GeoNames Forum

Question :

How can I help geonames? What can I contribute?

Answer :

We need help in various areas :

new data sources : Check whether your country is releasing free geo data and let us know.
Data correction and improvement : Many coordinates in our datasources are rounded in our datasources and therefore not exact. You can use the edit functions of geonames to correct and improve data. http://www.geonames.org/recent-changes.html
If you are using geonames data on your website you can ask your users to correct errors and link back to the geonames edit page http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/22.page
We need help translating feature classes and feature codes : http://www.geonames.org/export/codes.html
As well as weather observations : http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/28.page
You can help adding additional countries to our postal codes geo coding service :
http://www.geonames.org/export/free-geocoding.html
I your country is not yet supported you can help us find a list of postal codes for your country. We will then take care about geo referencing the postal codes. All we need is a list of postal codes and placenames.
metar weather parser in java : We want to extract 'meaningful' information from the metar weather observation data.
http://groups.google.com/group/geonames/browse_thread/thread/9fbf33ac601f2df3/3d2cd85925583ece?tvc=2#3d2cd85925583ece
you could also help in translating weather texts :
http://forum.geonames.org/gforum/posts/list/28.page

You can also support the project with a donation and help pay for the servers : http://www.geonames.org/donations.html

If you want to help just get in touch with us : info@geonames.org

Thank you.

Above it says one can help correct the data by using the "edit" functions. I just registered and cannot see anything that would permit me to make corrections???

The edit functions are on top of the google maps interface.

Use the search function to find the place where you live. Then click on the small balloon on the map. A new window will open over the map and in this window you have several edit functions available. Just click on one of the menus at the bottom of that window.
With the 'edit' function you can correct elevation, population and others. With the 'alternate names' you can correct spelling and add names for this place in other languages.
With the 'move' function you can correct the location of the place.

The most recent modifications are visible here :
http://www.geonames.org/recent-changes.html

Marc

Hi,

I'm miserably failing to understand how can I move a populated place.

I click on its marker, the info window shows up, I click on "Move", I close the info window (it's covering the right position), I click on the right position for that city, and then nothing.

On the left pane it says

move Cox
1. point mouse to new location
2. save new coordinates

How can I "save the new coordinates"?

Thank you for a great service!

Cheers,

The code was broken. Thanks for letting us know about the problem.

Please try again, it is fixed now and should work.

Marc

Hi Marc,

It's working now. Thanks a lot!

Now, is there any way to change the name of an adm1?
In the gns database they have "Castilla-La Manacha" instead of "Castilla la Mancha" (extra hyphen and extra "a").

Is there any way to report such errors to your database?

Posting errors like this one here in the forum or in an email is fine. I will fix them. Thanks a lot.

Marc

Edit :
It is fixed now : http://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=Castilla+La+Mancha&country=

Hi Marc,

In the gns database they have "Cataluña" (translation to the Castilian of an official name) instead of "Catalunya", official name of this one country.
You can fix this error to your database?

Thank you Marc

It is changed :

http://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=catalunya

Marc

Thank you marc !

abat sise

Marc:

In the database they have valenciana instead País Valencià:
(http://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=Benicarl%C3%B3&country=)
and Islas Baleares instead of Illes Balears:
(http://www.geonames.org/search.html?q=Mallorca&country=)
You can fix this error?

Thank you

Vicent

Thank you Vicent. It is fixed.

Marc

Hi, I recently made (logged as zeman) couple of additions, movements and spelling corrections in and around Praha, Czechia. Although I see the changes in the list of recent changes and in the history of the places, the map does not reflect them. Even after emptying the cache and reloading. Any ideas why this might happen?

Thanks,
Dan

Hi Dan

It was a misconfiguration of a database connection. I am sorry about this. For load balancing some static database requests are served by an other server. Due to a misconfiguration the map view was served by the wrong server and you did not see your inserts and updates. Your changes are now also visible on the map view.

Regards

Marc

Great, thank you!

Hey Marc,
Just wondering if you've checked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_postal_codes recently?

They have a couple of countries there that are not currently supported.

Happy Turkey from the U.S of A!
javester

Hi Javester

Thanks for the Turkey.

No, I haven't checked it. Do you think the lists are more or less complete? And do you have a particular country in mind?

Regards

Marc

Marc,

What about postal changes? Specifically, adding latitudes and longitudes for locations that have empty latitudes and longitudes?

Carey

Carey

We have started to add postal codes as alternate names with the pseudo iso language code 'post'. This makes sense if section of populated places have other names and other postal codes.
Otherwise you can send me an excel or other file and I directly update the database with it. A wiki-entry form is not yet implemented for the postal codes tables.

Marc

Marc,

I think the altername name solution is excellent.

Do you know when it will be implemented?

Carey