As you’ve probably heard the Ordnance Survey is going to open some data next week. We don’t exactly know what data or what license it will be under but there’s a reasonable chance it won’t be importable in to OSM because either the data will be low scale or released with an incompatible license.
If that’s the case then I propose we start, separate from OSM, an OpenOS project. I basically see it as either a clearinghouse for putting up converted formats for the data and/or a full OSM stack, mapnik, potlatch and all for editing and fixing it. Because as Russ Nelson keeps saying, datasets without a community are dead.
I propose that until we know it’s compatible, usable and so on in OSM that no OSM resources are spent/used on something like this. Thus, I’ve bought the domain openos.co.uk to host it and set up a google group which you’re welcome to join to help discuss what to do if/when we get some data.
I think this data will need a community, tools and editing and who better to build all that than people from OSM?
Thoughts?
For us, non UK residents, Ordnance Survey is Great Britain’s national mapping agency http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.ukI‘d say if it’s not compatible with OSM then let it die. Wasting resources of OSMers (like fixing, maintaining) on a data set whose license *might* become compatible in the future is not wise.
We have wait and see what the restrictions are: keywords "without restrictions on re-use" public http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page22897