[OSM-talk] Map Features / International
Frederik Ramm
frederik at remote.org
Tue Jul 31 11:24:22 BST 2007
Hi,
I think that our map features page is too English (or maybe too
German, depends on who edited it last...). Either we need to
encourage more national tagging, or we must start removing cultural
dependencies from Map Features (at the risk of making it less usable).
For example, there's the "shop" section, with an entry:
"shop=bakery: selling bread, cakes..."
I know that bakeries in Germany usually sell both bread and cakes. (I
think I remember that bakeries in the UK tend to sell funny stuff
with lots of meat inside as well... or was that in Cornwall only?)
But in France, you have a patisserie (seeling cakes) and a
boulangerie (selling bread).
So this is not about the *names* of things, it is not a simple matter
of translation; other countries have different *kinds* of shops (or,
more generally, amenities). Another example is the "pub/cafe/
restaurant" distinction that we're using. What is what? In Italy (at
least those little bits of Italy I have visited), the predominant
type of "cafe" is called a "bar" and must not be confused with the
German or English "bar" (where you would not normally have breakfast,
would you?)...
I'm not an expert at all in these "cultural" things, but it is
obvious to me that Map Features currently describes what's compatible
with those countries doing most of the mapping. Which is ok as long
as we make it very clear to everybody that they should please invent
new tags for their cultural idiosyncracies, e.g. the French must know
that just because we talk of a single type of "bakery" that doesn't
mean they should abandon their patisseries and boulangeries and force
them into a system that was designed by people who knew only German
or English bakeries. And so on.
Bye
Frederik
--
Frederik Ramm ## eMail frederik at remote.org ## N49°00.09' E008°23.33'
More information about the talk
mailing list