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

Arch Arch 7h3.arch at gmail.com
Fri May 29 09:45:56 UTC 2015


I don't think that's a good idea to try to solve the problems we're 
faced with by our current OSM data model by  setting up a second 
database. We need an improved data model which fits our needs.

Am 29.05.2015 um 11:28 schrieb Jo:
> We need our own OSMdata instance in between to describe real world 
> objects and concepts. And maybe we could even solve the ridiculous 
> amount of duplication we're experiencing at the moment.
>
> True, the editor software will have to be adapted to cope with merges 
> and splits, so the human editor can decide what OSM object(s) belong 
> to what real world object(s).
>
> Either that or we should start using relations more intelligently. But 
> they are heavyweight and supposedly they are also "complicated".
>
> Polyglot
>
> 2015-05-29 10:58 GMT+02:00 Martin Koppenhoefer <dieterdreist at gmail.com 
> <mailto:dieterdreist at gmail.com>>:
>
>
>     2015-05-28 23:00 GMT+02:00 Andy Mabbett <andy at pigsonthewing.org.uk
>     <mailto:andy at pigsonthewing.org.uk>>:
>
>         On 28 May 2015 at 09:50, Martin Koppenhoefer
>         <dieterdreist at gmail.com <mailto:dieterdreist at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>         > e.g. the "en:Spanish Steps" / "de:Spanische Treppe" are
>         > called "Scalinata di Trinità dei Monti" in the local
>         language (it is located
>         > at "piazza di Spagna", that's where the foreign name comes
>         from, while in
>         > Italian it is called after to church it leads to).
>         Naturally, OSM has the
>         > original name of this world famous monument, but Wikidata
>         hasn't.
>
>         It does now.
>
>
>
>     OK, this is one point for you, but it also proves my point:
>     wikidata at the moment is not sufficiently mature (IMHO) to
>     replace name tags in different languages in OSM. Of course you can
>     fix wikidata issues (if you understand how it is done, I haven't
>     had enough time yet to understand how to make edits like this, and
>     the fact that not all tags are shown to me (e.g. only 4 out of all
>     language labels, after I have explicitly clicked on "in more
>     languages")) doesn't help.
>
>     // sidenote:
>
>     Now I could link the wikidata object of the spanish steps to the
>     OSM object and get an Italian name. But I will not have an Italian
>     wikipedia article about it, because it is covered in the spanish
>     square (piazza di spagna) article in Italian. How would I ideally
>     procede now?
>
>     a) in wikidata link the article of the piazza di spagna (in
>     italian) to the wikidata object about the spanish steps?
>
>     a2) like a) but link to an anchor: Piazza_di_Spagna#La_scalinata ?
>
>     b) in wikipedia split the italian wikipedia article in 2, one for
>     the square and one for the steps?
>
>     c) in osm add an additional tag like
>     wikipedia:it=Piazza_di_Spagna#La_scalinata to the steps object?
>
>     d) something different...
>
>     //sidenote off
>
>
>         > If we were to massively use wikidata _instead of duplicating
>         some details
>         > from there also in our db_ we would have to improve wikidata
>         as well,
>
>         You'd be welcome to do so.  ...
>
>
>         > and impose our entity structure on them,
>
>         Really? Good luck with that.
>
>
>
>     what I meant, and what you do confirm below: if for instance there
>     is an object in wikidata which is an administrative entity and a
>     geographic place at the same time, but for OSM we'd need 2
>     distinct objects, we will have to split the wikidata object. This
>     could be done only if there wasn't resistance from other wikidata
>     users who might want to keep the current unmodified object because
>     it links better to wikipedia articles. We might introduce another
>     object that linked the split objects onto one, which could serve
>     for wikipedia articles, etc. but this is a much more complicated
>     procedure than changing tags in OSM alone.
>
>     We've always said that we wanted editing to be simple, so that we
>     can maximize the amount of available editors, but with the tight
>     integration of another dynamic dataset (for one of the core
>     competences we are dealing with: toponyms)
>
>
>
>         > or it won't work in some cases (and if it doesn't work in
>         some case, it doesn't work at all).
>
>         That is, of course, nonsense.
>
>
>
>     OK, let's say it is nonesense, because you can accept that a
>     solution works for most of the cases and try work around those
>     that don't work. Currently (all names in OSM) we don't have these
>     problems though.
>
>
>         > Another issue I see with wikidata is that it contains
>         information and
>         > details about spatial objects, but it doesn't contain the
>         geometry it refers
>         > to.
>
>         The geometry is in OSM, is it not? Why would Wikidata want to
>         replicate that?
>
>
>
>     IMHO you have to understand to which geometry you are referring
>     when you make edits, or you might break stuff without noticing it.
>     Wikidata editors would have to look at OSM geometries to ensure
>     that their edit maintains consistency, and OSM users would have to
>     check wikidata to see if editing something in a certain way (e.g.
>     merges or splits, adding tags, changing geometry) is OK or whether
>     they have to split the wikidata object and update the wikidata
>     link. It is not impossible, but it is an enormous amount of
>     complexity added, and it also augments the risk of
>     non-availability of the backend by 100% (because now we depend on
>     2 services and not on one).
>
>
>     I want
>
>         > to point out is that there seem to be different criteria
>         defined for
>         > different languages:
>
>         These descriptions aid users; they are not proscriptive. There are
>         also local and cultural variations. Just like "city" in OSM.
>
>
>
>     Maybe these are descriptions to aid in some regional wiki projects
>     and proscriptive rules in others like Germany, where rules rule?
>     Just like in OSM ;-)
>     It would rather confuse than aid me if the descriptions in some
>     language says something is foo and in another language they tell
>     me it is not foo.
>
>
>
>
>     TL;DR; wikidata is a gorgeous project, combining their knowledge
>     with ours is very promising. Still, in my opinion, for the current
>     state of where they are (and where the tools to combine both are),
>     I would _not remove tags_ from OSM just because the same
>     information might be available in wikidata.
>
>     Cheers,
>     Martin
>
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     talk mailing list
>     talk at openstreetmap.org <mailto:talk at openstreetmap.org>
>     https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> talk mailing list
> talk at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20150529/ecfa9739/attachment.html>


More information about the talk mailing list