Has the possibility of importing MA addresses from MassGIS (https://docs.digital.mass.gov/dataset/massgis-data-master-address-data-statewide-address-points-geocoding) been discussed here or anywhere else?
When asked “Can it be imported into OpenStreetMap?”, MassGIS replied "This is free and open data. We just ask for a citation: “MassGIS (Bureau of Geographic Information), Commonwealth of Massachusetts EOTSS” which sounds to me like “yes”.
I don’t recall any MassGIS addresses discussion. This would be a great project and improve OSM in the region. The first hurdle to importing is usually licensing, and the MassGIS terms are compatible with OSM so that part was easy.
As a rough overview from other OSM address import projects, the convention is
- Detect any existing address definition in OSM and exclude duplicates before the import.
- When there is a single address point per building, attach the address directly to the building.
- Multiple address points per building are placed as points within or on the building outline.
- If MassGIS defines some types of multiple address points on top of each other, they are spread out within the building to make it easier for following mappers to inspect.
Scripts are available from similar efforts (such as NYC addresses), but it is still a large project.
It would be good to touch bases with other US import groups such as the US Slack #imports (join at https://osmus-slack.herokuapp.com/ ), the US imports mailing list https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/imports-us , the talk-us list https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-us and eventually the imports list at https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/imports .
I vaguely remembered a conversation about this with someone (jremilliard?). The trouble is all in developing the scripts and also checking them to make sure they don’t mess anything up.