[OSM-talk] Naming disputes in Ukraine

[Alan Mintz]

At 2012-07-25 00:33, Frederik Ramm wrote:
>Hi,     I'd like to hear the opinion of others in OpenStreetMap about the 
>following situation that Data Working Group has been asked to mediate. The 
>official language in Ukraine is Ukrainian.
>...So, my questions to you are 1. The concrete question: Should all name 
>tag in the Crimea be in Russian (with appropriate name:uk tags of course), 
>even though the official language in Ukraine is Ukrainian? 2. The general 
>question: What exactly is the "local" language in an area - can we come up 
>with some rule of thumb that says "if X% of people in an area of at least 
>Y sq km use the language..." or so?

I would say the definition of "area" should be as local as is 
reasonable/possible. For many countries, this is certainly sub-national. In 
a given area, if the "vast majority" uses a given language, that language 
should be used/assumed for the "name" value. It would be good if we had 
some meta-data somewhere to define this, as well as other 
defaults/assumptions for an area (e.g. oneway=no except for 
junction=roundabout and highway=*_link, lanes, sidewalks, maxspeed). If 
there is no "vast majority" (say, less than 80%), I would suggest no "name" 
tag - only "name:xx" tags.

--
Alan Mintz <Alan_Mintz+OSM at Earthlink.net>