[OSM-newbies] Paths and Footways

[Trevor Hook]

Hi Folks

I'm trying to get clear in my head the difference between footway and a 
path.

I would have thought that a footway would be a cut through between 
residential streets, paved paths through parks, maybe designated paths 
next to major roads - distinctly urban in nature. While a path would 
tend to be a unpaved route (although not always) through fields and 
moors and mountains - largely rural in nature.

However, I've noticed that nearly all the paths out in the countryside 
seem to be tagged as footways not paths.

For example, http://osm.org/go/eu626g_3j--

In the linked location, there is a Footway coming in from the northwest, 
my Path coming in from the west, a bridge and a Footway leading to the east.

The Footway from the northwest is a dirt track running through the same 
field as my Path coming from the West, to my mind the Northwest Footway 
should be a Path, the Footway leading east from the bridge is a footway 
because it's a paved route through a recreation park leading towards 
Godmanchester.

Is this tagging of anything that takes pedestrians as a footway a 
convention I should be following or is my own definition of the 
difference between footway and path right and I should be tag as 
appropriate?

Thanks
Trevor