[Tagging] diplomatic institutions (with tl;dr)

[serpens-osm at gmx.de]

Short introduction: Let’s take the tagging scheme „fuel“ for example:

  amenity=fuel
  fuel:diesel=<yes/no>
  fuel:discount=<discount programme>
  …

This is logical and consistent: amenity=xy and then a namespace xy:<subkey>=<Tag>
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Now to my topic: diplomatic institution – like an embassy, a consulate, ambassador’s residence, honorary consulate, consulate general, delegation, high commission, permanent mission, (permanent) representation etc.
We have amenity=embassy since long time. Some of these are tagged on top with the (relatively new) key „diplomatic“ too – a very useful key.
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So I have two suggestions: *FIRST*

Change amenity=embassy to amenity=diplomatic (this is more consistent and logical, analog to amenity=fuel etc.) or <whatever>=diplomatic. But please not the too specific „amenity=embassy“ – how could I explain a new mapper to tag a non-embassy (like a consulate) as „amenity=embassy“.

for this, see also proposed features:
- http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/Embassy (and „talk“ page there)
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Besides the tagging of the type of diplomatic institution it is super useful to tag a machine-readable country code (at least for the sending country). This is done so far via country=<country code>. This is not the best solution because there are very often misunderstandings – which country? The sending country or the destination (hosting) country? Sometimes target=<country code> is used for the destination (hosting / „targeted“) country.

My *SECOND* suggestion:

  diplomatic:sending=ES       <--- machine-readable ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code
  diplomatic:destination=FR   <---                  -- " --

It could be also diplomatic:destination_country or diplomatic:target or something like this.

The destination country is not always identical with addr:country – see for example the embassy of Ethiopia in Berlin (destination countries: Germany, Poland, Slovak Republic and Czech Republic), see http://aethiopien-botschaft.de/

for this, see also my osm blog (about tagging country codes on embassies etc.):
- state 2009: http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Serpens/diary/5734 and http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Serpens/diary/9082
- state 2015: http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Serpens/diary/28350
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Because English is not my first language: Dear native speakers, please check if this is correct (sending country / destination country?).

Taginfo:
http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/amenity=embassy
http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/diplomatic
http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/country
http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/target

Best
serpens
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tl;dr (sorry for the long post!):

Example (Spanish consulate in France – CURRENT STATE):

  amenity=embassy        <--- „oh, look, it’s an embassy!“
  diplomatic=consulate   <--- contradiction: „uhm, wait, no. it’s a consulate.“
  country=ES             <--- often misunderstood as „addr:country“

  name=Spanish consulate
  addr:country=FR
  …


Example (Spanish consulate in France – MY PROPOSAL):

  amenity=diplomatic         <--- it’s a diplomatic institution
  diplomatic:type=consulate  <--- more specififc: it’s a consulate
  diplomatic:sending=ES      <--- machine-readable ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code
  diplomatic:destination=FR  <---                  -- " --

  name=Spanish consulate
  addr:country=FR
  …