Hi guys, I’ve just managed to register for OSM, wiki and forum and have started transferrinf some of my GPS logs into roads (since I conerted loads of my local area to shapefiles last year this is almost a duplication of effort!).
I’ve got a couple of questions:
I see that somone has created a load of nodes and segments of major roads in the coventry area, but not created ways from them.
How do I find out who they are and co-ordinate withthem so we don’t duplicate effort.
is there any mechanism whereby I can convert my existing shapefiles into a format to upload? (assuming i edit the meta data to align with the OSM map feature tags)
Can I add area features to OSM?
Is the OSM data OGC compliant or is it a seperate format, can I access and edit it using WMS protocols from my GIS?
i’f I’ve asked an obvious question pelase point me to the obvious answer - I’m still trolling through the wiki to figure out the answers to some of my ddetialed questions.
I created some segments threw coventry, but other people have also past threw there. If there not ways I would suspect its from people passing threw rather than any osm member living there. I think its still inposible to find out who made tags for privacy reasons, unless they attach there name to it.
Im not clear what you mean for the 2nd questions
Area features can be made with ways going in a loop, and taged the same.
If they’re just created as ways or marked “highway”:“road” or something, and especially if they have been like that a while (a few days, a week or two, depends how active the area is - I usually go by what appears on the slippy map / mapnik layer rendering), then its probably ok to assume they’re not about to be updated. You can’t guarantee anything, but you can put details in your profile/wiki user page to show what areas you’re doing if you like and people hunting for other users and interested in coordinating will find it.
If you’re making data better, more specific, adding tags, then also I wouldnt expect to change them back to something worse, so you’re probably ok anyway. I dont know how well update merges happen on the server but they must have a mechanism in place and if a re-download of it fails for the next editing session you do, then obviously something’s happened or someone has manually reverted it for a reason. Just don’t leave it too long between fetching updates and I reckon you’ll be ok.
Note: disclaimer: all just ‘reckoned’ opinions from my own editing sessions, no actual knowledge of how things are handled/ how busy coventry is/ anything else appropriate…