Hello, I plan to start mapping missing features in Tajikistan, mainly in the Pamirs. I will start with dots for villages, unless someone sees something more important to start with?
Stéphane
OpenStreetMap
Hello, I plan to start mapping missing features in Tajikistan, mainly in the Pamirs. I will start with dots for villages, unless someone sees something more important to start with?
Stéphane
Discussion
Comment from Sanderd17 on 22 February 2012 at 22:58
You're certainly welcome to do so.
There are lots of places in OSM with missing data, but you should only add data around regions you know. That's the only way OSM will become better then all other alternatives.
So if that's a place you know quite well, and if it has a bit of missing data, you're welcome to add what you know.
Comment from shenriod on 22 February 2012 at 23:13
Yes, I know the place quite well, as I've been living there more than 2 years. Will now need to gather my own data and maybe to plan some field trips over the summer. It actually has more than "a bit" of missing data: http://osm.org/go/zxuV~K--
Comment from shenriod on 22 February 2012 at 23:17
By the way, as almost no data is currently available in OSM for this region, is it better to "correctly" map a few villages (using ways to delineate the boundaries of the villages), or rather to map many villages, just using a single node, in order to have something to start with?
Comment from leuty on 22 February 2012 at 23:35
I'd say do whatever mood you are into at the moment you unpack your GPS or open your editor is best. One day it is adding a street, another day adding a village node or a tree. We won't tell you "do this and that". Fun is the #1 goal of this project. Have a good day and welcome to OSM!
Comment from craigloftus on 23 February 2012 at 09:50
Another way to look at it is what would be useful for people using your data?
I would say for the basic use cases just having a node is enough to start with. However, you might have something else in mind?
Another consideration is that nodes allow you to mark the 'real' centre of a village, i.e., the market place, cross-roads or bridge, rather than the centroid of the boundary, which for dispersed villages can often be unhelpful.
Comment from liftarn on 23 February 2012 at 10:23
I guess roads (if available) between those villages would be good to have too.
Comment from Sanderd17 on 23 February 2012 at 23:05
Roads and road names are very useful for navigation (routing software).
Names (on POI and streets) are important for the search engine to work.
And the most beautiful maps get rendered when you really add landuse data and other surfaces (like buildings).
So it's up to you what you want. In the beginning, it will go a bit together (you need the basic road infrastructure for all services), but after a while you can specialise on one thing, or try different things.
It doesn't make a lot of difference how you start, as OSM is a project that will continue to grow. So just do what you want to do. As long as you don't destroy other data, we're happy.