Re:Search up to 10K addresses with free holiday batch geocod...
by toomuchtodo on Tuesday December 22, 2015 @07:36PM
(#10781332)
So could OpenAddresses be merged into OSM at some point? Would that make sense?
Re:Search up to 10K addresses with free holiday batch geocod...
by dianashk on Tuesday December 22, 2015 @08:04PM
(#10781430)
It's not out of the question, however there are many obstacles to overcome, such as licensing, validation, and the fact that the OSM community generally insists on manually entered data.
I've heard many folks push for consolidation of various open data projects, so they aren't "competing" for contributions. However the reality is that they are currently very different and each serves to bridge a very specific gap.
In the meantime, it makes a lot of sense for projects relying on open data to pull all of these sources in, as Mapzen Search is doing, to ensure the best possible coverage.
Many addresses exist in OSM. But there's a preference from the OSM community that data be entered by users familiar with their areas, that they can verify on the ground. Imports have happened in OSM, such as the controversial TIGER import in the US years ago, and the NYC building dataset more recently. But these require a lot of effort and attention to manage well.