On Tue, Jan 5, 2010 at 2:48 PM, Anthony <[email protected]> wrote: > On Mon, Jan 4, 2010 at 10:30 PM, Steve Bennett <[email protected]>wrote: > >> The primary purpose of OSM is to create useful maps, not to provide some >> kind of look-up service for the real world. >> > > Isn't that what a map is? Some kind of look-up service for the real > world? > > There is a layer of interpretation in the middle, that's the crucial difference. The interpretation that distinguishes between two very similar chunks of asphalt, decides one is a road, and one is a driveway and doesn't need mapping. The interpretation that distinguishes between a bunch of extremely similar patches of grass, and maps them as parks, nature reserves, brownfields, greenfields, back gardens, median strips, sports pitches, recreation grounds, and so forth.
Some people on these lists think that we should just store random facts at a very fine-grained level, and that some future renderers and routers will magically be able to make sense of the mess. I believe that the people best equipped to make sense of the facts are those entering them into the database, reducing the burden on present and future software developers. Steve
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