[dianashk]

It's built on open data sets, including OpenStreetMap and OpenAddresses. In populated areas coverage is really good. Thanks to OpenAddresses, several countries have full address coverage. You can see the coverage map on openaddresses.io. New data gets added as these open data sources grow.

[toomuchtodo]

Why does OpenAddress need to exist separately from OSM? Can address geocoding data not be properly represented in OSM?

[randyme]

OpenAddresses is a directory of publicly available address lists provided by government agencies at various levels. It's designed to be bulk imported by machine.

Many addresses exist in OSM. But there's a preference from the OSM community that data be entered by users familiar with their areas, that they can verify on the ground. Imports have happened in OSM, such as the controversial TIGER import in the US years ago, and the NYC building dataset more recently. But these require a lot of effort and attention to manage well.

[toomuchtodo]

So could OpenAddresses be merged into OSM at some point? Would that make sense?

[dianashk]

It's not out of the question, however there are many obstacles to overcome, such as licensing, validation, and the fact that the OSM community generally insists on manually entered data.

I've heard many folks push for consolidation of various open data projects, so they aren't "competing" for contributions. However the reality is that they are currently very different and each serves to bridge a very specific gap.

In the meantime, it makes a lot of sense for projects relying on open data to pull all of these sources in, as Mapzen Search is doing, to ensure the best possible coverage.

[legulere]

That's the wrong question - the question is wether the sources from OpenAddresses can be merged into OSM. I know of at least Denmark that there was some address import.