[OSM-talk] Can wikidata links help fight name inflation?

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 05/28/2015 10:19 AM, Paweł Paprota wrote:
> But what exactly is the problem that you're trying to solve with this
> idea? 

I think that OSM is a database of local knowledge and culture, not of
remote knowledge and culture added from afar. Therefore I find it out of
place for OSM to see that objects like the London node receive a
constant flow of edits from people whose only link to London is that
they happen to speak a language in which London has a different name.

I feel that there are two totally different planes of editing - one is
what's on the ground in London, mapped by people in London, and the
other is what name the Martian civilization has chosen to give to
London, something in which Londoners have no say whatsoever.

The name:xx tags are, if you will, the only tags for which the local
mappers are not, and cannot be, the ultimate authority. And that's what
makes name:xx stick out like a sore thumb for me; in my mind, OSM is
first and foremost a project that lets the people control their map,
instead of being told and labelled from afar.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"