[Osmf-talk] Directed Editing Policy

Tobias Knerr osm at tobias-knerr.de
Tue Nov 21 19:40:05 UTC 2017


Glad to see results of the survey reflected in this policy. As a mapper
who is not currently involved in directed editing (although I have
organized a couple of mapping events in the past), it feels like a big
step forward overall! :)

However, there's one building block that I feel is still missing from
the transparency requirements, and that's tagging standards.

In many ways, our data model is still "crowdsourced", i.e. based on how
tags are actually used in the database. Due to the ability to coordinate
a large number of edits, directed editing has the power to profoundly
shift, dilute, or establish such de facto tagging standards. And
unfortunately, some organizations have in the past used directed editing
to roll out tags that they had invented or repurposed themselves,
without properly taking feedback from the community into account.

It is my opinion that, ideally, directed editing should seek to limit
itself to tagging practices that are already established in the
community. If that's not possible for some reason, those differences to
existing tagging practices need to be part of the director's
communications with the community.

Thank you for listening and, again, your hard work!

Tobias



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