In the last few years web applications have integrated users more and more in the design, the processing and gathering of information.
Some of the these applicatins are Wikis and famous sites such as youtube, etc.
We had the idea at our institute of launching an experiment to collect a complete set of geocoded address information for Switzerland. This data is supposed to
be freely available to all interested companies or private persons and may be used at no license fee
be captured and maintained by the Web Community
store not only the details of an address but their co-ordinates as well.
Of course there is already a complete geocoded address dataset for the whole of Switzerland - but it is fairly expensive. With the OpenAddress idea we want
to investigate whether it is possible to create such an comprehensive dataset based both on the most recent technologies and the Web Community.
We believe that the more people there are who join in, the less the effort of each individual will be. If many, many people help with their very local know-how, we will be able to achieve this goal.
Besides: it is very easy: just click on the map and enter the details of an address - that's it. Or use a list of addresses and go sequentially through it.
Of course we would like the individual to collect and enter more than just one address:
This could be: Addresses of the places where you work, you live, meet your friends, have your hair cut or your teeth checked, the most famous restaurant, as well as the most famous restaurant and other popular locations etc.
A few comments:
Whoever needs many addresses should collect and enter many. This is especially meant for companies who will use this data in a commercial environment.
The project is based on trust: We neither check nor log what is collected and entered.
The project is based on the "open" philosophy which also works in the area of open source software: the community is responsible for quality and completeness.
Do invite colleagues to join in and help - the more the better!
Keep informed and use the 'statistics' option to follow the progress.
As stated before: it is an experiment. But we believe it will work - with your help!
What will this address information be used for?
Many applications and solutions in the area of geographic context need highly detailed data. Full address data including georeference is part of it.
Instructions...
Below is a brief guide to collecting addresses via OpenAddresses.ch:
Collection of addresses
The collection of addresses is quite easy:
Basically just click on the map and define the location of the address.
An info window appears, in which the details of the address must be filled in.
Die Angabe zum Erfasser dient lediglich der statistischen Auswertung. No personal data are stored!!
To quickly find the environment of an address to be collected in the map window the fields in left can be filled with the particular information of the address.
The map window will be updated and then the address can be collected.
Always click on the building in the satellite when collecting an address and not on the street!! Please refer to the official spelling of an address and do not use shortcuts ( '-strasse' instead of '-str. ')
Moving an address
An existing address can easily be moved clicking with the left mouse button and then draging the symbol to the new location (and then release mouse button).
Do not move correctly positioned addresses!!
Deleting an address
When you click on the symbol of an existing address an info window appears with all the details of the address. There you find a button 'delete'.
If you click 'delete' the address will be deleted after confirming your choice.
Do not delete correc addresses!!
Information on an address
To get information about an existing address move the mouse cursor on the symbol. A tag appears at the cursor that shows the details of the address.
Finding an address
To check if an address has already been captured enter the details of the address and hit the button 'Search in OpenAddresses'.
Data download
Use the tag 'Download' to get a database dump of all the collected addresses.
Simple Statistics
Use the tag 'Statistics' to get information on the data collectors and the number of addresses they collected.
The same information is available based on locations.
The data set of OpenAddresses.ch is composed of georeferenced addresses captured in this web-portal and from the community and the original geodata of the cantons Solothurn and Zug, which are integrated into the data set of OpenAddresses.ch.
Because of that You have to agree with the following terms of licence, if you want to use the OpenAddresses.ch-data:
GeoDataSnapper is an application for mobile devices (PDA) with intern/extern GPS-Receiver for a combined fieldwork OpenAddresses- and OpenStreetMap-Datacapture.
Version
1.0 (10.2008)
Premises
Windows Mobile Operating System, eMbedded Visual Basic Runtime, ActiveSync
Einfache statistische Auswertungen gibt es für:
Anwender und Orte
(je Top ).
Top 10 users of the last 30 days:
user
# addresses
tiba-noe
65
RJ
26
24
mw
3
phida
3
Sigrist
3
Lea Schott
2
aaichinger
2
Sabine
2
Fink Thomas
2
About...
This is a project at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland, Geomatics Department. It was realised under the professorship of Hans-Jörg Stark.
If you would like to be kept informed about the project (new functionality, etc.) please fill in the form below (e-mail address is mandatory, name and first name are optional)
My today's addresses
My addresses
Community addresses
