Thanks again Serge! I think for the most part that cleared everything up :). Only thing I'm still not so clear on is the tagging.
> Another question about this is that I > am working in the U.S., but I would be importing data for a region in an > another country. Do I follow the tagging system of the U.S. or do I follow > that of the country I am importing for? >They should be roughly the same. Can you give me a specific example of >a difference? When I look at the U.S. tagging format, I see key-value pairs. The data I want to map is in China. When I go to the Hong Kong format I don't see the same type of pairing as I do for the U.S. version... > What if that country has different > tagging systems for different regions and none listed for the region of my > interest? >They generally don't. If they do, use the local one. The area I want to map in China is Tibet, not Hong Kong. Should I just use Hong Kong's version? Or U.S. since I am in U.S.? Again many thank you's, elshae On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 1:28 PM, Serge Wroclawski <[email protected]> wrote: > On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 12:19 PM, IT Intern <[email protected]> wrote: > > Thank you for your response Serge! This is a very good outline and you > are > > very kind to have given me this kind of walk through. I have read > through > > the docs about each part you outlined for me and have some more > questions.. > > Great. > > > "If you've signed up recently, you've accepted the new Contributor Terms" > > So I believe this means that I should work under OSM's future license > > policy, even though they have not yet made the crossover? > > I'd like to avoid discussing licenses too much since it's a hot topic, > and not in the good way... > > But if you've accepted the CT, the CT handles the licence transition > as far as OSM is concerned. But your organisation must be comfortable > handing this data to OSM and letting it re license it. > > Let me put it to you another way... > > Once you accept the CT and contribute the data to OSM, the data > belongs to the OSM Foundation, and the foundation may re license it. > There are very good reasons for this, but as you might imagine, this > can be somewhat controversial. > > > Or do I work > > under the current terms for now and then change everything later? Sorry > for > > asking what may seem like dumb questions, but I want to be really sure > about > > this :) > > Nothing dumb about this; it's a bit complex. > > The short answer is, as long as you've accepted the CT on behalf of > your organisation and they're okay, you don't have to worry about > licenses again. > > > "If you understand OSM, then you know how we use tags to classify > features." > > My data is in a GIS database. I looked at the tagging section of the > docs. > > The way I understood it is that I have to change my database to reflect > the > > tags? > > You don't need to change your database to fit our API. > > Let's imagine a fictional database full of historical fountains. > > The table might be "fountains" and there might be a single row called > "latlong" > > OSM doesn't care about how the data looks internally, it only cares > about how the data looks when it enters the system, that is a fountain > from your system would need to come in like: > > <node id="-1" lon="..." lat="..." version="1"> > <tag k="amenity" v="fountain" /> > </node> > > Using our XML schema as per the API documents. > > This example is a little simplified, but you probably get the point, > which is that OSM only cares about the data representation as it > enters OSM, not how it's represented inside your own system. > > > I'm not really sure since I have a lot of columns with entries such > > as place_name, lon, lat, geom, etc. > > In several jobs I've been at, I've had to do data mapping from one > system to another. Maybe one customer has one stream format they > prefer data in, and another is different. > > OSM has its own format, and it would then be your job to map the > fields in your database to ours. > > So for example, "place_name" might become "name", and so on. > > > Another question about this is that I > > am working in the U.S., but I would be importing data for a region in an > > another country. Do I follow the tagging system of the U.S. or do I > follow > > that of the country I am importing for? > > They should be roughly the same. Can you give me a specific example of > a difference? > > > What if that country has different > > tagging systems for different regions and none listed for the region of > my > > interest? > > They generally don't. If they do, use the local one. > > > As for importing data, I saw it mentioned somewhere that there is a test > > database for OSM that I can work with to ensure my actual import goes > > right. Is this so? > > dev06 is meant for experimentation of software and you are encouraged > to use it as such. The data in it is throwaway, so be aware that what > you see won't look like normal OSM data. > > > Other than that is there a place I can show my .osm > > files for moderation and checked by an OSM team or professionals alike > that > > will ensure me that my pending import data will benefit OSM? > > That's an excellent question. I've been suggesting this for a long > time. My suggestion is join the import list, write up a wiki page on > it, share it, share the osm, wait for feedback. If you don't get any, > go for it. If you do get feedback, try to address it. > > This process may seem slow, but as someone who has personally caused > import pain, and spent a long time cleaning it up, I can tell you it's > well worth it. > > > Also I saw > > that you said that mass data imports are not favored. What constitutes > as a > > "mass import" as opposed a more normal/manageable one? > > Any automated process is generally disfavoured. > > > As for the XML/.osm format, isn't there a tool from the FWTools suite, > > something like ogr2osm that will correctly convert my GIS to .osm? I am > > guessing that even with such a tool, that I might have to edit/clean-up > the > > .osm files a bit, but I assume there has to be many tools out there to do > > the bulk of the conversion... > > Ivan said he'd help you with that. Ivan knows what he's doing. > > > I truly appreciate all your kind help and assistance with this. I don't > > know what I would do if it wasn't for you guys :) > > It's our pleasure to help. > > - Serge >
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