[OSM-talk] Trace type

[Andy Allan]

On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 4:22 PM, Ed Avis<eda at waniasset.com> wrote:

>>P.S. Currently there is a possibility to add "tags", but those are not
>>"predefined", there is no clear explanation how to use them etc.
>
> Exactly.  Saying 'just use tags' does not solve the problem.

Just use tags.

> There needs
> to be some agreed definition of what the tags mean, and a simple way for
> everyone to add them when uploading traces.

You can type tags into a box, that's a pretty simple way to add them

> I would suggest a series of checkboxes when uploading a trace file
>
>    * Method of transport used (tick all that apply)
>      [ ]  motorcar
>      [ ]  bicycle
>      [ ]  foot (along road / street)
>
> and so on.  These could be turned into tags for storage in the database, as long
> as everyone agrees on what tags to use.

"As long as everyone agrees" aahahahahahaha

Anyway, you're going about it the wrong way. The way to come to
consensus about what tags people should use is to first build a
convention around using them. So you should think about consuming the
tags (e.g. colour highlighting anything tagged "car" in red in JOSM)
and then more people will tag them with the correct tags.

I'm amazed that anyone experienced in OSM is proposing *not* using
tags and getting the order of "usage (leads to) convention (leads to)
documentation (leads to) presets" back to front - you don't start with
presets in order to force convention.

Final comment - make an app to upload GPX traces to the API using
OAuth, and specify any tags you want using any interface you design.
Call it Awesome GPX uploader or make it a JOSM plugin or something.
I've even put some ruby scripts for uploading traces as one of the
OAuth examples at http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OAuth/Examples

Cheers,
Andy