OpenStreetMap
I have been using this service a lot lately to submit local business listings. the graphics are great. The few issues I have with it is:
*I have to manually convert an address into its geographic coordinates to find a location.
-
It is difficult to make changes sometimes because there is so many labels on the page it is easy to mistakenly edit something unintentionally. A hide button would be useful or maybe have different layers which could filter the data such as to just show one or a few category instead of all of them at once.
-
There is not enough categories which I can understand in the user interface but I think in the advanced editing mode it should be more comprehensive maybe I would find it very useful if there was a category for each NAICs code under a business category.
Discussion
Comment from aseerel4c26 on 12 September 2012 at 22:29
Hi Jrusse! First: welcome to OSM!
I will try to answer/comment:
If addresses are entered in the map (internal update processes may take some hours or days if the addresses were entered lately) you should be able to search for addresses in the search box on http://www.openstreetmap.org/ For example try to enter this: Rheinstraße 10, Wiesbaden Did you mean this feature? If you did note that the map application on this site is somehow just a demo. Much more can be done with our map data - such applications are available by third parties.
you can try to zoom in more. ;-) However, a “hide” feature may be available in other editors. As far as I know JOSM has such a feature. Currently you are using Potlatch 2.
I do not fully understand the first part of your comment. A listing / help for tags which can be used in the advanced mode is available in our wiki - use the search function. In case you did not find it yet, the guide may be helpful.
Comment from Jrrusse on 13 September 2012 at 12:40
Hey thank you for replying.
1.I didn’t know the map on the site was just a demo. I was meaning if you were to type something like this 11333 E 21st Street, OK 74129 or S 29th Street & South Sunnylane Road Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
2.Thanks for your help I didn’t know JOSM had a hide feature.The one thing with zooming in and out is if the map has a lot of detail zooming out can slow down or crash your browser and sometimes its good to be able to be able to do both like if your trying to scroll to a particular location to make an edit. I will look into JOSM I just noticed they have an applet on the installation website.
Comment from Sanderd17 on 13 September 2012 at 12:51
I guess American addresses are difficult with all those numbers. Normally, our streets don’t have numbers. Apart from that, it would only work if someone already put that address on OSM. As we can’t use other data, there’s no way we can know where that address is if not someone before you put it there.
JOSM is primarily an offline program. You also download your data for offline use, so it works faster.
For your last question, tags don’t “work”. It’s not because it’s not shown on the map, or even in the renderer, that it isn’t correct.
The office key isn’t directly shown on the website, but it is included in search, and perhaps in other maps based on this data.
If you’re sure you use the correct tag (according to the wiki), and something isn’t shown on the map, it’s the fault of the one who compiles the maps (or intentional behaviour to not clutter the map).
If you can’t find a correct tag in the wiki, you can create your own and document it on the wiki.
You (as mapper) are always correct if you give the tags according to the real world.
Comment from aseerel4c26 on 13 September 2012 at 20:00
this search term works: “northeast 5th street, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma”. But, as Sandred17 said, of course it only works if this street is named in our map. If we don’t have the data, we cannot find the street.
yes, if you zoom out too much in Potlatch2 it consumes much memory and CPU time since too much objects need to be displayed. I experience the same. That’s how it is. Some tricks to lower the load when zooming out too much: switch off the aerial image background and switch “Map style” to “Wireframe”. @Sanderd17: the limiting factor at my setup is clearly the processing power of my computer - not the download speed. However, that may be the other way round for other setups (fast computer, sloooow connection).
refer to Sanderd’s explanations. The standard map does not show all features/tags. Also Potlatch does not, by far, recognize all tags. It is correct anyway. If you would like to get a confirmation that you’ve did something correctly, feel free to write me (or someone else) a message.
Comment from Jrrusse on 14 September 2012 at 12:35
I would think though there would be a database which would plot the Lattitude and Longitude to physical addresses. I know the US Tiger Database has information of this sort.
Thanks for the advice I will have to try Wireframe and turning off aerial imaging.
I am glad to know that potlatch just doesn’t show all the tags and that I can creat my own tag and document it in the wiki.
Thanks for all your help.
Comment from AndrewBuck on 15 September 2012 at 13:44
@Jrrusse
Regarding point 1, we have such a database of address to lat/lon and vice-versa. The database system is called Nominatim, and it uses OSM data, TIGER data, and several other datasources to try to resolve addresses. Unfortunately the process of resolving an address is tricky, even with complete data, and even harder with semi-complete data like we have.
You can help out a lot by collecting the addresses in your area and adding them to our database. For an example of what a more complete portion of the map have a look at cities like London, or Berlin. Address lookups in more completely mapped areas work very well, but the US hasn’t had as many people mapping as Europe. That is beginning to change but we still need more people mapping.
-AndrewBuck