[OSM-talk] Error on boundaries + issues with Abkhazia/South Ossetia/disputed territories

[Tiziano D'Angelo]

Hello everyone,
I am new on this list, but active on talk-it since some time, so forgive me
if this has been already discussed here...
I've been looking at the Caucasus region in where I was recently and [1] I
noticed some anomalies:

- Azerbaijan border with Georgia, but it is not marked as country but region
boundary [2] with tag: *admin_level:* 2 *border_type:* nation
*boundary:*administrative
*left: country:* GE *name:* International Border - Georgia - Azerbaijan *right:
country:* AZ . Is it some error?
- The administrative boundary between some regions and autonomous republics
of North Caucasus was marked as country border [3] while it should be merely
an administrative one

- Depending on the points of view, the border Georgia / Abkhazia [4] now
marked as an administrative can be marked as country border. For example,
Kosovo is marked likewise (with a country border), although not recognized
internationally by the majority of countries (36% of the total recognize it)
and it isn't even listed on ISO-3166-1 / UN [5], as well as Abkhazia (4 UN
member states recognize it).
>From a "de facto" point of view (and for some countries "de jure") Abkhazia
is a fully independent state from Georgia (I noticed it personally while
there) and as far as the Georgians say, it is no longer under Georgia's
influence or control and it will be like that also in the future. What would
you say to a cartographic point of view? from a tourist point of view, for
example, it is a separate entity from Georgia (you pass a border control,
there is a visa...), so a tourist-oriented map would logically draw it as a
separate country.
Generally speaking about any kind of disputed terriories, is there any way
to keep both POV tagging boundaries as "Disputed" / "Recognized by Some
states"/"something else"?
Then, if we want to develop OSM in this country, it goes without saying that
if locals will see the boundaries as they are now (as part of Georgia
region, unrealistic and not corresponding to reality), they will never agree
to use OSM! ... while it would be reasonable to use OSM extensively, since
for example Google has no map of Abkhazia, and instead there's something
already on OSM.

- what is the standard for naming of places? What has to be put in name, in
int_name tags? Which is the scale of priority? local language I suppose...
so capital of Abkhazia, Sukhum, should be tagged as name=Аҟəа (local
abkhazian name) name:ru=Сухум name:ka= სოხუმი , int_name=Sukhum; Sukhumi ;
etc...
Is there a way to simultaneously display multiple names (like Google Maps
showing the name in Cyrillic and transliterated Russian or English version)?

Thanks

Cheers
Tiziano

[1] http://osm.org/go/zVFKP--
[2] http://osm.org/go/zUWINC--
[3] http://osm.org/go/zVSvI
[4] http://osm.org/go/x@MCdp-
[5]
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_United_Nations_Political_Boundaries
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