[Taginfo-dev] Tag synonyms

[Jochen Topf]

On Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 10:52:06AM -0800, Bryce Cogswell wrote:
> I have an editor that consumes TagInfo data from the wiki, allowing users to search for the tag they want. I search both the tag name and the description text. I'd like the search to include common synonyms for tags because newbies (and I) don't always know what to search for, so: drugstore -> amenity=pharmacy, salon -> shop=beauty, curb -> kerb, etc.
> 
> What is the correct place to put this information? Should it be a new tag metadata field on the wiki, or stuffed into the description field, or something else?

This mailing list is about the taginfo application/service. From your question
it sounds that you are not actually doing anything with taginfo, but parsing
the Wiki directly. Is that correct? In that case you might want to raise this
issue on the general dev or talk lists. That being said, I do think that the
taginfo program is the right place to collect this information and bring it
to other parts of the OSM ecosystem.

I think framing the issue as being about synonyms is too simplistic. It is
about finding the right tags. Just having a list of synonyms is not going to be
enough. Say for instance "forest" and "woods". Those are synonyms by some
definitions.  But there are actually different tags for these two things,
because in the OSM context they mean different things. So you'd have to read
the description on the wiki to find out which to use. I am sure there are many
words you can't easily associate with just one tag.

The other problem is maintainance. People actually have to maintain the lists
of synonyms. And there is the internationalization issue of course.

So I think the approach has to be different. I suggest a mixture of full-text
search in wiki pages plus thesaurus plus maybe some kind of word-stemming plus
maybe dictionaries. It is a bit of work to get that going, but I think it
can be done. We'll get a lot of synonyms for free that way and where we don't
get them, somebody just has to make sure they appear in the wiki text somewhere.

There is already a very simple full-text search for the wiki integrated into
taginfo that I whipped up in a few hours. Just use the search field and then
choose the "Full text" tab. Your first two examples will find the right tags:
http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/search?q=drugstore#fulltext
http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/search?q=salon#fulltext
That could be the basis of something better.

Jochen
-- 
Jochen Topf  jochen at remote.org  http://www.remote.org/jochen/  +49-721-388298