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As a regular data contributor for Openstreetmap: Openstreetmap is terribly broken in many many ways. There's no regular checkup of the data if it's still valid

As a regular data contributor for Openstreetmap: Openstreetmap is terribly broken in many many ways. There's no regular checkup of the data if it's still valid. Reverting is extremely hard and there are no checks for changing the data. The multipolygon model for areas can be extremely complex and is the cause that many regions aren't touched at all anymore. In many regions it's just an import desert where already open data gets relicensed under the more restrictive OdBL license. Those areas also only rarely get touched by mappers.

Doctor_Fegg 11y ago
That's harsh, but in the spirit of being constructive, here's a project for someone reading this. Let's take the first identified weakness: regular checkup of the data. The easiest way to check this for highways is to run distance matrix calculations. Take 500 points in a given area, and calculate a distance matrix from them (OSRM makes this trivial: https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/ https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/). Store the result. The next day, rerun the same matrix on the latest data. Compare the result against yesterday. If anything has changed significantly, the data has either been broken or improved. Flag this up so that it can be reviewed. Repeat ad infinitum. A really simple task for someone with the time and hardware, and it'd make a big difference to OSM. I don't got the time myself, but am happy to help/advise anyone who'd like to take it on.
- ncd 11y ago
  Is there a specific place where I would go to flag things like this? Sounds like an interesting little project to build.
  - maxerickson 11y ago
    I guess you would do something similar to this: http://osmose.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/ http://osmose.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/ There isn't really a "central" place to flag such errors.
toomuchtodo 11y ago
What could be done to fix these issues? I'm working on a project to create a parcel layer on top of OSM, to open source ownership data for all parcels in the US. This is relevant to my interests!
fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
I would love to contribute data, but have also experienced difficulty using the tools.
- sp8962 11y ago
  I would suggest help.openstreetmap.org or one of the itc channels http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/IRC http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/IRC for support. The in-browser editor iD is really easy to use, however currently does not work with IE.
sp8962 11y ago
There are plenty of QA tools available including such which show data that is stale. It is true that very large multi-polygons can be hard to edit however they tend to be exclusively used for modelling large landuse areas and administrative boundaries, and tend to have no impact at all on adding and editing roads, buildings, POIs and so on.

Doctor_Fegg 11y ago

That's harsh, but in the spirit of being constructive, here's a project for someone reading this. Let's take the first identified weakness: regular checkup of the data. The easiest way to check this for highways is to run distance matrix calculations. Take 500 points in a given area, and calculate a distance matrix from them (OSRM makes this trivial: https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/ https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/). Store the result. The next day, rerun the same matrix on the latest data. Compare the result against yesterday. If anything has changed significantly, the data has either been broken or improved. Flag this up so that it can be reviewed. Repeat ad infinitum. A really simple task for someone with the time and hardware, and it'd make a big difference to OSM. I don't got the time myself, but am happy to help/advise anyone who'd like to take it on.

ncd 11y ago
Is there a specific place where I would go to flag things like this? Sounds like an interesting little project to build.
- maxerickson 11y ago
  I guess you would do something similar to this: http://osmose.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/ http://osmose.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/ There isn't really a "central" place to flag such errors.

toomuchtodo 11y ago

What could be done to fix these issues? I'm working on a project to create a parcel layer on top of OSM, to open source ownership data for all parcels in the US. This is relevant to my interests!

fnordfnordfnord 11y ago

I would love to contribute data, but have also experienced difficulty using the tools.

sp8962 11y ago
I would suggest help.openstreetmap.org or one of the itc channels http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/IRC http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/IRC for support. The in-browser editor iD is really easy to use, however currently does not work with IE.

sp8962 11y ago

There are plenty of QA tools available including such which show data that is stale. It is true that very large multi-polygons can be hard to edit however they tend to be exclusively used for modelling large landuse areas and administrative boundaries, and tend to have no impact at all on adding and editing roads, buildings, POIs and so on.