The better thing to do with something like this is to leave the object in the database, but mark it as abandoned, disused, or demolished. The wiki pages for abandoned and demolished give a bit more detail on how to use them. I think there is a tag specifically for abandoned runways as well, however I think that is more for runways that are still there, but not used.

Not only will leaving the object in the DB marked abandoned prevent people from re-adding it in the future, but it also makes a useful resource as well since it is sometimes useful to know where things used to be. A good example is abandoned railway lines, since even though the rails are disused/gone the railway embankment often remains and it makes a useful landmark, and may be used for other things as well. I think Britian has turned many former railways into bike paths.

-Buck

In looking at your edits to this building I see you are trying to add HTML code into the 'source' tag for the building. The source tag is for the source of the information you used to add the building to the map, not for 'source code' for HTML markup and the like.

The openstreetmap database itself is just for the raw mapping data, i.e. the building's location, its address, if it is a business, etc. Anything else, like html forms, etc, should be done using a separate system built on top of the openstreetmap data, rather than being integrated into the database itself.

-Buck

Although it won't make the image clearer, the JOSM editor will let you zoom in as far as you want to (the online editor Potlatch only lets you zoom so far). This may or may not help you though, depending on what kind of imagery is available there.

If you don't have a GPS there is also the http://walking-papers.org/ website. This will let you print out a map so you can draw on it, then you scan it back in and the QR code on the image tells walking papers where it is. You can the load it as an "imagery" background layer in the editors for entering your information back in.

-Buck

You can re-align the imagery in potlatch. In potlatch 1 (probably the same in 2) you hold down the spacebar and then drag the background to its new location.

As for your question about Google, I really don't know. I think its pretty borderline, and I confess I've done similar things when working with imagery from the ISS. I used the ISS imagery as a source for what I was tracing but wasn't sure is some white blobs were oil tanks, I then confirmed that on google, although I can't remmeber if I ever did go back and enter them or not.

I think all in all it's best to try to stay away from google as much as possible, but it is definitely a grey area that you are referring to.

-Buck

I wish you the best of luck with that. I have seen the work done in Kibera and Mathare and have been very impressed with the maps made there. I am glad to see the skill being put to use elsewhere in the area. If there is Hi-resolution imagery available I can help you by doing tracing work (I have done a lot in Africa already) so that if you get a chance to do some surveying your time can be more effectively spent on gather "on the ground" info, rather than just doing the busy work of tracing roads/buildings.

Send me a message if there are any areas you would like traced. I will check back on this diary entry, too, to see if you respond, but the messaging system is more reliable since I am less likely to miss messages sent that way.

-Buck

Welcome to the project. Let us know if you have any questions about how to edit things or about any techniques you might employ to improve your mapping.

I see someone has traced a lot of buildings in the area you have been editing, but they do not have addresses. I have been using "Audio Mapping" to gather addresses in my hometown of Fargo, North Dakota, USA, and it really improves the map. You might also check out "walking papers" which allows you to print out a map, then go out and draw on it, then when you scan it back in it automatically gets made into an imagery background that you can use in JOSM (and Potlatch as well I think). Links to both techniques can be found below. I have used both techniques and have found the audio mapping to be much more effective for gathering house numbers, but walking papers is useful for adding buildings not visible in sat-imagery as well as other things like trails, car parks, etc.

osm.wiki/Audio_mapping
http://walking-papers.org/

-Buck

Excellent work. You are welcome to pop over to North Dakota and do our highways next if you want. ;)

-Buck

For your first question there is: osm.wiki/Key:lit

I don't know about the rest though.

-Buck

Welcome to the project. I see you have done many edits so far, and look forward to many more; keep up the good work. Let us know if you have any questions about the project, or about better ways to do your mapping.

-Buck

You can put the name on the map. Just zoom in to where the road is, click the "Edit" button at the top of the page, then click on the road to select it, and type the name into the field on the left sidebar, then click save. You should see the map update itself in the next few minutes with the new name. That is the whole point of this project, anyone, including you, can fix the problems they find.

-Buck

There is a russian blog post just a bit later than this one discussing this issue. The comments that are there so far seem to say that a rollback of the import is the best way to handle this and I would agree with that. I think the best way to handle this would be to import the data into a separate database and then render tiles of just that data. People can then use those tiles to get street names in conjunction with tracing/gps mapping (which seems to be about the only thing useful in this dataset).

It looks like the city center has better data then the areas around the edges. If this was from the import then that may be useful as well but the better data may be OSM stuff (not sure where it comes from).

I think that the rollback would be a much better way to go about it as it would likely take more work to "clean up" this data then to just make new data ourselves. Anyway, just my two cents.

-Buck

Here is the advanced instructions for relations in JOSM. I have not done much with them myself so I can't help you specifically, but I think the "relations panel" is what you need to use.

osm.wiki/JOSM/Advanced_editing#Relations

-Buck

By the way, welcome to the project. :) I didn't mean to scare you with the previous post, it is just that Google have made it very clear we can't use their stuff so I wanted to answer your question.

If you enjoy doing tracing work of satellite imagery, you should also check out the HOT team (Humanitarian Openstreetmap Team). The HOT team tries to map areas that are affected by war, natural disasters, or other places where good maps would help the humanitarian response in the region.

-Buck

No, absolutely not. Google is completely off limits (this means their maps, their satellite imagery, and the street view).

The only imagery we can use is the Bing or Yahoo imagery (not the bing street view though, just the overhead view). For some contries there is also imagery that has been released but it varies from place to place. You can check the wiki page for whatever countries you are interested in to see if there is a local source available.

-Buck

I have been using mapwarper to orthorectify imagery of Libya from the space shuttle/station over the last few days. If you can find any good images of the areas you are interested in, I can try to get them rectified so they can be traced. The best way to search seems to be using the "Clickable Map" under the search tab at the top. I browsed through a bit and nothing immediately jumped out at me, but I don't know enough about the area to know where to look either.

http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/

-Buck

Welcome to the project.

-Buck

Just rectified and have begun tracing the city of Marsa-Brega from the single frame taken below.

http://warper.geothings.net/maps/4635
osm.org/browse/way/124111798

-Buck

The last two images (of 4 total) of Sirt.

http://warper.geothings.net/maps/4631
http://warper.geothings.net/maps/4632

osm.org/browse/way/123988526
osm.org/browse/way/123988527

-Buck

Another oilfield rectified and mostly traced. This one is the "Warehouse 59e Oilfield", a somewhat interesting name. There is another airport called "Warehouse 59a" which may very well be an oil field as well given the similar name.

http://warper.geothings.net/maps/4629
osm.org/browse/way/123813961

-Buck

Just added an image for a oil field south of Ajdabiya. I have traced pretty much everything in the image but am making a note of it here in case I want to compile all these images together later.

http://warper.geothings.net/maps/warp/4628
osm.org/browse/way/123806417

-Buck