[OSM-talk] Tagging OSM objects with UUIDs

[John Smith]

On 8 June 2010 12:09, Anthony <osm at inbox.org> wrote:
> I'm not sure.  The description would be fairly freeform.  I can't think of
> anything else that would be as freeform as that.
>
> I call it a wiki but I imagine most of the data would be structured.  In
> fact, in many ways I think it'd be better structured than OSM data, which
> doesn't currently allow for arrays or sets or type checking.
>
> Not much different from http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/27940475,
> except that "edit" wouldn't require flash, and it'd be formatted a little
> better (*).  If the OSM database could better support structures, and
> especially arrays of structures, it could even use the OSM database for
> storage.  But I'm not sure that's going to happen.  For those things that
> are supported by the OSM database, the wiki would use the API.
>
> (*) For instance, instead of "addr:housenumber=411" and "addr:street=Elm
> Street", it'd say "Address: 411 Elm Street".

You might be confusing a couple of issues here, when you look at OSM
tags you are viewing a simplified database, that is the raw data, what
you are describing is presentation of that data in a more human
friendly way, this isn't the same thing as free form text.

I highly doubt anyone would seriously want to document, beyond what
already exists in the OSM DB, every possible object anyone would want
to link to, eg someone takes a picture of a lamp post because it looks
interesting for a photo and wants to link it to the OSM object that
might describe the location and height of the object.

If on the other hand the object is worth commenting on or further
describing, this is where something like wikipedia or freebase would
be useful, you link the wikipedia/freebase IDs to the OSM ID and then
you can write a three page essay on the object.

I might be wrong, but I don't think there is a specific need for free
form text but there is a need to link the text to a map object.