I am pleased to report that the island “proven by scientists not to exist” (by attempting to visit it) does not appear in OSM:
http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/?mt0=mapnik&mt1=googlemap&lon=159.93316&lat=-19.217&zoom=11
OpenStreetMap
I am pleased to report that the island “proven by scientists not to exist” (by attempting to visit it) does not appear in OSM:
http://tools.geofabrik.de/mc/?mt0=mapnik&mt1=googlemap&lon=159.93316&lat=-19.217&zoom=11
Discussion
Comment from _sev on 22 November 2012 at 16:09
That’s fascinating indeed. Thanks for the interesting read.
Comment from chillly on 22 November 2012 at 17:48
OSM twitter feed says our contributors actually go out and survey (which many do).
At the same time OSM organises Operation Cowboy - an armchair mapping festival.
I’ll prefer surveys every time.
Comment from Todeskuh on 22 November 2012 at 20:37
Also mentioned here (german):
http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/natur/sandy-island-im-pazifik-erweist-sich-als-phantominsel-a-868715.html
Comment from z-dude on 22 November 2012 at 21:39
regarding another Sandy Island which had wikipedia editors confused, why doesn’t the Lacepede’s Sandy Island render on OSM? http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/187645473 is it because it’s from Oct 25?
Comment from chillly on 22 November 2012 at 22:37
@alexz In OSM coastline is a special case. It only gets updated occasionally and until then the island won’t render. It could take weeks before the coastline job runs next. More info here