OpenStreetMap
I’ve started sending some Freedom of Information requests! This is a new world for me, but seems to be going good and has helped a lot.
The first one I sent was for public phone boxes after BT refused to give me a list. It was successful, and I’m now surveying the locations, as well as the ones already in OSM. The two lists differ quite a lot, and interestingly neither is accurate. It makes me wonder if BTs own list is accurate.
So I’ve been taking a lot of photos of phone boxes for Mapillary and that makes me feel like a trainspotter. I promise I’ve not go a weird thing for phone boxes, it’s just an area of OSM that needed some love. Maybe I’ve got a weird thing for OSM…
My next request was for defibs, they still haven’t responded, but I can’t imagine a reason why they wont provide them. Once they do I’ll start surveying and documenting them. I’ve been adding local defibs to OSM for over a year now so it will be interesting to see which ones I’ve missed.
I think anyone else in the UK should consider using Freedom of Information requests, WhatDoTheyKnow is a great tool and makes it super easy. It probably goes without saying but anything you receive from FOIs is not compatible with OSM, you’ll need to get another source (go out and survey).
Discussion
Comment from philippec on 16 August 2020 at 18:31
And you trust the government ? I even discovered a vicious circle of public data and osm data. They both picked from one another without verifying, just for the important good cause.
Comment from philippec on 16 August 2020 at 19:28
Here I have even an example in where the province just guesses. Half of it is wrong. https://stefandewinter.be/provincieraad/drinkfonteinen-in-onze-provincie/
Comment from CjMalone on 16 August 2020 at 20:18
I’m not blindly trusting government data. Nor could I anyway as the license isn’t compatible with OSM.
In the phone box example OSM is even more wrong than the government data, so I’m also validating the OSM data at the same time.
Comment from a8ree on 17 August 2020 at 07:14
FOI doesn’t cover private companies like BT or perhaps you are contacting councils?
Comment from robbieonsea on 17 August 2020 at 21:12
In case you are not aware about Robert Whittaker’s site… one of the OSM elements concerns defibrillators:
https://osm.mathmos.net/defib/
With maps of data and links to FoI requests.
HTH.
Comment from CjMalone on 18 August 2020 at 12:55
@a8ree yes, the first request, regarding BT was to Isle of Wight Council.
@robbieonsea I am aware, once I get a response from the defibs request I’ll ping him.
Comment from CjMalone on 29 August 2020 at 14:32
My defib request was successful, and Robert has added them to his tool.
Turns out you can request data in “re-usable machine readable format”, (spreadsheet), so I’ve annotated my request to say so in case anyone uses it as a template to request data from other public body. (I recommend it, it’s incredibly easy)