[OSM-talk] OSMF makes a political decision where should be a technical solution?

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

On 23.11.2018 01:42, Yuri Astrakhan wrote:
> One idea (perhaps this should go into a separete thread):

There already is a separate thread over on the tagging list started just
a couple of weeks ago. I suggest that would be a good place to continue
the discussion.

Being able to map different claims is certainly interesting, in so far
as they are verifiable (which surprisingly often is not the case). But
all that's already been mentioned over at
https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2018-October/040333.html

I fear that this is only "kicking the can down the road" though because
we'd likely have - just as we have with names - one "default" set of
boundaries where we say "that's the one you get if you don't ask for any
particular one", and the fight would then be on which one that is going
to be. And judging from how this decision is blown out of proportion
("OMG OSM SUPPORTS TERRORISTS!") I am sure that people would display
exactly the same outrage when discussing which one of a large set of
mapped claims gets the "default" flag.

>  I especially appreciate 4.2 -- the fact that this decision is very bad for the data users -- 

I think you have misread Victor's 4.2 which essentially says that data
users currently have to make up their own boundaries anyway and that
therefore this decision does not *help* them. He does not say that it is
good or bad, just that it does not improve an already-bad situation.

As for whether

> DWG has gone too far into the political landscape - something I hope it did not intend to do.

let me quote from the DWG statement - again:

"The Data Working Group takes no stance on if Russia's control is legal
or not, as that is not within our scope."

The DWG has simply applied a policy that has existed in OSM since before
Crimea's annexation. That policy was written by LWG and approved by the
OSMF board in 2013 and has been applied many, many times since and it
has generally worked well for OSM. It certainly can be discussed and
improved but that needs to be on a general level, and not tacking on an
"Ukraine exemption" to the rule.

Bye
Frederik

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