OpenStreetMap
Did some repair of the mess around Woden. Just connected some roads. Not too sure about the tags (e.g. lanes =2) or maxspeeds yet. But managed to do a survey with the etrex during a rare drive to fetch someone from the airport. It’s too late (3 am) to add now.
I’ve spent some of the evening repairing some of the damage in Sydney. A few days ago, I was interpolating addresses, and drawing little houses in Waramanga (pretty damn micro mapping), and wondering what I was doing. And then… this happens.
In Sydney, all I’m doing is some quick and dirty road drawing, in the area where I used to live. I remember the road names, but can’t quite be sure to put them down now (lane, or street, or road). I love the GPS traces.
I suspect the folks there are putting bicycle lcn in ways rather than relations. In a way, it’s nice to see how others are tagging different regions.
On the talk-au mailing list (or maybe elsewhere), some were using words like decimated, describing a tsunami, or a nuclear bomb in one of my diary comments. Which is true. The Openstreetmap of Sydney looks awful. A larger area than the missing areas of Melbourne and Canberra.
It’s so heartbreaking. But then… it’s just a virtual map. No lives lost or property were damaged. Unlike some recent disasters (e.g. Christchurch, tsunamis, nuclear disasters). No one’s restaurant was dragged away by a flooding river (Brisbane). So a bit of route mapping is lost, as are a lot of surveying and armchair mapping sweat. But no one’s house burnt down (traumatic). And it’ll get better. The empty areas will fill in.
So a license change… I’m not pleased with how Openstreetmap handled this, but then I’m new here.
In the real world, some people died while watching a movie today. I couldn’t bear to read the details; and it doesn’t matter if I do. It’s terrible time for the families. :(
Discussion
Comment from Sanderd17 on 20 July 2012 at 19:20
Australia is indeed hit pretty hard. In Belgium, we never received any data from any external source, and as a result, I haven’t noticed a single difference between the before and after redaction period.
I believe they should have redacted it earlier. But now is not the time to complain about it because the earlier time lies in the past.
Look on the bright side of life, at least, you’re working for a very clear cause now. I believe hand-made data stimulates the community and creates a better and more maintained map.
Look at that ma again in two years and tell me what you think of it then. Two years is peanuts for cartography.
Comment from John Dalton on 22 July 2012 at 12:22
Yep. It’s demoralising to see what has happened to the map for my area (Northern Sydney). Like you, I’m new, so don’t really know what went before. I’m no lawyer, but I’d be interested to know how the Open Database License sits with recent (July 2010) Australian laws against “take it or leave it” style contracts (such as the ODL?). Combined with Australia’s lack of a database copyright (IceTV v Nine Network), does the ODL have any legal standing in Australia?
Comment from Sanderd17 on 22 July 2012 at 12:59
I have some background in Belgian, and European copyright law. I sometimes read about USA laws, but I know nothing of Australian law. So I can’t clarify that to you.
Comment from chriscf on 23 July 2012 at 04:30
If they’re anything like the equivalents in the UK, then they will protect consumer contracts only and won’t extend to our terms since we are not in the business of offering consumer contracts.
Comment from Richard on 24 July 2012 at 14:46
@John Dalton: my reading of ACL of 2010 is that there is no effect on the contractual part of the ODbL. For example, it is hard to disagree that the contract is “reasonably necessary to protect the legitimate interests of the party who would be advantaged by the term”.
The IceTV case absolutely strengthens the case for ODbL’s contractual pillar as it provides further evidence that copyright alone is unlikely to provide protection for collections of factual geodata in Australia.