[OSM-talk] Business Building Conventions (new branch)

[Hillsman, Edward]

On 20/08/2009 04:53, David Earl wrote:

>On 20/08/2009 04:03, Andrew Ayre wrote:
>> Roy Wallace wrote:
>>>> If I draw the outline of a strip mall (a connected string of shops)
this
>>>> represents several businesses together. If I then put nodes on them
and
>>>> give the nodes names Mapnik won't render the names unless they are
>>>> amenities. But not all businesses are amenities.
>...
>> However, if business names don't appear on the online maps which most

>> people will use, I'm not sure how good an investment of my time it is
to 
>>   go around photographing buildings and adding the names. I want what
I 
>> do to benefit the most people.
>
>IN such circumstances I use building=... or landuse=retail to outline 
>the combined structure or area, and then use landuse=retail NODES
within 
>them to label each unit (I don't do it for everything, usually just the

>larger ones, but that's me being lazy rather than any particular
principle).
>
>The thing is, the Mapnik rendering does indeed render these (ditto 
>landuse=industrial to pick out individual industrial units in an
estate).
>
>Examples:
>http://osm.org/go/0ESQxVuz
>
>I think building=...+name=... is also rendered for building tags on 
>nodes, though that's less appropriate in these circumstances. Useful 
>though when you can't get or reasonably estimate the outline, but it's 
>obviously second best.
>
>David

Thank you all for this discussion. It has been very helpful to me
(living and mapping in a city full of strip malls). I concur that a way
to tag offices would be helpful.

Since this has been so helpful, I'd like to ask for advice on another
question. In an urban/suburban setting (Tampa, Florida, US), where
sidewalks are discontinuous (some blocks have them on both sides, some
blocks only on one, some on neither), what is the preferred way to map
and tag this? I have been tracing the actual sidewalks onto the map, but
I have recently discovered that it is possible to tag streets to add
"footway=left" or right or both, with the implication that if there is
no footway tag then there are no footways. Anyway, I would appreciate
comments and suggestions on the best way to handle this, especially in
the car-centric environment here.

Ed Hillsman