Howdy folks, Thank you all for your thoughts. I am now aware that it's a complicated thing to "Add data" in bulk to a crowdsourced database. Users have eloquently argued both for and against the import of the building footprints I'm working on, and I find it boils down to a pair of inextricably-linked perspectives on OSM:
1.) OpenStreetMap is a community of individuals. The interaction between the user and the map is most valuable when one user "owns" their offering, and a dozen building-footprint-tracing contributors from Baltimore will feel greater ownership of their neighborhood than one guy in Vermont who uploads the whole county in one batch. 2.) OpenStreetMap is a tool. It is becoming a basemap of record in the GeoSpace precisely because that's what we wanted to do with it. OSM competes admirably with proprietary datasets, and we can use it for beautiful cartography and complex analysis. Any scale of addition is valid, as long as it is offered on the same open license. The question that lies between these two perspectives: Can we have a quality basemap while maintaining a strong commitment to individual user engagement? I think the answer is yes. I'm going to proceed with my buildings import in very small doses now, based on an assumption that was echoed by Kate and Bill: If a user in Bethesda finds that the buildings in her neighborhood are "already there", maybe instead of losing a sense of ownership she'll take it to the next level by adding identities to those structures. Because I'm just adding the outlines. I can't tell you which one of them is a Bodega. There are many layers of value yet to be added. -Bill Morris ---------- William Morris Cartographer (802)-870-0880 wboyk...@geosprocket.com Twitter: @vtcraghead GeoSprocket LLC, Burlington VT www.geosprocket.com On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 8:57 AM, Bill Ricker <bill.n1...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 6:58 PM, Kate Chapman <k...@maploser.com> wrote: >> >> I personally find [building footprints] makes the map far more usable >> for adding other information. > > > the coastal-swath NOAA LIDAR footprints imported is MASS are wonderful. > (Especially in Stamen watercolor tiles, but also in TopOSM render too. ) > > A Buildings layer is most useful if they're ubiquitous, not here-and-there > when interesting. As GPS mapping of individual houses is not accurate > without professional differential GPS -- 10m accuracy means i can't be sure > which corner of my house is which ! -- the choices are bulk imports or > tracing compatible imagery. When NOAA or a state has paid for LIDAR scans > and auto vector conversion, using that is efficient, and we can better use > volunteers to add value -- e.g. naming stores, as Kate says -- rather than > doing rote manual vector extraction from imagery. > > There's quite enough for volunteers who *want* to do manual vector > extraction from imagery to do without tracing every darned house and barn by > hand! > > -- > Bill > @n1vux bill.n1...@gmail.com _______________________________________________ Talk-us mailing list Talk-us@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us