[OSM-talk] Prolification of the amenity tag

[Joerg Ostertag (OSM Munich/Germany)]

> >innovation in mapping that drew me to OSM in the first place.
>
> It's a valid point but I think that things like bubble-gum machines, or
> other custom data, would be best served in a mash-up. If someone wanted to
> do an OSM-based mashup of bubble-gum machines, it would be quite easy to
> develop (e.g. combine the OSM map as a base layer and overlay markers of
> bubblegum machines as in your typical Google mashup).
>
> Storing custom data in OSM itself necessitates rendering extra maps, and
> storage of extra tiles... something requiring much more overhead than a
> simple mashup. If each type of "special interest" data required its own
> renderer, the number of renderers, and the amont of storage required,
> would quickly escalate.

I think you have to diferntiate which data the central OSM Database holds and 
which data can be viewed by the standard OSM viewer. I think the standard OSM 
Viewer should only display with one standard rendering Rule. This standard 
rendering rule can(and should) be different for different scales. Maybe it 
would make sense to display all tags if you have a scale below 1:500. At 
these scales I would be even interesting/fun to see each bubblegum machine, 
postbox, Streetlight, garage-door, traffic-light, street-sign, ... ;-) But as 
you already said, it doesn't make too much sense to have too many different 
display option for which we have to hold different tiles.
Maybe sometime very very later we can start rendering base tiles and 
transparent additional tiles which then can be combined. But i think this is 
way in the future.


-- 
Jörg (Germany, Munich)

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