[Tagging] Link to stream of webcam

[Jmapb]

On 9/4/2020 3:45 PM, Paul Allen wrote:
> A surveillance cam isn't a "contact" and contact:* is STILL a stupid
> idea.
>
> Oh, and what's wrong with url=*?  Especially as the wiki page endorses it.
>
Nb, the link to the "Surveillance under Surveillance" project that you
quoted doesn't mention the url=* tag.

> https://sunders.uber.space/ (with info pop ups, even with a live image
> if URL provided <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:contact> in
> the data)

The "URL provided" link points at the contact:* page, so presumably
whoever wrote that was assuming that the live image URLs should be
tagged  under the contact namespace. I agree that it's bizarre tagging
practice, but I understand how it happened, since that's where almost
all URLs more specific than "url" or "website" have found a home, and
many of those are predominately used to publish info rather than to
receive communication.

Taginfo doesn't break down the common tag combinations for
surveillance:type=camera, but here's my attempted tally using overpass:
  website 1485
  contact:webcam 1146
  url 204
  contact:website 115
  url:webcam 29
  webcam 17

Note that there's some overlap as some cameras have more than one of
these tags (sometimes with different values.) And there may be some
variations that I missed.

Simple website=* is the most popular, but often it points to things
other than a camera feed, most commonly the site of the person or
institution that runs the camera. Often it holds the URL of a top-level
view of many cameras while contact:webcam holds the direct URL to the
camera in question.

My favorite of these is url:webcam. But contact:webcam is hundreds of
times more popular.

What's wrong with just url=*? To quote the url=* wiki page, "/it is
advised not to use this tag when more specific alternatives are
available./" Like website=*, it doesn't specify that it's a camera feed,
so it might be used for other purposes. And in fact I happened to see a
couple of nodes using url=* for picture *of* the camera, rather than
pictures taken by the camera.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/4163745929
https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/5979627352

Jason

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