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OSM isn't the be-all and end-all of GIS data. It's very incomplete in places and doesn't always spatially match with Bing's data or other sources. > is the onl

by plonk 4y ago

OSM isn't the be-all and end-all of GIS data. It's very incomplete in places and doesn't always spatially match with Bing's data or other sources. > is the only valueadd redefining the format to be more enterprisey andor gatekeep some data I'd like to interpret that in the "strongest possible" way as HN's guidelines request, but I can't find one. This is the opposite of what the article says. > Therefore, Overture is intended to be complementary to OSM. We combine OSM with other sources to produce new open map data sets. Overture data will be available for use by the OpenStreetMap community under compatible open data licenses. Overture members are encouraged to contribute to OSM directly.

scarmig 4y ago
> OSM isn't the be-all and end-all of GIS data. It's very incomplete in places I know very little about the space, but couldn't Overture members focus primarily on just filling in those gaps? > doesn't always spatially match with Google's data or other sources The map isn't the territory. Consistency with reality is what matters, not what Google says. I've never run into glaring issues with either. In the past year, the only mistake I've come across was a missing stoplight in Google's.
- plonk 4y ago
  > I know very little about the space, but couldn't Overture members focus primarily on just filling in those gaps? That's not enough. OSM doesn't offer every kind of data you'd want about an area, it's sometimes not even remotely aligned to other databases or images, it needs to be compared to what other APIs provide to get a result with high quality. This project sounds like it's trying to make these things way easier. > The map isn't the territory. Consistency with reality is what matters, not what Google says. Absolutely not if you look at other applications than navigation services. This is _not_ only about Google Maps, it's about their API. See for example the elevation API [1], which gives you an altitude above sea level for any point on earth. This is meant to be combined with other data to build various services. Having alternatives to Google that use a standard format and are generally interoperable is great for developers. [1] https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/elevation/overview https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/elevation/o...
  - ghaff 4y ago
    >OSM doesn't offer every kind of data you'd want about an area For various reasons, a neighbor and I were looking at some property data in both our town's and the MassGIS databases. Our town had info not in the public MassGIS database and both had more information than either OSM or Google Maps. This was all public information and you can argue about how much should be readily available but it already is for anyone sophisticated enough to know where to look.
    - plonk 4y ago
      There is a lot of region-specific data that isn't in OSM. Governments (at national and regional level) often have records that have not been integrated into big services for example. If this project could let all these services interoperate better, that would be a great advance.

by plonk 4y ago

scarmig 4y ago

> OSM isn't the be-all and end-all of GIS data. It's very incomplete in places I know very little about the space, but couldn't Overture members focus primarily on just filling in those gaps? > doesn't always spatially match with Google's data or other sources The map isn't the territory. Consistency with reality is what matters, not what Google says. I've never run into glaring issues with either. In the past year, the only mistake I've come across was a missing stoplight in Google's.

plonk 4y ago
> I know very little about the space, but couldn't Overture members focus primarily on just filling in those gaps? That's not enough. OSM doesn't offer every kind of data you'd want about an area, it's sometimes not even remotely aligned to other databases or images, it needs to be compared to what other APIs provide to get a result with high quality. This project sounds like it's trying to make these things way easier. > The map isn't the territory. Consistency with reality is what matters, not what Google says. Absolutely not if you look at other applications than navigation services. This is _not_ only about Google Maps, it's about their API. See for example the elevation API [1], which gives you an altitude above sea level for any point on earth. This is meant to be combined with other data to build various services. Having alternatives to Google that use a standard format and are generally interoperable is great for developers. [1] https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/elevation/overview https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/elevation/o...
- ghaff 4y ago
  >OSM doesn't offer every kind of data you'd want about an area For various reasons, a neighbor and I were looking at some property data in both our town's and the MassGIS databases. Our town had info not in the public MassGIS database and both had more information than either OSM or Google Maps. This was all public information and you can argue about how much should be readily available but it already is for anyone sophisticated enough to know where to look.
  - plonk 4y ago
    There is a lot of region-specific data that isn't in OSM. Governments (at national and regional level) often have records that have not been integrated into big services for example. If this project could let all these services interoperate better, that would be a great advance.