[OSM-talk] Castles and Palaces

[Martin Koppenhoefer]

2009/6/4  <Ekkehart at gmx.de>:
>
> Hello!
>
> On the Wiki-Page for the tag historic=castle [1], a tagging scheme for castles, palaces and fortifications has appeared. Unfortunately, discussion on that page has died down. As I believe that the topic requires quite some more attention and the values seem to have appeared without a proposal or vote, I'd like to address it again.
>
> My main criticism on the suggested values like "castle_type=Burg" for a fortified castle is breaking OSM convention and using local language values even though in my opinion a proper English value can be found for all of the mentioned objects. I took the liberty of adding such values.
>
> I disagree with the argumentat that such tags were not scientifically accurate enough. Most commonly used tags have a mild degree of abstraction. E.g. there are considerable differences between a German Autobahn and a British Motorway, but still it is not "properly" tagged as highway=Autobahn.
>
> I consider the use of such local language values harmful in an international project - and completely unnecessary in this case.

there was some intensive discussion on this topic involving some
archeologists as well. There are some scientific activists in Germany
who like to contribute to OSM with their professional knowledge, who
confirmed, that "burg" ist a specific term with no English equivalent
(and says in professional context "burg" is used even in English
conferences to refer to this type of building).

cheers,
Martin