
Open-source geo is really something right now - japhyr
https://trackchanges.postlight.com/open-source-geo-is-really-something-right-now-f8e310c5f57a#.wbks9g5ea
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tunesmith
One thing that mystifies me is a common pattern of attitudes I see regarding
capturing knowledge.

Clicking around you'll find repeated references to Leibniz and Descartes
dreaming of a way to capture all of human knowledge via axiomatic statements,
lemmas, and conclusions; then easily dismissed as impractical.

This article talks about the Semantic Web, which is then immediately made fun
of with derisive references to Rudolf Carnap and the urge to "Pokemonize" all
of human knowledge.

What I want to know is, even if it is impossible to capture all of human
wisdom/conclusions, why does that by definition mean the effort is worthless?
After all, when looking at information rather than conclusions - wikipedia
isn't complete, will never be complete, but it is still useful for what is
there.

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cwp
It's not just that it's impossible to capture everything in one database, it's
that it's a waste of time to try. There is no format that can capture all
nuances and be useful for all purposes.

Data is messy. The only thing you can do with it is preserve the original
format that was used to record it, transform a copy to a format that's useful
for the analysis you want to do, and join it to other, similarly messy data.

Wikipedia is a perfect example. It's messy as hell. It's blobs of data with
connections between them. Most of the blobs are unstructured text (or at best
semi-structured) but there are a bunch of images in various formats there, and
links to outside datasources in myriad formats and locations. There are some
standards and attempts to maintain order, but the whole thing is damn
difficult to process by machine. It's a very, very long way from the Semantic
Web.

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adrianN
It's certainly possible to capture everything a human can know in one
database. The human brain demonstrates that it's possible. It might be a bit
tricky to capture artifacts that come from messy wetware with something
simpler than a simulation of messy wetware, but there is no theoretical
barrier to having all human knowledge in one query-able location.

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pjc50
The brain is not a computer and the mind is not a database. It does not store
discrete data items.

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gosub
If it can compute, it's a computer. If it can store and retrieve data, it's a
database.

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mcherm
The human brain stores information. I would not call it a database.

Let's start with your statement: "If it can store and retrieve data, it's a
database." One of the notable characteristics of human memory is that it is
not reliable. It does NOT reliably retrieve the data that it stored -- and I
don't just mean that we forget some things, I mean that many of our memories
are factually incorrect.

Human memory is extraordinarily USEFUL, but in order for the term "database"
to have a useful meaning, I have to categorize human memory as a form of
information storage that is NOT a "database".

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pella
-> [https://openaddresses.io/](https://openaddresses.io/)

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hackney
Interesting. The post references sources such as Mapzen which allows you to
extract portions of data for peculiar needs. Mapzen also provides an api for
turn by turn navigation and there is a plugin to use it on a web based map. I
use DeLorme's street atlas on my tablet. It works great and is inexpensive.
Just don't bother with any map pack additions as when you try to download more
than a few square miles, delorme then promptly throttles you to 1990 dialup
speeds. Viking (sourceforge) is also an option but there is no real time gps
with windows.

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caniszczyk
Also check out the work done by LocationTech:
[https://www.locationtech.org/](https://www.locationtech.org/)

