[OSM-talk] #Occupy camps in OSM?

[Alan McConchie]

Hi Frederik,

On Nov 8, 2011, at 5:34 AM, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> I was just pointing out that if a number of people decide to put up tents somewhere, that place might be a "camp" but not a "camp site", certainly not one in the sense of tourism=camp_site. (Hint: A camp site is still a camp site even when there are no tents.)

I appreciate your argument that tourism=camp_site might not be the correct tag. I would quibble about the distinction between "camp" and "camp_site"; the #occupy camps are not officially signed or recognized as camp sites, yet they may be so in terms of the on-the-ground rule. In most of the cases where camps have been cleared by police, the protestors have returned and erected new tents. So instead of camps, are they perhaps temporary/provisional/unofficial camp sites? 

It seems like the crux of the issue is whether the tourism=camp_site tag is meant to exclude all non-touristic camps and camp sites. Or is not relevant that this tag uses the "tourism" key? Couldn't it just as easily have used the leisure, amenity or landuse tag? 

> The mapping of an #occupy camp itself does not have a political aspect; what's there on the ground can be mapped. However, attracting above-par visibility to such a camp by purposefully mis-tagging it as a "tourism=camp_site" *does* have a political aspect, and would only be permissible if carried by a vast majority of the project as was the case with Haiti.

I disagree that this is a question about tagging for the renderer. I think the question is whether tourism=camp_site is used and interpreted broadly enough to include a protest camp. If it is interpreted loosely, then using that tag is not "attracting above-par visibility". Also, if we do choose new tags, (and assuming they get onto the mapnik rendering) I would hope that they would be no more or less visible than tourism=camp_site already is, so it's not an attempt to jump up in zoom levels. Personally I think there would be little harm in using the tourism key in this case, but others may disagree.

> I think the #occupy camps should be mapped in all detail, with special tags, and someone should take it upon them to make specialist maps where these tags are rendered. (Our best zoom level, 18, is not very suitable for camps anyway, you would want to have 19 or 20 to make a proper camp map.)

Good point. This alone might be a good enough reason to use a special rendering, or not use OSM altogether. 


Alan