I agree that that's the ideal way to do this, but it's just not always an option.
I run valideparkeren.nl, a crowd sourced overview of all accessible parking spots in the Netherlands. Ideally, there should be a government-owned single source of truth, but the whole reason for starting this is because that source doesn't exist yet. I'm starting to work with the government to eventually hand this project over to them, which was the goal from the start, but the only way to make that happen is by first becoming the source of truth.
Edit: I was also planning to add my data to OSM at some point, but I'm reconsidering that after reading this. I completely understand that they only want high quality data, but in my case I'm convinced that high coverage and slightly lower quality is better than low coverage and high quality. Of course, transparency of how sure we are about the data is vital, so users can decide the risk they want to take.
I completely understand that they only want high quality data
I worked on "openopeningstijden", where my aim was to improve the data for businesses in OSM and to disclose that in apis and uis.
There were other reasons why I had to pull the plug, but a big difficulty was the understandable conservatism of OSM.
I didn't even want any tagging schemes changed, or the insane dsl for "opening hours" improved, at that time.
All I wanted was to allow obviously "wrong" data to be flagged with a note. Where "wrong" could easily be proven with links to other resources. "The shop is permanently closed. See this url at archive org about their announcement" or "contact details wrong. See their website at url and cross check with BigFoodDeliveryPlatform entry at ..."
Again. Reluctance for such automation is understandable wrt intelectual property rights. It becomes too easy for editors to copy in data that's not allowed.
But the result is that businesses on OSM are poorly represented, often many are missing. That data is hopelessly outdated. And that consumers use proprietary sources and apps to find e.g. a vegetarian restaurant in an unknown city, or to find out if the hairdresser is open at noon.
First of all, I assume you are from the Netherlands (based on the .nl)
The Dutch OSM-community indeed is very conservative, a bit too much IMHO. We Belgians are more relaxed :)
Such a dataset would still be useful, but perhaps in a quality assurance tool, not as map notes that would clog the map. Can you link more information?
This was international. And it was a long while ago, so I don't have anything online to point to anymore. Sorry.
If "Map Notes clog the map" then there still is something needed in OSM to allow data that's not directly geographical, to be kept up to date, the POI data.
Aside from technicalities: if we want a free, open, etc etc alternative to Google Maps, we need to ensure POI data is of high quality, up to date, and comprehensive.
While it's very useful for many to have all traffic-lights, bike-lanes or waterways mapped, in practice, osmand, maps.me, organic-maps etc etc aren't used when Google maps shows accurate list of Bakeries (or campsites, or anything really) but the OSM-sourced ones don't.
Users, like me, only accept driving to e.g. a campsite that's been closed for over a year a very few times before grabbing Google Maps again. I'll edit OSM in these cases. Open Openingstijden was one of a few experiments where I researched "improving and maintaining POI data".
If we consider the amount of "alternatives to Google Maps" that now don't contribute back to OSM, because of technicalities, legal things etc etc, we miss a lot of good POI data that makes these alternatives viable in areas where Google Maps is the one and only king atm.
Yeah, it's tough because to be the Single Point of Truth, you'd need to be the List of Parking Places in the Netherlands, not just the accessible ones that you care about. You might even need to be The List for Europe.
Being The List of anything is a big, thankless job filled with nonstop toil to keep it up to date. It's not something you want to do unless it's truly your passion or somebody is paying you (a lot) to do it.
The problem is that building to tools to Be The List is pretty straightforward and fun. You only learn about the toil you've signed yourself up after the fact, once people start relying on it.
Comments
I agree that that's the ideal way to do this, but it's just not always an option.
I run valideparkeren.nl, a crowd sourced overview of all accessible parking spots in the Netherlands. Ideally, there should be a government-owned single source of truth, but the whole reason for starting this is because that source doesn't exist yet. I'm starting to work with the government to eventually hand this project over to them, which was the goal from the start, but the only way to make that happen is by first becoming the source of truth.
Edit: I was also planning to add my data to OSM at some point, but I'm reconsidering that after reading this. I completely understand that they only want high quality data, but in my case I'm convinced that high coverage and slightly lower quality is better than low coverage and high quality. Of course, transparency of how sure we are about the data is vital, so users can decide the risk they want to take.
I worked on "openopeningstijden", where my aim was to improve the data for businesses in OSM and to disclose that in apis and uis.
There were other reasons why I had to pull the plug, but a big difficulty was the understandable conservatism of OSM. I didn't even want any tagging schemes changed, or the insane dsl for "opening hours" improved, at that time.
All I wanted was to allow obviously "wrong" data to be flagged with a note. Where "wrong" could easily be proven with links to other resources. "The shop is permanently closed. See this url at archive org about their announcement" or "contact details wrong. See their website at url and cross check with BigFoodDeliveryPlatform entry at ..."
Again. Reluctance for such automation is understandable wrt intelectual property rights. It becomes too easy for editors to copy in data that's not allowed.
But the result is that businesses on OSM are poorly represented, often many are missing. That data is hopelessly outdated. And that consumers use proprietary sources and apps to find e.g. a vegetarian restaurant in an unknown city, or to find out if the hairdresser is open at noon.
First of all, I assume you are from the Netherlands (based on the .nl)
The Dutch OSM-community indeed is very conservative, a bit too much IMHO. We Belgians are more relaxed :)
Such a dataset would still be useful, but perhaps in a quality assurance tool, not as map notes that would clog the map. Can you link more information?
This was international. And it was a long while ago, so I don't have anything online to point to anymore. Sorry.
If "Map Notes clog the map" then there still is something needed in OSM to allow data that's not directly geographical, to be kept up to date, the POI data.
Aside from technicalities: if we want a free, open, etc etc alternative to Google Maps, we need to ensure POI data is of high quality, up to date, and comprehensive.
While it's very useful for many to have all traffic-lights, bike-lanes or waterways mapped, in practice, osmand, maps.me, organic-maps etc etc aren't used when Google maps shows accurate list of Bakeries (or campsites, or anything really) but the OSM-sourced ones don't.
Users, like me, only accept driving to e.g. a campsite that's been closed for over a year a very few times before grabbing Google Maps again. I'll edit OSM in these cases. Open Openingstijden was one of a few experiments where I researched "improving and maintaining POI data".
If we consider the amount of "alternatives to Google Maps" that now don't contribute back to OSM, because of technicalities, legal things etc etc, we miss a lot of good POI data that makes these alternatives viable in areas where Google Maps is the one and only king atm.
Yeah, it's tough because to be the Single Point of Truth, you'd need to be the List of Parking Places in the Netherlands, not just the accessible ones that you care about. You might even need to be The List for Europe.
Being The List of anything is a big, thankless job filled with nonstop toil to keep it up to date. It's not something you want to do unless it's truly your passion or somebody is paying you (a lot) to do it.
The problem is that building to tools to Be The List is pretty straightforward and fun. You only learn about the toil you've signed yourself up after the fact, once people start relying on it.
Good luck!