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

[Andy Mabbett]

[Resending, to this list]


On 27 May 2015 at 23:03, Alex Barth <alex at mapbox.com> wrote:

> OpenStreetMap is the spatial representation of the world - wouldn't it make
> sense then to also store the translations for locations in OpenStreetMap?

No. Wikidata exists because the Wikipedia community realised that it
is folly to store and maintain duplicate copies of the same data in
more than one location (in this case, Wikipedias in different
languages).

Not only is that wasteful - especially in terms of volunteer effort -
but it also results in de-synchronisation.

Instead, Wikidata was created to hold data which would then be used by
multiple Wikipedias (and sister Wikimedia projects), and made
available to third parties, of which OSM is one.

We simply don't have the spare volunteer capacity to needlessly
dupliate all that effort; even if it were the sensible thing to do,
which it is not.

-- 
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk