OpenStreetMap
Continuing the recent theme of addressing in diary entries.
Whilst checking something else, I remembered that I’d probably noted some addresses during a small survey in October 2009 (Traces here). I re-located my audio notes and have been able to add using interpolation about 200 addresses.
Quite a few of these were multiple addresses with a single entrance: the availability of Bing aerial photos makes adding these much easier than it would have been 3 years ago. Also the availability of government open data for postcodes means that these addresses are even more useful.
This is a complicated little area, and I am sure there are a number of errors. This is not helped that the 5 tower blocks situated slightly to the North (with perhaps 120 flats in each) are scheduled for demolition. The commercial site labelled “Former MFI Site” is now occupied by the Cornerstone Church and the new building work is nearly complete.
Discussion
Comment from sdoerr on 25 February 2013 at 21:59
How ‘open’ is ‘government open data for postcodes’? I’m still not sure if we’re safe to derive anything from OS Codepoint Open :-(
– Steve
Comment from Govanus on 10 May 2013 at 20:30
Did we find an answer on what Data.gov.uk linked geo data we can use [and what we have yet to include to osm]?
Comment from SK53 on 10 May 2013 at 21:01
OGL is fine. Even Ordnance Survey OGL is OK, but tedious from an attribution viewpoint. CodePoint Open is not OK, but we can substitute the Office for National Statistics postcode data set which is to all intents and purposes identical.
In addition Food Hygiene, Land Registry and other available data sets (such as Planning Applications) contain a huge amount of useful address information. See my blog Maps Matter for far more about this.
We have huge amounts of OS data under their extended OGL, and as OGL is in effect a more liberal licence there is no problem with OGL.