Storage and processing time aren't that much of an issue in practice – the entirety of the OSM database is still at a quite manageable size, and generally one of the first steps of working with it is to automatically discard any data you're not interested in. (And there are a lot of different opinions in a worldwide project!) Because we leave the filtering to the map makers, and because there are different maps for different tastes, we don't need to fight over how important something is all the time. OSM wants to be useful for all sorts of use cases, not just for mainstream maps, so we can't do the filtering at the data collection step.ĭoing it this way also makes it more pleasant to work together with people who have different opinions. Railway signals, lighthouse colors or fire hydrants are useless clutter on most maps – but there are specialist maps for railway enthusiasts, navigators and firefighters where this kind of information is essential. Why do we do it that way? Because detail which is irrelevant for one map is often very important for a different map. Maps based on OSM never include all the data – but they just leave it out of their maps, they don't remove it from the OSM database itself. Making a map is a step that happens afterwards. When collecting data, we're just trying to make sure it correctly depicts the real world. You're right about that.īut in OSM, we generally see collecting data and making a map as two separate tasks. To make a good map, you have to leave out irrelevant details.
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