[Tagging] better classification systems

[Mateusz Konieczny]

Feb 11, 2021, 22:52 by colin.smale at xs4all.nl:

> It's all this that makes it such a great shame that we don't make more effort to get tagging schemes "right first time," extensible and future-proof to some degree. The current process is more like design by committee and a "war of attrition" - when all the combatants have lost the will to live, whatever is left on the table becomes the closest we get to a consensus.
>
> It's essential to get guidance into the discussions covering fields of expertise such as data modelling and GIS.
>
Is anyone familiar with some classification system actually better than OSM tagging,
used to classify things mapped in OSM (or some subset of that)
for use by people without specialized training?

Ones that I encountered suffer from at least one of:

- requires specialized training to use it

- requires rigorous following rules

- not intuitive, tricky to get right

- "design by committee" worse then organic growth of OSM tags

- compromised by special interests (applies especially to anything used
for tax purposes)

- useful only for specific regions, unusable globally

- unusable for rough mapping (for example from aerial images)

- low quality in practical use (someone designed complex hierarchical
building classification in Poland - actual government database is  
filled with gem like
"rural building" -> "barn" -> "religious building" for barn building or
"rural building" -> "barn" -> "swimming pool" -> "church"
for church building that never was barn or a swimming pool).

What I encountered so far I would consider as evidence for
"OSM tagging is solving hard problem" as other schemes
were not much better, even when used by someone trained
in their use.

But I was not looking very hard.

Especially for a bit special use in OSM.
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