobase data, that theres no way that we'd ever map
it all (beyond the populated areas of the country) if we only rendered
stuff that we've verified exists in person.
Not to mention that in order to not cause mass chaos we'd need to change
all the tools (JOSM, Potlatch, Mapnik, Osmarender, possibly the API) to
handle this special case of data, which is an unfair burden on the
developers.
The import script that I've been working on for the most part matches up
the data to what the Canadian tagging schemes currently look like, the
NRN data has a fairly similar set of levels of classification that for
the most part that map over. The difference is mostly that each province
has some different take on what level of highway is what (for instance
between Alberta and Saskatchewan theres a number of highways that are
primary in one, but considered secondary in the other as soon as it
crosses the border, but the physical conditions don't change at all)
I'm going to be taking a look at how the newest NRN dataset is
structured, and from what I saw in the past it should be possible to
split the data into either municipalities or worst case into some
predefined blocks of a certain dimension for when we do the import.
Worst case scenario for areas that there is already existing data for
that we don't import we could setup an overlay so we can compare
(Potlatch already has something for this, so for sure in it it should be
doable) and just recreate the few missing areas that may be in the
geobase data we don't have.
-Jason Reid
Sam Vekemans wrote:
A thought... because each road/line we draw on OSM has its own attributes.
,,, and all the roads IF imported from GeoBase also has automatically a tag
idendifier... just as our own user ID.. or the User ID of the last person to
play with that road is marked.
. So it would be very easy to identify which road have been imported.. and
which roads have been created from 'scratch'.
.. Sure ALL the elements could be loaded to OSM.. but simply not rentered.
.. until someone comes along and puts theie human 'stamp of aproval'.
So then both, the OSM iser ID.. and the GeoBase reference id ar attached to
the lines on the drawing.
the tagging would mean, selecting that toberendered item, and making sure
that it aligns with the OSM international tagging standard.
.. ie. .. the user actually saw the river segment and and varify that it
exists. . .. the roads/river show up in the JOSM import (like when i do a
road and its in that state of waiting to be rendered) the roads still show
up. ...
So its like visually seeing tonnes of info already there, but is shown in
back and white.. the OSM users would select the info that they want to
share and convert it into colour.
This way... it avoids any duplicate rendering.
There is always something more to add to the map that what GeoBase has to
offer. .. remembering that GeoBase does have TONNES of info. ... but it
doesnt list where the bicycle parking is. ... so maybe in the data import
it shows already the school boundry... but then you see that it was labled
wrong... (or the coloquial name isnt listed) The OSM user can fix that and
tag everything that is known to be true... so then this stuff gets sent to
the renderer.
So in short. I request that All GeoBase DOES get freely imported onto
OSM... But only exists in that (between, tobe rendered state, and stays
there). .. .. so its only when you go and edit it that this information is
visable. ..
This way, we can continiously import new and future GeoBase data... as well
as refine the rendered map.
This way, all OSM data is still created by OSM users putting there hands on
the final product. .. as we know there is no final product. ... OSM is
Living Earth.
The other thing that GeoBase offers is that is shows Land Usage.. something
of importance to anyone. ... I think its fine if the stuff doesnt get
rendered until someone can physically see it.
... ie. .. Im on a road and look out to the openpit mine. and because
GeoBase gives away all that data for free i can tag as much of the details
given by GeoBase at the same time as tagging a cycling route.
This solution would make OSM people happy, and the list of what has been
imported (in that tobe rendered state) .. the
