Addresses Import

Hi Folks,

I do emergency services work for the Red Cross and a program we use utilises OSM for background mapping. It also has the possibility to search for addresses etc. Quite clearly, not all OSM places have address data but given much of this data is now available from “Open Data” sites I am keen to speak to other OSM mappers that might be interested in assisting with bulk uploads.

Caveat - I am no programmer so looking to chat with folks that have experience with this type of bulk upload work. I can do the groundwork of gathering data, checking licences etc but looking for assistance in progressively bulk uploading locations around Australia

Cheers - Phil

I realise this post is from a few years back now, nonetheless http://results.openaddresses.io/ does a great job of indexing open licensed address data.

in OpenAddresses data exists for:

australia wide (GNAF)
act/statewide (potentially outdated/no longer available)
nsw/statewide (import to OA in progress)
qld/statewide
qld/brisbane
qld/logan
tas/statewide
tas/launceston
vic/statewide
vic/melbourne
vic/greater geelong

The issue with most of these are although they are CC BY 4.0 licensed, that alone isn’t enough for OSM to incorporate. I’ve been working to get the required waivers complete at https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Australian_Data_Catalogue but so far we only have a usable waiver for vic/statewide.

I would encourage for the time being you build your maps directly on OpenAddress data rather than OSM since as you know, OSM is patchy.

There are instances where address data in OSM is more accurate than the open data counterpart, so even with licensing sorted, the big tags with an import is ensuring existing address data in OSM is kept in place.

This would be a fantastic initiative. With devices for navigation becoming ‘par for the course’ precise address information is ever more important than ever.

How is this initiative progressing to secure the necessary permissions? If I understand correctly, once necessary approvals are in place it can be possible to bulk import openaddress data for most of the country? If so, that’d be a game changer!

I’m not programmer, but I would expect it would be quite easy to program this, no?