Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-10 Thread Martin Koppenhoefer
2009/10/8 Shaun McDonald :
> There is nothing wrong with mapping each lane even when it is two way, as
> that is effectively what it is as I doubt you'd be allowed to do a u-turn on
> most of those examples.

There is continuous discussions about this, and generally we agreed
that you shouldn't do it in absence of a physical divider. E.g. you
could do a U-Turn agains the traffic-rules, or you could be not
affected by traffic rules (police, ambulance,...)

cheers,
Martin

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-08 Thread Shaun McDonald


On 8 Oct 2009, at 10:39, Richard Fairhurst wrote:



Gervase Markham wrote:

oneway=no might be useful in the very rare case that mappers for
some reason keep marking a road as oneway, but it's actually not!
But I'd expect a note= to be more appropriate. Other than that, I
agree it and noexit=no seem pointless.


oneway=no is useful for highway types which would usually imply  
oneway=yes:

highway=motorway, highway=motorway_link and junction=roundabout. The
southern A601(M), that bonkers sliproad on the M50, and (depending on
interpretation) the Swindon Magic Roundabout are UK examples of each  
case

where two-way traffic is permitted.



There is nothing wrong with mapping each lane even when it is two way,  
as that is effectively what it is as I doubt you'd be allowed to do a  
u-turn on most of those examples.


Shaun



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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-08 Thread Dave F.
Richard Fairhurst wrote:
> http://www.pathetic.org.uk/
What a superb site. What t'internet was invented for. :-)
 

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-08 Thread Richard Bullock
>> oneway=no is useful for highway types which would usually imply 
>> oneway=yes:
>> highway=motorway, highway=motorway_link and junction=roundabout. The
>> southern A601(M), that bonkers sliproad on the M50, and (depending on
>> interpretation) the Swindon Magic Roundabout are UK examples of each case
>> where two-way traffic is permitted.
>>
> Richard
>
> Do you know where are the Motorway Ends signs are located in you examples?
>
> OS define the links as M*  classification, but Google shows them as A* & 
> B*.
>
> http://osm.org/go/evhVzyiB
>
> http://osm.org/go/euwqKRNL
>
Google has it incorrect. The southern A601(M) is definitely (M)

http://www.pathetic.org.uk/current/a601m/photos/pages/Dsc00054_jpg.shtml

Richard 


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-08 Thread Richard Fairhurst

Dave F. wrote:
> Do you know where are the Motorway Ends signs are located in you examples?
> OS define the links as M*  classification, but Google shows them as A* &
> B*.
> http://osm.org/go/evhVzyiB
> http://osm.org/go/euwqKRNL

On the M50 (I was originally thinking about j3, which is our regular route
from Charlbury to South Wales, but I guess it applies to j1 too) the whole
slip-road is definitely under motorway regulation and signed as such. The
highway design principle is that if a road leads inexorably to a motorway,
it must itself be a motorway - otherwise non-motorway traffic will find
itself stuck with nowhere to go. So Google is wrong, surprise surprise.

I don't know the A601(M) that well - I've only been there once. But
http://www.pathetic.org.uk/current/a601m/ is pretty clear that it's all
motorway, too.

> I interpret the the Magic Roundabout as separate lanes as there are 
> central reservations. Which, I believe, is how you mapped it (?)
> http://osm.org/go/eumbs5che--

Yep, absolutely. Hemel Hempstead would have been a better example.

cheers
Richard
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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-08 Thread John F. Eldredge
Using the URL seems reasonable, since the URL is unique and the page title 
likely isn't unique.

-- 
John F. Eldredge -- j...@jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to 
think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

-Original Message-
From: "Dave F." 
Date: Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:43:40 
Cc: 
Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

Richard Fairhurst wrote:
> Gervase Markham wrote:
>
>> e.g. maxspeed=no is the same as maxspeed=infinite
Although technically correct (some autobahns?) it seems positively
dangerous to label as such. (no).

> oneway=no is useful for highway types which would usually imply oneway=yes:
> highway=motorway, highway=motorway_link and junction=roundabout. The
> southern A601(M), that bonkers sliproad on the M50, and (depending on
> interpretation) the Swindon Magic Roundabout are UK examples of each case
> where two-way traffic is permitted.
>
Richard

Do you know where are the Motorway Ends signs are located in you examples?

OS define the links as M*  classification, but Google shows them as A* & B*.

http://osm.org/go/evhVzyiB

http://osm.org/go/euwqKRNL

I interpret the the Magic Roundabout as separate lanes as there are
central reservations.
Which, I believe, is how you mapped it (?)
http://osm.org/go/eumbs5che--

I notice in the relation for the MR, the wiki tag has the title of the
relevant page.
I've been using the URL. Is there a reason I shouldn't?

Cheers
Dave F.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-08 Thread Dave F.
Richard Fairhurst wrote:
> Gervase Markham wrote:
>   
>> e.g. maxspeed=no is the same as maxspeed=infinite
Although technically correct (some autobahns?) it seems positively 
dangerous to label as such. (no).

> oneway=no is useful for highway types which would usually imply oneway=yes:
> highway=motorway, highway=motorway_link and junction=roundabout. The
> southern A601(M), that bonkers sliproad on the M50, and (depending on
> interpretation) the Swindon Magic Roundabout are UK examples of each case
> where two-way traffic is permitted.
>   
Richard

Do you know where are the Motorway Ends signs are located in you examples?

OS define the links as M*  classification, but Google shows them as A* & B*.

http://osm.org/go/evhVzyiB

http://osm.org/go/euwqKRNL

I interpret the the Magic Roundabout as separate lanes as there are 
central reservations.
Which, I believe, is how you mapped it (?)
http://osm.org/go/eumbs5che--

I notice in the relation for the MR, the wiki tag has the title of the 
relevant page.
I've been using the URL. Is there a reason I shouldn't?

Cheers
Dave F.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-08 Thread Richard Fairhurst

Gervase Markham wrote:
> oneway=no might be useful in the very rare case that mappers for 
> some reason keep marking a road as oneway, but it's actually not! 
> But I'd expect a note= to be more appropriate. Other than that, I 
> agree it and noexit=no seem pointless.

oneway=no is useful for highway types which would usually imply oneway=yes:
highway=motorway, highway=motorway_link and junction=roundabout. The
southern A601(M), that bonkers sliproad on the M50, and (depending on
interpretation) the Swindon Magic Roundabout are UK examples of each case
where two-way traffic is permitted.

cheers
Richard
-- 
View this message in context: 
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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-08 Thread Gervase Markham
On 08/10/09 01:19, Martin Koppenhoefer wrote:
> oh yes, there are. oneway=no, maxspeed=no, drinkable=no, building=no,
> area=no, noexit=no (really, it is just used 803 times, but we could
> add it to millions of ways), access=no,  actually many tags do
> have some no-values in the db, also if it doesn't make much sense in
> many cases.

OK, I should have been more careful in what I said. When I said "no-one 
has genuinely suggested", I mean that no-one has put forward a proposal 
which has received significant levels of support.

But having said that, some of the examples you list above are actually 
positive pieces of information, not denotations of a positive lack.

e.g. maxspeed=no is the same as maxspeed=infinite
  drinkable=no is the same as undrinkable=yes

oneway=no might be useful in the very rare case that mappers for some 
reason keep marking a road as oneway, but it's actually not! But I'd 
expect a note= to be more appropriate. Other than that, I agree it and 
noexit=no seem pointless.

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-07 Thread Martin Koppenhoefer
2009/10/6 Gervase Markham :
> The "swimming pool" point is a slippery slope argument, but in fact the
> slope isn't at all slippery. Names are different to swimming pools.
> AFAIK, no-one has genuinely suggested swimming_pool=no, or in fact any
> other =no type thing apart from names.

oh yes, there are. oneway=no, maxspeed=no, drinkable=no, building=no,
area=no, noexit=no (really, it is just used 803 times, but we could
add it to millions of ways), access=no,  actually many tags do
have some no-values in the db, also if it doesn't make much sense in
many cases.

cheers,
Martin

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-07 Thread John F. Eldredge
The general pattern in the USA is that roads on public land tend to be named; 
roads on private land may or may not be named, according to the wishes of the 
land-owner.  Short service roads, such as to connect a public road to a parking 
lot, or roads within a farm, are particularly unlikely to be named.

-- 
John F. Eldredge -- j...@jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to 
think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

-Original Message-
From: Gervase Markham 
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:34:50 
To: 
Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

On 06/10/09 18:19, John Smith wrote:
> I have no idea about Europe/England to be honest, never been in any
> European countries.

Oops, sorry for the assumption there.

> Most roads in Australia tend to be named, even some basic concrete
> slab colvets that aren't even real bridges get named.

OK. The same is not true in many other countries.

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-07 Thread Gervase Markham
On 06/10/09 19:15, DavidD wrote:
> If you have 10 people in the same area chasing an unnamed road then a
> noname tag isn't going to solve the actual problem. A road in OSM that
> has been surveyed by a single person is tagged identically to a road
> that has a dozen gps tracks and has been checked by several people.

True. But at the moment, a road with no name which has been surveyed by 
no people (e.g. traced from aerial imagery) is tagged the same as one 
which has been surveyed by one person.

I agree there is a certain difference between being surveyed by 1 person 
and being surveyed by 10 people. But there's a much larger difference 
between being surveyed by 0 people and surveyed by 1 person.

You seem to be advocating using no-name roads as some sort of bait to 
lure mappers into the area so they'll check other nearby work in 
passing, while finding out for the 9th time that the road actually does 
have no name :-)

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-07 Thread Gervase Markham
On 06/10/09 18:19, John Smith wrote:
> I have no idea about Europe/England to be honest, never been in any
> European countries.

Oops, sorry for the assumption there.

> Most roads in Australia tend to be named, even some basic concrete
> slab colvets that aren't even real bridges get named.

OK. The same is not true in many other countries.

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-07 Thread John Smith
2009/10/7 Dave F. :
> Not necessarily more useful, but give a general idea of how the data was
> collected, yes. Unfortunately there's more to the accuracy of a GPX
> recording than the accuracy of the chip. Such as number of lock on
> satellites, weather, & geography

The number of sats doesn't matter as much as how far apart they are,
I'm not sure if the weather you are thinking of would have as much of
an effect as you think it would, unpredicatable changes in the
ionosphere is another matter but I doubt you can see these. Number of
sunspots, since it's an indication of output from the sun, of late,
well last couple of years there has been less and less activity/output
from the sun.

Also it's not just about the accuracy of a chip, but also the
sensitivity, knowing what device would also give you an idea of the
antenna as well, so yes knowing what device, not what chip, recorded a
track would be useful.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-07 Thread Dave F.
John Smith wrote:
> 2009/10/7 Dave F. :
>   
>> The more uploaded GPX traces/checks of a route the better. Surely?
>> 
>
> It would be more useful to know what created the traces also, some
> units are bound to be better than others and knowing this you would be
> able to weight the tracks rather than treat them all as equal.
>
>
>   
Not necessarily more useful, but give a general idea of how the data was 
collected, yes. Unfortunately there's more to the accuracy of a GPX 
recording than the accuracy of the chip. Such as number of lock on 
satellites, weather, & geography

Cheers
Dave F..



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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread John Smith
2009/10/7 Dave F. :
> The more uploaded GPX traces/checks of a route the better. Surely?

It would be more useful to know what created the traces also, some
units are bound to be better than others and knowing this you would be
able to weight the tracks rather than treat them all as equal.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Dave F.
Gervase Markham wrote:
> On 06/10/09 15:18, Dave Stubbs wrote:
>   
>> a) what are you actually marking?
>>   - no name in OSM -- we know that already
>>   - the mapper didn't find a name -- so we shouldn't check again?
>> 
>
> Probably not, no. Just as when a mapper adds a postbox, someone else 
> doesn't think "he's added a postbox. I should go and check that there's 
> actually a postbox there". 
Yes! We should!!
I've seen postboxes, shops, pubs & restaurants placed on the wrong road 
let a lone in the incorrect place on the right road!
I don't even trust my own mapping (especially my GPS recording) & would 
welcome people checking my data.
I'm gob-smacked by an attitude I've seen in OSM of believing blindly 
that the first & only trace of a route is automatically spot on!!

This laissez faire attitude to accuracy within OSM astounds me.

The more uploaded GPX traces/checks of a route the better. Surely?



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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread John Smith
2009/10/7 DavidD :
> 2009/10/6 John Smith :
>
>> Yes and keep it to yourself, don't bother telling anyone else since
>> they really want to waste their time finding out there is no name,a
>> after the 10th person does this I'm sure someone has a right to be
>> upset.
>
> If you have 10 people in the same area chasing an unnamed road then a
> noname tag isn't going to solve the actual problem. A road in OSM that
> has been surveyed by a single person is tagged identically to a road
> that has a dozen gps tracks and has been checked by several people.
> The fact that a road has no name is irrelevant. A road with a name is
> also potentially incorrect and needs to be checked.
> Currently those 10 people will end up checking the same areas multiple
> times while some areas don't get checked at all. The problem is that
> there is no way to communicate the "verification level" or an object
> in the database. If the 10 people want to verify the data in an
> efficient and systematic way then they they need to organise between
> themselves and store information outside the database. It's a problem
> that needs a general solution not a single tag that works in a very
> specific case.

That's assuming they aren't just doing this as a side thing as they
travel about, potentially going out of their way to get the name of a
street that has no name or no street sign, so communicating that is
important beyond any local grouping.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread DavidD
2009/10/6 John Smith :

> Yes and keep it to yourself, don't bother telling anyone else since
> they really want to waste their time finding out there is no name,a
> after the 10th person does this I'm sure someone has a right to be
> upset.

If you have 10 people in the same area chasing an unnamed road then a
noname tag isn't going to solve the actual problem. A road in OSM that
has been surveyed by a single person is tagged identically to a road
that has a dozen gps tracks and has been checked by several people.
The fact that a road has no name is irrelevant. A road with a name is
also potentially incorrect and needs to be checked.
Currently those 10 people will end up checking the same areas multiple
times while some areas don't get checked at all. The problem is that
there is no way to communicate the "verification level" or an object
in the database. If the 10 people want to verify the data in an
efficient and systematic way then they they need to organise between
themselves and store information outside the database. It's a problem
that needs a general solution not a single tag that works in a very
specific case.

-- 
DavidD

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread John Smith
2009/10/7 Gervase Markham :
> On 06/10/09 05:37, John Smith wrote:
>> It sounds like he made it to see which roads needed surveying to
>> acquire their name, however I'm still confused why people use
>> noname=yes when the street does have a name but not a street sign, as
>> I posted before there is actually a few streets near here on the golf
>> course which really aren't named, the buildings a just unit numbers.
>
> If you know the street has a name but there's no sign, remove the noname
> tag and put the name in :-)

My point was to distinguish streets with no name, verses streets with
no sign, due to slack councils or vandelism or what not.

> That seems like a fairly European-city-centric view to me. There are
> loads of unnamed roads across rural England, across Europe, and in other
> countries around the world. And not all of them are such because their
> sign has been vandalised.

I have no idea about Europe/England to be honest, never been in any
European countries. Also euro-centric views tend to clash on occasion
with Australian views.

Most roads in Australia tend to be named, even some basic concrete
slab colvets that aren't even real bridges get named.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread John Smith
2009/10/7 Gervase Markham :
> On 06/10/09 16:49, Jonathan Bennett wrote:
>> It's useful *as a guide*, or a tool. What some people seem to be unable
>> to grasp is that *it's OK for a road to appear in red on NoNames*. You
>> don't have to eliminate them completely. It's just a guide, not a gospel.
>
> A road appearing in red means that there's a possibility of there being
> missing information in the map. In one sense, of course that's OK. The
> map has missing information all over the place. But what do we do with
> missing information we know is missing? We try and put it in, to make
> the map better and more complete.
>
> Basically, opposing the noname stuff is saying "you need to keep in your
> head a list of all the roads in your area which genuinely have no name,
> in order to prevent yourself visiting them again to add the name in".
> And every mapper in an area has to do that. Isn't that right?

Yes and keep it to yourself, don't bother telling anyone else since
they really want to waste their time finding out there is no name,
after the 10th person does this I'm sure someone has a right to be
upset.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Dave Stubbs
On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 5:48 PM, Gervase Markham  wrote:
> On 06/10/09 15:18, Dave Stubbs wrote:
>> a) what are you actually marking?
>>   - no name in OSM -- we know that already
>>   - the mapper didn't find a name -- so we shouldn't check again?
>
> Probably not, no. Just as when a mapper adds a postbox, someone else
> doesn't think "he's added a postbox. I should go and check that there's
> actually a postbox there". I agree that in this case you are noting a
> negative, not a positive, and that's more unusual. But I think the same
> principle applies. You trust other mappers to map sanely unless there's
> evidence to the contrary.
>
>>   - the road definitely hasn't got a name -- it definitely hasn't got a
>> swimming pool in the middle of it either, but I'm not putting
>> swimming_pool=no
>
> Right. But most roads have names, and names are useful for navigation.
> Names being missing when they shouldn't be is therefore bad.

Right, that's why we highlight them at all.
It doesn't then follow that names being missing when they should be is
also bad, which is the point here.

>
> The "swimming pool" point is a slippery slope argument, but in fact the
> slope isn't at all slippery. Names are different to swimming pools.
> AFAIK, no-one has genuinely suggested swimming_pool=no, or in fact any
> other =no type thing apart from names.

I agree, simming_pool=yes, incline=yes would definitely be a slippery slope.
But actually yes, they have suggested other tags for no. Examples
include the language variants so noname:es=yes, refs, to entirely
generic systems of tagging designed to specify any tag you like as
deliberately not put on.

In general we do not tag negatives, you regard name as somehow special
in this regard which is of course up to you, but I don't.

>
>>   - mappers don't go looking for unnamed streets that definitely have
>> no name -- well, whatever, they can put the post boxes and address
>> data in while they're there.
>
> Except that many people like to map with a method that gets the map to a
> base level of usefulness (say, all roads present and correctly named)
> across an area first, and then add details later.

Sure, but if you're chasing a single unnamed road then you've already
hit that level of completion anyway. Obviously if you don't want to
map that extra level of detail you don't have to, but hey, what else
you going to do :-)

> [snip]
>
> What I don't get is why people opposed to marking noname roads as noname
> actually mind. What offends you about tags you don't care about?

Personally, nothing. As I said YMMV, there are different opinions, tag
how you want.

Russ asked for a decision to be made. I made it. He asked for an
explanation, I gave it. And I'm almost certain he doesn't agree, but
then that's what happens when you ask for someone else's advice :-)

Dave

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Gervase Markham
On 06/10/09 16:49, Jonathan Bennett wrote:
> It's useful *as a guide*, or a tool. What some people seem to be unable
> to grasp is that *it's OK for a road to appear in red on NoNames*. You
> don't have to eliminate them completely. It's just a guide, not a gospel.

A road appearing in red means that there's a possibility of there being 
missing information in the map. In one sense, of course that's OK. The 
map has missing information all over the place. But what do we do with 
missing information we know is missing? We try and put it in, to make 
the map better and more complete.

Basically, opposing the noname stuff is saying "you need to keep in your 
head a list of all the roads in your area which genuinely have no name, 
in order to prevent yourself visiting them again to add the name in". 
And every mapper in an area has to do that. Isn't that right?

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Gervase Markham
On 06/10/09 05:37, John Smith wrote:
> It sounds like he made it to see which roads needed surveying to
> acquire their name, however I'm still confused why people use
> noname=yes when the street does have a name but not a street sign, as
> I posted before there is actually a few streets near here on the golf
> course which really aren't named, the buildings a just unit numbers.

If you know the street has a name but there's no sign, remove the noname 
tag and put the name in :-)

> Anything without a street sign should be reported to someone in local
> government, they may not be aware that their sign has been
> damaged/destroyed, and to ask them for the name, there is 2 streets
> with vandalised signs I keep meaning to annoy council about here.

That seems like a fairly European-city-centric view to me. There are 
loads of unnamed roads across rural England, across Europe, and in other 
countries around the world. And not all of them are such because their 
sign has been vandalised.

Or have I missed your point?

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Gervase Markham
On 06/10/09 15:18, Dave Stubbs wrote:
> a) what are you actually marking?
>   - no name in OSM -- we know that already
>   - the mapper didn't find a name -- so we shouldn't check again?

Probably not, no. Just as when a mapper adds a postbox, someone else 
doesn't think "he's added a postbox. I should go and check that there's 
actually a postbox there". I agree that in this case you are noting a 
negative, not a positive, and that's more unusual. But I think the same 
principle applies. You trust other mappers to map sanely unless there's 
evidence to the contrary.

>   - the road definitely hasn't got a name -- it definitely hasn't got a
> swimming pool in the middle of it either, but I'm not putting
> swimming_pool=no

Right. But most roads have names, and names are useful for navigation. 
Names being missing when they shouldn't be is therefore bad.

The "swimming pool" point is a slippery slope argument, but in fact the 
slope isn't at all slippery. Names are different to swimming pools. 
AFAIK, no-one has genuinely suggested swimming_pool=no, or in fact any 
other =no type thing apart from names.

>   - mappers don't go looking for unnamed streets that definitely have
> no name -- well, whatever, they can put the post boxes and address
> data in while they're there.

Except that many people like to map with a method that gets the map to a 
base level of usefulness (say, all roads present and correctly named) 
across an area first, and then add details later.

> c) what does it actually tell you if not present?
>   - the road has a name, but we don't know what it is
 >   - we don't know if the road has a name or not
 >   - hasn't been mapped

(These three are basically the same.)

Yes - so go look, and add it, or add the noname tag.

>   - the user who mapped it doesn't care for no names tags

That may also be true, but hopefully someone will put one in, and stop 
lots of mappers visiting it to "complete" (to a certain level of detail) 
the map in that area.

What I don't get is why people opposed to marking noname roads as noname 
actually mind. What offends you about tags you don't care about?

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Jonathan Bennett
Gervase Markham wrote:
> So why did you make the noname map in the first place, if it's not 
> important? Have you changed your mind about its usefulness?

It's useful *as a guide*, or a tool. What some people seem to be unable
to grasp is that *it's OK for a road to appear in red on NoNames*. You
don't have to eliminate them completely. It's just a guide, not a gospel.

-- 
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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Dave Stubbs
On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 2:10 PM, Russ Nelson  wrote:
> Dave Stubbs writes:
>  > I was convinced otherwise by some very persuasive arguments and now
>  > think it's completely not worth doing and not at all important.
>
> I'm not convinced.  Could you share them?
>

a) what are you actually marking?
 - no name in OSM -- we know that already
 - the mapper didn't find a name -- so we shouldn't check again?
 - the road definitely hasn't got a name -- it definitely hasn't got a
swimming pool in the middle of it either, but I'm not putting
swimming_pool=no
 - you don't want validators checking this

b) what are you actually trying to achieve?
 - mappers don't go looking for unnamed streets that definitely have
no name -- well, whatever, they can put the post boxes and address
data in while they're there. If a street has a post box, addresses,
all the shops, amenities and power cables then I'm sure eventually the
next mapper will realise what's going on. plus you can add a note tag
if you want.
 - a nice orange free map -- go look at the normal layer then
 - an "error" free map -- well, despite what the validator tells you,
road without name is not actually an error, just potentially unlikely
in western europe at least.

c) what does it actually tell you if not present?
 - the road has a name, but we don't know what it is
 - we don't know if the road has a name or not
 - the user who mapped it doesn't care for no names tags
 - hasn't been mapped

d) does it help the original point of the no names map?
 - no, not really -- the no names map was primarily invented to act as
a metric of mappedness for areas that had been thoroughly traced from
Yahoo imagery. Blocks of orange still stand out, and as most streets
in London are named, that's not distracting from the task. That might
not be true everywhere, but I'm guessing it's true most places that no
names maps are useful metrics at all.

So in summary, the arguments against are that you don't know what
you're trying to mark, you don't really have a good reason, and it
doesn't tell you very much. YMMV obviously and there are other
opinions out there.

Dave

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Russ Nelson
Dave Stubbs writes:
 > I was convinced otherwise by some very persuasive arguments and now
 > think it's completely not worth doing and not at all important.

I'm not convinced.  Could you share them?

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Russ Nelson
Valent Turkovic writes:
 > On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:17:37 +1000, John Smith wrote:
 > 
 > > I thought this was anything goes, why are you dictating something can't
 > > be done?
 > 
 > I'm also puzzled why it can't be done by a comitee elected BY OSM 
 > mappers?!? Why not?

It could ... but that committee would need to establish a reputation,
and SteveC already has one.  It's quite possible, and even likely,
that he would delegate the actual decision-making to someone(s) else.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Dave Stubbs
On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 9:58 PM, Gervase Markham  wrote:
> On 05/10/09 11:04, Dave Stubbs wrote:
>> As the person whose first came up with a no-names map for London
>> (well, actually it was a named map of London, turned into a nonames
>> map on SteveC's suggestion), I have an *official leadership
>> announcement* to make:
>>
>> There shall be no tagging of unnamed roads. It is not important. They
>> show up on the no-names map -- big deal -- its a mapping aid not a
>> holy grail of "there shall be no highlighted roads". Just deal with
>> it.
>
> So why did you make the noname map in the first place, if it's not
> important? Have you changed your mind about its usefulness?
>


As a mapping aid, to find large chunks of unnamed roads from traced
aerial imagery etc. Single roads were never really the intended
target, not for me anyway. I originally thought a noname like tag
would be useful and should be implemented, but I was convinced
otherwise by some very persuasive arguments and now think it's
completely not worth doing and not at all important.

Dave

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Nigel Magnay
> Wikipedia is not a bureaucracy, but you can't start writing nonsense or
> material that is not "encyclopedia type" texts. For example you can't
> start writing manuals there, you will be kicked out right away.
>

That's *exactly the same* problem though.

Who decides what is "encyclopedic" or "nonsense"? Not everyone will
agree - hence the existence of Deletionpedia.

Tags clearly need namespaces. It's the only way this is going to work,
keep everyone happy, and stand a chance of producing some kind of
consistent data.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Valent Turkovic
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:33:40 +0100, Jonathan Bennett wrote:

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_bureaucracy
> for what Another Plaice thinks of that idea.

Wikipedia is not a bureaucracy, but you can't start writing nonsense or 
material that is not "encyclopedia type" texts. For example you can't 
start writing manuals there, you will be kicked out right away.



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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Valent Turkovic
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 20:29:30 -0400, Russ Nelson wrote:

> That's okay, too.  What I want, what I REALLY want, is for SteveC to be
> able to exercise leadership without being told that he's evil for doing
> so.

Why only him? Let's choose a few people we all trust and let them come to 
a agreement.



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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-06 Thread Valent Turkovic
On Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:17:37 +1000, John Smith wrote:

> I thought this was anything goes, why are you dictating something can't
> be done?

I'm also puzzled why it can't be done by a comitee elected BY OSM 
mappers?!? Why not?



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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-05 Thread John Smith
2009/10/6 Gervase Markham :
> On 05/10/09 11:04, Dave Stubbs wrote:
>> As the person whose first came up with a no-names map for London
>> (well, actually it was a named map of London, turned into a nonames
>> map on SteveC's suggestion), I have an *official leadership
>> announcement* to make:
>>
>> There shall be no tagging of unnamed roads. It is not important. They
>> show up on the no-names map -- big deal -- its a mapping aid not a
>> holy grail of "there shall be no highlighted roads". Just deal with
>> it.
>
> So why did you make the noname map in the first place, if it's not
> important? Have you changed your mind about its usefulness?

It sounds like he made it to see which roads needed surveying to
acquire their name, however I'm still confused why people use
noname=yes when the street does have a name but not a street sign, as
I posted before there is actually a few streets near here on the golf
course which really aren't named, the buildings a just unit numbers.

Anything without a street sign should be reported to someone in local
government, they may not be aware that their sign has been
damaged/destroyed, and to ask them for the name, there is 2 streets
with vandalised signs I keep meaning to annoy council about here.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-05 Thread Gervase Markham
On 05/10/09 11:04, Dave Stubbs wrote:
> As the person whose first came up with a no-names map for London
> (well, actually it was a named map of London, turned into a nonames
> map on SteveC's suggestion), I have an *official leadership
> announcement* to make:
>
> There shall be no tagging of unnamed roads. It is not important. They
> show up on the no-names map -- big deal -- its a mapping aid not a
> holy grail of "there shall be no highlighted roads". Just deal with
> it.

So why did you make the noname map in the first place, if it's not 
important? Have you changed your mind about its usefulness?

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-05 Thread Matt Amos
russ and i had a useful chat on IRC late last night and i think we've
cleared up the misunderstanding that lies at the root of this thread.
(russ - please correct me if i've misreported anything here).
apologies to anyone who's getting really tired of this thread.
hopefully we're at or near the end now.

On 10/4/09, Russ Nelson  wrote:
>  > you asked why people are thinking that you're in favour of people
>  > being told what to do. your answer appears to confirm that, yes;
>  > you're in favour of people being told what to do.
>
> It appears to me as if your "being told what to do" should be
> interpreted as coercion, but I've repeatedly said that leadership in a
> voluntary organization is not coercion.  How many times do I have to
> tell you that it's NOT POSSIBLE TO COERCE VOLUNTEERS  Why do I
> have to shout to be heard?

the misunderstanding here came from different interpretations of the
word "decide". my reading of it was the meaning "final, authoritative
judgement", but russ' intended meaning was different, something more
like "give advice, and have it listened-to" (my words). for this
definition of "decide" i'm in complete agreement with russ; steve
should be able to give advice and have it listened to.

russ had some good guidelines for appropriately resolving tagging
debates (slightly paraphrased):
1) if it's an issue where the community hasn't been able to decide,
they might need a decision/advice.
2) if one of the schemas preserves enough information to be
transformed into the others at some future date, use that one.
3) it's better to keep mapping and tagging than argue about tagging.

there was some discussion of whether voting is a good way of resolving
anything. but that's a whole other debate, which i'd rather leave for
another day ;-)

cheers,

matt

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-05 Thread Matt Amos
On Mon, Oct 5, 2009 at 11:33 AM, Martin Koppenhoefer
 wrote:
> 2009/10/4 Russ Nelson :
> ...that he's conducting bizarre breeding
>> experiments on cute little animals.  Basically, SteveC doesn't find
>> this teasing at all funny.
>
> what's this breeding stuff about? Can anyone point to a relevant page?

it's just a little in-joke.
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/legal-talk/2009-March/002236.html

cheers,

matt

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-05 Thread Martin Koppenhoefer
2009/10/4 Russ Nelson :
...that he's conducting bizarre breeding
> experiments on cute little animals.  Basically, SteveC doesn't find
> this teasing at all funny.

what's this breeding stuff about? Can anyone point to a relevant page?

Cheers,
Martin

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-05 Thread Dave Stubbs
On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 4:24 AM, Russ Nelson  wrote:
> Matt Amos writes:
>  > forcing all mappers, editors and renderers to support it?
>
> Why do people keep saying that I want to use force?  From where do
> they get this idea?  Have I ever suggested the use of force?  Gun,
> knife, sword, empty hand?  Rejection of ill-formed tags at the API?
> Please, quote me on it if you think I have.
>
>  > if mappers tag the way they feel is best and the tool authors (i.e:
>  > nonames layer) consume the tags in the way they feel is best then the
>  > two will converge,
>
> Let me propose an alternative course of events which is less
> desirable:
>
> Anyone who asks how to mark a road as having no name is told that
> there is no consensus.  They might get sent to the Wiki page on it.
> That page gives no advice or too much advice.  The mapper takes no
> action.  The database has no tags, the tool authors don't implement
> any of them because the data isn't there, and the issue doesn't
> converge.
>
> I point to the +1 year age of the Noname proposal and recent
> inactivity and suggest that convergance isn't happening.
>
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/Noname
>
> I suggest instead that in cases such as these, SteveC should bless one
> of them with his Holy Water of Antioch (and the number of the tags
> shall be 3, no more and no less).  His blessing will tip the stable
> disconvergance in one direction.


As the person whose first came up with a no-names map for London
(well, actually it was a named map of London, turned into a nonames
map on SteveC's suggestion), I have an *official leadership
announcement* to make:

There shall be no tagging of unnamed roads. It is not important. They
show up on the no-names map -- big deal -- its a mapping aid not a
holy grail of "there shall be no highlighted roads". Just deal with
it.

Right. Done.
Now anyone respecting my authority can happily continue with life.
I'll leave someone else to document the wiki with my decision.

Thanks,

Dave

PS. I have no idea who does/doesn't agree with me and I've no idea
what SteveC thinks about it.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-04 Thread John Smith
2009/10/5 Russ Nelson :
> But if noname roads are rendered as such, then when you're looking for
> that street, you would expect to see a street without street signs.

If there is no street sign that doesn't mean the street has no name,
it just means you need another source for your data, like the local
government.

However there is 3 streets near by here that really aren't named, but
that's sort of an exception, and they are on the golf course.

nostreetsign=yes would be more accurate, and would allow you to find a
list of such streets to pester council with.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-04 Thread Andrew Errington
I had three replies to my message about nonames.  Thank you.

Why do you assume that if the name=* tag is missing then this is an error?

Andrew


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-04 Thread Lars Aronsson
Peter Miller wrote:

> I though it was the Führer who was meant to shout loudest in such  


It's been a nice four years on this list, but now it's just 
getting too stupid and way overloaded.  The list would benefit 
from some slight moderation or posting guidelines, but since that 
doesn't happen here, I'm moderating my own inbox by unsubscribing. 
Bye!


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-04 Thread Russ Nelson
Matt Amos writes:
 > On 10/4/09, Russ Nelson  wrote:
 > > No, that's not the sole purpose.  See my reply to Andrew which you
 > > should have already received.
 > 
 > so the purpose is to indicate to other mappers, including via the
 > nonames renderer and other debugging tools, that there is no name? so
 > you're not tagging what's on the ground (that there is no name),
 > you're tagging out-of-band information that isn't useful to any
 > end-users of the map?

Well, anything that isn't rendered is of no use to end-users of the
map, so the principle you're trying to apply here: "map for the
renderer" is deprecated pretty universally.

But if noname roads are rendered as such, then when you're looking for
that street, you would expect to see a street without street signs.

Neither you nor Andrew are getting anywhere with "but noname=yes isn't
useful".  I suggest you drop it.

 > >  > let me put it a different way: maybe convergence hasn't happened
 > >  > *yet*.
 > >
 > > That argument is not falsifiable; it is no argument at all.
 > 
 > for the noname tag, it isn't measurable.

Stuff and nonsense.  There are 9 specific proposals, use of each of
which can be counted.

My point here is that you can ALWAYS point to a failure of convergence
and say "If we wait longer, we will achieve success."

 > you asked why people are thinking that you're in favour of people
 > being told what to do. your answer appears to confirm that, yes;
 > you're in favour of people being told what to do.

It appears to me as if your "being told what to do" should be
interpreted as coercion, but I've repeatedly said that leadership in a
voluntary organization is not coercion.  How many times do I have to
tell you that it's NOT POSSIBLE TO COERCE VOLUNTEERS  Why do I
have to shout to be heard?  Why do I sound like your mother?
"Mattie-boy, clean up your room now ... don't make me shout."

 > sure - you're part of the community and you're rejecting frederik's
 > advice. so, by your definition of hostile and your membership of the
 > community; some of the community is hostile to leadership.

I didn't say that Frederick is evil, nor that his actions are dictated
by the needs of his company, nor that he's acting like a king (and his
girlfriend is a queen), nor that he's conducting bizarre breeding
experiments on cute little animals.  Basically, SteveC doesn't find
this teasing at all funny.  Not at all.  He's asked that people stop
it, and I'm asking y'all to stop it.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-04 Thread Matt Amos
On 10/4/09, Russ Nelson  wrote:
> That said, I believe it a mistake to NOT have perfect consistency as a
> goal even though that goal cannot be achieved.  If you don't know
> where you're going in the long term you'll likely go in circles in the
> short term.  Like this discussion.

i'll keep this short, then ;-)

> Matt Amos writes:
>  > On 10/3/09, Russ Nelson  wrote:
>
>  > you seem to be advocating for a tag with the sole purpose of not
>  > rendering something in a single renderer.  to me, that seems wrong.
>
> No, that's not the sole purpose.  See my reply to Andrew which you
> should have already received.

so the purpose is to indicate to other mappers, including via the
nonames renderer and other debugging tools, that there is no name? so
you're not tagging what's on the ground (that there is no name),
you're tagging out-of-band information that isn't useful to any
end-users of the map?

>  > let me put it a different way: maybe convergence hasn't happened
>  > *yet*.
>
> That argument is not falsifiable; it is no argument at all.

for the noname tag, it isn't measurable. the parallel debate with
oneway=yes/true/1 can be measured, though, and the results are
attached. notwithstanding some bot vandalism in earlier parts of the
year, it's pretty clear that convergence is happening and oneway=yes
is the winner. i would conjecture that convergence isn't specific to
the oneway tag and is happening to all tags, although as you correctly
point out, it's not testable for many tags.

>  > note that i didn't say "forced" this time, but i do get the impression
>  > that you're suggesting that people should be told what to do and how
>  > to tag.
>
> Yes.  I believe in leadership.  Imagine that.  Google for Servant
> Leadership.  Or find out how Quaker meeting's clerks operate.  Same
> idea.

that's a non sequitur. you asked why people are thinking that you're
in favour of people being told what to do. your answer appears to
confirm that, yes; you're in favour of people being told what to do.

>  > > The OSM community is hostile to leadership even when that leadership
>  > > merely renders advice.  Frederick's advice to create a committee to
>  > > provide leadership is not useful advice.
>  >
>  > maybe the community feels that such leadership advice is not useful
>  > advice, just as you feel towards frederik's advice?
>
> Are you agreeing with me that the community is hostile to leadership?

sure - you're part of the community and you're rejecting frederik's
advice. so, by your definition of hostile and your membership of the
community; some of the community is hostile to leadership.

cheers,

matt

PS: this is a re-post with the png reduced in size to meet this list's
size limit. sorry if anyone gets any duplicates.
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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-04 Thread Martin Koppenhoefer
2009/10/4 Peter Miller :
>
> On 4 Oct 2009, at 09:52, Rob wrote:
>
>> John Smith wrote:
>>> There will always be a vocal minority, it doesn't mean they are right
>>> or they are speaking for the majority, they are just shouting the
>>> loudest.
>> Very true, although I'm a bit unsure about which vocal minority is
>> shouting the loudest at the moment.
>> Is it the anti-Führer anarchists or the pro-Führer tag fascists?
>> It's _almost_ enough to distract the mapping sheep from our happy
>> mapping.
>>
>
> I though it was the Führer who was meant to shout loudest in such
> situations, but actually our Führer, if that is who he is, is being
> very quiet and may not actually be a Führer at all.

good point Peter. I'd say, our Führer forfeited his Führer-position,
as he is not shouting loud enough in this thread to be a strong
Führer. (He might still have a special position though, which he
gained by inventing and promoting OSM).

cheers,
Martin

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-04 Thread Peter Miller

On 4 Oct 2009, at 09:52, Rob wrote:

> John Smith wrote:
>> There will always be a vocal minority, it doesn't mean they are right
>> or they are speaking for the majority, they are just shouting the
>> loudest.
> Very true, although I'm a bit unsure about which vocal minority is
> shouting the loudest at the moment.
> Is it the anti-Führer anarchists or the pro-Führer tag fascists?
> It's _almost_ enough to distract the mapping sheep from our happy  
> mapping.
>

I though it was the Führer who was meant to shout loudest in such  
situations, but actually our Führer, if that is who he is, is being  
very quiet and may not actually be a Führer at all. Possibly he is  
just an ordinary sheep like the rest of us and is happily mapping in  
some sunny field somewhere and ignoring the whole thread!

Regards,



Peter


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-04 Thread Rob
John Smith wrote:
> There will always be a vocal minority, it doesn't mean they are right
> or they are speaking for the majority, they are just shouting the
> loudest.
Very true, although I'm a bit unsure about which vocal minority is 
shouting the loudest at the moment.
Is it the anti-Führer anarchists or the pro-Führer tag fascists?
It's _almost_ enough to distract the mapping sheep from our happy mapping.

rcr


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Russ Nelson
Before we get too far, I want to say that I believe that OSM will
NEVER be completely correct or consistent.  Its correctness and
consistency will fluctuate up and down depending on the expectations
of the viewer.

That said, I believe it a mistake to NOT have perfect consistency as a
goal even though that goal cannot be achieved.  If you don't know
where you're going in the long term you'll likely go in circles in the
short term.  Like this discussion.

Matt Amos writes:
 > On 10/3/09, Russ Nelson  wrote:

 > you seem to be advocating for a tag with the sole purpose of not
 > rendering something in a single renderer.  to me, that seems wrong.

No, that's not the sole purpose.  See my reply to Andrew which you
should have already received.

 > let me put it a different way: maybe convergence hasn't happened
 > *yet*.

That argument is not falsifiable; it is no argument at all.

 > note that i didn't say "forced" this time, but i do get the impression
 > that you're suggesting that people should be told what to do and how
 > to tag.

Yes.  I believe in leadership.  Imagine that.  Google for Servant
Leadership.  Or find out how Quaker meeting's clerks operate.  Same
idea.

 > > The OSM community is hostile to leadership even when that leadership
 > > merely renders advice.  Frederick's advice to create a committee to
 > > provide leadership is not useful advice.
 > 
 > maybe the community feels that such leadership advice is not useful
 > advice, just as you feel towards frederik's advice?

Are you agreeing with me that the community is hostile to leadership?

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Russ Nelson
Andrew Errington writes:
 > 1) The street has no name (and you might hum a tune by U2)
 > 2) The street has a name but it has not been recorded
 > 
 > Either way, it doesn't matter.

E, no, it really does matter.

 > If I am a map user then I can not intuit whether the name is missing, or
 > there just isn't one.  If there should be a name it's too bad.  I can't do
 > anything about it.  In particular, if it's a street I'm looking for then I
 > will be frustrated if I later learn that the unnamed street was the one I
 > wanted, but again, it's too bad.

There's another case you haven't considered.  If you're looking at OSM
and you see a street with no name, then as you're driving down the
street, in your case 1, you would expect to see a street without
street signs, but in case 2, you wouldn't know whether to expect a
street sign or not.

 > If I am a map maker then I know whether or not the street has a name,
 > because I've been there and seen it.  I can look at the map and see that
 > this street has no name, but I know that it does.  So I will edit the data
 > to make it right.  This also covers the case where the name is wrong, or
 > misspelled.

There's another case you haven't considered.  If you are a map maker
and are looking at OSM data and see no name, then you don't know if
that street sign needs to be added or if it's simply missing.  If the
former, then it's worth a jaunt out to the road to fix it.  If the
former, then it's NOT worth a jaunt out there.

So, it makes sense for both a map maker AND a map user to use noname=yes.

 > I don't expect to extinguish the noname debate with my argument,

Me neither.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread John Smith
2009/10/4 Matt Amos :
> no one is advocating for error. you seem to be advocating for a tag
> with the sole purpose of not rendering something in a single renderer.
> to me, that seems wrong.

I use a similar feature in JOSM to show me unnamed streets to know
which ones still need to be named, I think potlatch has a similar
feature and if all three things used the same mechanism to remove
warnings about streets that have no name is it still tagging for a
single renderer?

> arguments or alternative actions, such as building your own nonames
> layer that takes the noname=yes tag into account.

I wonder if that is documented anywhere, so bugs can be filed against
various pieces of software.

> he's perfectly able - he just doesn't want to. i fully understand and
> commiserate the reasons why he doesn't, along with you. and he *is*

I certainly wouldn't want to be in his position, any time anyone
mentions something the vocal minority doesn't like they hound them, or
at least try to intimidate people into their way of thinking.

> we'll have to agree to disagree. i don't think that steve's status as
> founder gives him any special insight above and beyond his natural
> intelligence.

I think it's classified as first mover advantage, but I agree with you
founding something doesn't mean you are a natural born leader, which
seems to be the problem here.

> note that i didn't say "forced" this time, but i do get the impression
> that you're suggesting that people should be told what to do and how
> to tag. here are some more (potentially out-of-context) quotes, which
> have helped me form this impression:

Do you disagree that something needs to be done about all the dead
lock, if so what is your suggestion?

> maybe the community feels that such leadership advice is not useful
> advice, just as you feel towards frederik's advice?

Something needs to change, the status quo only leads to lots of the
same emails, so the status quo isn't working out as much as some would
like to think it is.

> you're the only one saying "anybody who takes advice is a sheep". i
> can only find 4 uses of the word "sheep" in this thread. the first by
> frederik and the remaining 3 by you.

I think he's referring to other threads, although I haven't searched
the mailing list to confirm this.

> then we're in complete agreement; steve (and everyone else) should be
> able to say what they like and give whatever advice they think is
> fitting without fear of ad-hominem attacks. also, that there should be

This is slightly disturbing, I mean if people have to resort to
personal attacks because they have no standing in logic it seems they
should be the ones being told to cut the nonsense out and this is one
reason a committee is a better solution in this case so you don't have
one person sticking their neck out waiting to have it swiped at with
an axe.

> no compulsion on anyone to take one person's advice over any other's
> on the basis of their position within the project, rather than the
> merit of what their advice.

Except the merit most of the time isn't examined if the status quo is
likely to be effected.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread John Smith
2009/10/4 Russ Nelson :
> The OSM community is hostile to leadership even when that leadership
> merely renders advice.  Frederick's advice to create a committee to

I think the problem here isn't the OSM community, but a vocal minority
that don't want anything but the status quo, and while techniques and
methods that have worked well in the past are now more likely to
actively discourage innovation because people won't want to do them if
their efforts will be for nothing, or they will need to do double or
tripple the work to keep up with who ever is the most voicetress
today.

There will always be a vocal minority, it doesn't mean they are right
or they are speaking for the majority, they are just shouting the
loudest.

> tag consistently and that's okay, or that we'll never ever do things
> that way here.

I've seen this in other threads and just because something was done in
a particular way in the past is an appeal to authority and not a
rational reason why other ideas should be immediately shouted down. If
things were to always stay the same we'd be still in horse and buggies
because that's how people used to do it for 1000s of years and it
worked well so why exactly did we move away from something that was
working very well? Because something better came along and by the
vocal minority stiffling the same innovation they claim to be saving
it does no one any good because the same endless debates just keep
reoccuring because there is no rational or logical reason why things
can't be different it's just some people have a mindset that they're
horse and cart is the only way to do things.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread John Smith
2009/10/4 Roy Wallace :
> Do you realise that the only alternative to voluntary adoption is
> enforcement? Do you really want to force your idea on others even if
> they "think their idea is better"? /No thanks/.

That isn't the only alternative, you always have carrots not just
sticks. The carrot in this case is having things render properly is a
very good incentive for people to tag things in a certain way. While
they're still free to tag anyway they want it doesn't mean their ideas
will be rendered.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Matt Amos
On 10/3/09, Russ Nelson  wrote:
> Matt Amos writes:
>  > > I point to the +1 year age of the Noname proposal and recent
>  > > inactivity and suggest that convergance isn't happening.
>  >
>  > maybe there isn't a need for convergence here? we've got a nonames map
>  > to help mappers decide where their time might be well-spent.
>
> And well-spent and well-spent and well-spent, as mappers repeatedly
> home in on roads which have no name, and no way to tell the nonames
> map that there is in fact no name.  So they put in
> name=Fiddle-de-Faddle Street and gee, nonames stops marking it as not
> having a name.  WIN!
>
> Can I prove that this has happened?  No.  And that's the problem.  If
> it happened, then we now have a namless road which is named only in
> OSM.  I can understand mistakes and omissions.  I can't understand why
> people would advocate FOR error.

no one is advocating for error. you seem to be advocating for a tag
with the sole purpose of not rendering something in a single renderer.
to me, that seems wrong.

> The claim was made that convergance happens automatically, with no
> guidance.  I've presented an example where it doesn't, and now you're
> trying to say that when convergance doesn't happen, it's because
> convergance isn't necessary.

let me put it a different way: maybe convergence hasn't happened
*yet*. maybe there isn't the impetus from mappers and tool-makers to
converge any quicker? i don't consider complaining on the mailing
lists / irc to be impetus. what works is either well-reasoned
arguments or alternative actions, such as building your own nonames
layer that takes the noname=yes tag into account.

>  > steve is perfectly able to weigh in on one side of the argument or
>  > other.
>
> Actually, not, he's not.  He's told me that he's tried doing that, and
> when he does, he's told that he's shilling for Cloudmade, or that he's
> evil, or that he has a portal to hell in his basement, or in his attic
> or wherever, or that he's breeding strange conglomeration animals.

he's perfectly able - he just doesn't want to. i fully understand and
commiserate the reasons why he doesn't, along with you. and he *is*
breeding strange conglomeration animals, see the attachment to [1], a
picture i helped him take. very exciting genius research ;-)

>  > where we're disagreeing is that you're suggesting some sort of
>  > special status to his opinion, and i'm suggesting that, while his
>  > opinion is important and valuable, there are others in the
>  > community who are equally well-placed to offer good guidance.
>
> No.  A project founder always has a greater gravitas.  It's possible
> to destroy that gravitas through years of a consistent pattern of
> misbehavior, but Steve hasn't done that.

we'll have to agree to disagree. i don't think that steve's status as
founder gives him any special insight above and beyond his natural
intelligence.

>  > finally, for effective leadership there also has to be the opportunity
>  > for people to *not* follow. if you want to follow someone's leadership
>  > that's fine. but please don't try to compel that followership onto
>  > others.
>
> Where does this WEIRD idea come from that I'm advocating that anybody
> be forced to do anything???  I've already said that the
> paragraph you quoted earlier was taken out of context and then
> misinterpreted.

note that i didn't say "forced" this time, but i do get the impression
that you're suggesting that people should be told what to do and how
to tag. here are some more (potentially out-of-context) quotes, which
have helped me form this impression:

"So, Steve, would you PLEASE tell us what the canonical binary true
and false values should be?  And when you're done there, would you
choose one of the schemes for marking a highway or a bridleway with no
name?"

"The reason [the tagging debate] eternal is because there's no one to choose."

"No, I'm saying that mountain=green and mountain=viridian are the same
thing, but that when SteveC tells us to use green we should use
green."

"So, when we have true/false, yes/no, and 0/1, then damnit, we should
look to SteveC to pick one of them as arbitrarily as if he was picking
between mountain=green and mountain=blue."

"I suggest instead that in cases such as these, SteveC should bless
one of them with his Holy Water of Antioch (and the number of the tags
shall be 3, no more and no less).  His blessing will tip the stable
disconvergance in one direction."

> The OSM community is hostile to leadership even when that leadership
> merely renders advice.  Frederick's advice to create a committee to
> provide leadership is not useful advice.

maybe the community feels that such leadership advice is not useful
advice, just as you feel towards frederik's advice?

>  SteveC (or you, or Shawn, or
> Andy) are willing to provide advice.  The community has been told that
> anybody who takes advice is a sheep, or that we intentionally don't
> tag consistently and that's ok

Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Roy Wallace
On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 2:06 PM, John Smith  wrote:
> 2009/10/3 Roy Wallace :
>>
>> Frederik's point is valid - if you want a tagging committee/working
>> group/whatever, start one. If you want an international tagging
>> committee, start one. If it's better than the current arrangement,
>> mappers will flock to it.
>
> No they won't, they'll think their idea is better and you'll end up
> with 250 or more ways of doing the same thing.

Do you realise that the only alternative to voluntary adoption is
enforcement? Do you really want to force your idea on others even if
they "think their idea is better"? /No thanks/.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Russ Nelson
Matt Amos writes:
 > > I point to the +1 year age of the Noname proposal and recent
 > > inactivity and suggest that convergance isn't happening.
 > 
 > maybe there isn't a need for convergence here? we've got a nonames map
 > to help mappers decide where their time might be well-spent.

And well-spent and well-spent and well-spent, as mappers repeatedly
home in on roads which have no name, and no way to tell the nonames
map that there is in fact no name.  So they put in
name=Fiddle-de-Faddle Street and gee, nonames stops marking it as not
having a name.  WIN!

Can I prove that this has happened?  No.  And that's the problem.  If
it happened, then we now have a namless road which is named only in
OSM.  I can understand mistakes and omissions.  I can't understand why
people would advocate FOR error.

The claim was made that convergance happens automatically, with no
guidance.  I've presented an example where it doesn't, and now you're
trying to say that when convergance doesn't happen, it's because
convergance isn't necessary.

 > steve is perfectly able to weigh in on one side of the argument or
 > other.

Actually, not, he's not.  He's told me that he's tried doing that, and
when he does, he's told that he's shilling for Cloudmade, or that he's
evil, or that he has a portal to hell in his basement, or in his attic
or wherever, or that he's breeding strange conglomeration animals.

 > where we're disagreeing is that you're suggesting some sort of
 > special status to his opinion, and i'm suggesting that, while his
 > opinion is important and valuable, there are others in the
 > community who are equally well-placed to offer good guidance.

No.  A project founder always has a greater gravitas.  It's possible
to destroy that gravitas through years of a consistent pattern of
misbehavior, but Steve hasn't done that.

 > finally, for effective leadership there also has to be the opportunity
 > for people to *not* follow. if you want to follow someone's leadership
 > that's fine. but please don't try to compel that followership onto
 > others.

Where does this WEIRD idea come from that I'm advocating that anybody
be forced to do anything???  I've already said that the
paragraph you quoted earlier was taken out of context and then
misinterpreted.

The OSM community is hostile to leadership even when that leadership
merely renders advice.  Frederick's advice to create a committee to
provide leadership is not useful advice.  SteveC (or you, or Shawn, or
Andy) are willing to provide advice.  The community has been told that
anybody who takes advice is a sheep, or that we intentionally don't
tag consistently and that's okay, or that we'll never ever do things
that way here.

I seem to have to repeat the disclaimer every couple of paragraphs:
I'm not talking about forcing anybody to do anything.  I AM talking
about not denigrating the concept of leadership.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Gervase Markham
On 03/10/09 09:24, James Livingston wrote:
> Just do what I and a lot of other people have done - give up on the
> wiki being useful, and just go ahead and tag it however you like,
> checking tagwatch and similar to see what other people are actually
> using.

tagwatch tells you what tags people are using, but not what they are 
using them _for_. There is insufficient semantic information in the 
statement "lots of people are using highway=unclassified" for you to 
know what to use it for, or even whether they are all using it for the 
same thing.

A set of tags alone is not sufficient to get consistency or convergence. 
Explanations are needed.

Gerv



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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Dave F.
John Smith wrote:
> 2009/10/3 Apollinaris Schoell :
>   
>> On 2 Oct 2009, at 21:06 , John Smith wrote:
>>
>> 
>>> You do if you want a consistent data set.
>>>   
>> And what if I don't want?
>> There are 1000s of mappers and not everyone thinks like you and agrees with
>> you. If you can't accept so much freedom it's your problem not mine or
>> theirs.
>> there are many things I don't like in osm, but I am free to change it
>> because it's free and open or I can learn that others had better ideas and
>> accept it.
>>
>> 
>
> And so we'll end up with a database not with better map data but with
> a completely inconsistent kludge that won't be of any use to anyone
> beyond their local area... So people will just keep using commercial
> data and not bother with OSM because it's more hassle than it's worth,
> in turn no one will bother contributing because they can simply do an
> overlay on top of google data so they get a consistent set of map
> tiles...

+1

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Martin Koppenhoefer
2009/10/3 Matt Amos :
> it has to be said that, according to my german dictionary, the word
> "Führer" just means "leader" or "guide". i don't know if there are
> pejorative overtones to it in modern german use.

no, there aren't, it's the only word for "guide", used in alpine
tourism, for tourist guides in general, etc. (even for driving
license: "der Führer war ein armes Schwein, er hatte keinen
Führerschein"). To me it seems the most appropriate term for a leader
like the requested, that shows a strong hand, everybody would get
instantly what's this about if we call him OSM-Führer.

cheers,
Martin

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Matt Amos
On 10/3/09, Russ Nelson  wrote:
> Matt Amos writes:
>  > forcing all mappers, editors and renderers to support it?
>
> Why do people keep saying that I want to use force?  From where do
> they get this idea?  Have I ever suggested the use of force?  Gun,
> knife, sword, empty hand?  Rejection of ill-formed tags at the API?
> Please, quote me on it if you think I have.

you've repeatedly said that we should have a leader and that when that
leader makes a decision "we should do it that way". you're not talking
about a recommendation, you're talking about a decree:

> If SteveC says that "mountain=green" means that
> first there is a mountain, and that "mountain=blue" means there is no
> mountain, then damnit, we should do it that way.

>  > if mappers tag the way they feel is best and the tool authors (i.e:
>  > nonames layer) consume the tags in the way they feel is best then the
>  > two will converge,
>
> Let me propose an alternative course of events which is less
> desirable:
>
> Anyone who asks how to mark a road as having no name is told that
> there is no consensus.  They might get sent to the Wiki page on it.
> That page gives no advice or too much advice.  The mapper takes no
> action.  The database has no tags, the tool authors don't implement
> any of them because the data isn't there, and the issue doesn't
> converge.
>
> I point to the +1 year age of the Noname proposal and recent
> inactivity and suggest that convergance isn't happening.

maybe there isn't a need for convergence here? we've got a nonames map
to help mappers decide where their time might be well-spent. if they
find a road which genuinely has no name they're welcome to add a note=
tag, or a noname=yes tag, or whatever they like. nowhere has anyone
said that the debugging tools available show all errors, or that
everything shown will be an error. as in most things in life, personal
judgement is required.

of course, there's always the possibility of action; why not make a
nonames layer which reflects your view of how the data should be
interpreted?

> I suggest instead that in cases such as these, SteveC should bless one
> of them with his Holy Water of Antioch (and the number of the tags
> shall be 3, no more and no less).  His blessing will tip the stable
> disconvergance in one direction.

steve is perfectly able to weigh in on one side of the argument or
other. where we're disagreeing is that you're suggesting some sort of
special status to his opinion, and i'm suggesting that, while his
opinion is important and valuable, there are others in the community
who are equally well-placed to offer good guidance.

> But for him to be able to do that, we need to not be throwing the
> "sheep" or "Furher" word around just because some people are trying to
> lead and others are trying to follow.

and i agree with you 100% - steve's contribution to this project can't
be played down (it wouldn't exist in its current form without him) and
this pervasive "steve is evil" thing is just weird and unhelpful.

it has to be said that, according to my german dictionary, the word
"Führer" just means "leader" or "guide". i don't know if there are
pejorative overtones to it in modern german use.

finally, for effective leadership there also has to be the opportunity
for people to *not* follow. if you want to follow someone's leadership
that's fine. but please don't try to compel that followership onto
others.

cheers,

matt

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Ulf Lamping
DavidD schrieb:
> If that isn't good enough what other method is there?
> How do you get from where OSM is now to the goal? Until someone starts
> coming up with ideas that have some connection to reality this will
> get nowhere. At the moment it is not much more than a bunch of people
> yelling "this sucks" every 10 minutes.

I agree that most of the current discussion is not heading towards a 
concrete solution to work on.

However, the discussion shows, that "a bunch of people" as you call it 
seem to think that we currently have a problem and continuing the way we 
did in the past will not solve the issues or probably make things even 
worse in the future. By talking with the mappers here in the area, my 
feeling is that this is not a bunch, but the vast majority of OSM people 
(as most of the "not so experienced mappers" are not participating in 
this list).

If this discussion just results in more people getting aware of these 
problems and just start to think about possible solutions then for me 
this was worth the time and effort.

Regards, ULFL

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Martin Koppenhoefer
2009/10/3 Frederik Ramm :
> We have, time and time again, debated tagging rules. Some people,
> including you, tirelessly (well, more or less) campaigned for stricter
> rules, with a tight voting system and all. Others, including me, were of
> the laissez-faire disposition.

> I think that if some people devised a set of tagging rules or
> recommendations and laid it out in a structured way, including rules on
> how to create, discuss, amend the definitions, there would really be
> demand for that inside OSM.

don't we already have the wiki with defined voting rules, categories
(approved, rejected, proposed, ...) and all the like, "official
features" (Mapfeatures)? Isn't that already a system to note down
meanings of tags?

> Many people would use that set of
> recommendations and participate in its development.

It's less people than you'd expect (always the same in the wiki, few
in votings, recently on highway-importance there were ~128 votes
casted, still a relative small number but almost factor 10 compared to
the average vote).

> It is well possible that after a few years of operation, such a
> committee-backed set of tagging rules would be so successful that
> anything else is virtually insignificant. (I would perhaps use these
> rules myself if I found they made sense.)

that's more or less the current situation: we have a set of rules
(wiki) developped in the past 5 years and people more or less agree
with it and use it. Based on this we produce data that contains some
errors and inconsistencies but is generally working for routing as for
printed maps.

> All this is possible *within* the existing OSM framework and without any
> strong leader telling us where to go.

I'd say this is not only possible but already happening.

cheers,
Martin

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Martin Koppenhoefer
2009/10/3 James Livingston :
> That mostly works because you're talking about code, not paragraphs of
> description of what a tag means. If they're knowledgeable enough to
> figure it out, two people reading a chunk of code should come up the
> same idea of what it does, which doesn't happen with tag descriptions.

+1

> If a tagging overlord who happens to be English writes a description
> of a tag, I can pretty much guarantee that some native English
> speakers from another country (e.g. Australia or the US) will read it
> a different way, or people who have English as a second language will
> rad it a different way.

I don't think it is a problem of different uses of English (sure,
different cultures don't make it any easier): the main "problem" is
interpretation: look at legislation: there are laws, which are written
by experts undertaking serious efforts, but still there is need for
judges and advocats, still there is room for interpretation. Two
advocats might come to opposite conclusions for the same case and in
the same jurisdiction.

One thing is to find really good definitions (laws), the other is to
debate continuously their meaning and be able to solve conflicts in an
appropriate way. It is naive to think we (or even worse one big
leader) could just set up some strict rules and everything would be
easy forever. We do need flexibility and continuous will to
change/renew/adjust our definitions to what fits best with current
reality.

cheers,
Martin

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread DavidD
2009/10/3 Gervase Markham :
> On 03/10/09 00:49, DavidD wrote:
>> Just start making the decisions and build the thing on top of OSM. It
>> wouldn't even be that difficult to start off. Just take planet.osm and
>> strip "unapproved" tags and build up from there.
>
> So OSM is in a state where it only becomes usefully consistent if you
> throw away a lot of the information? That doesn't sound like the best
> use of the time of the mappers who put it there.

Obviously nobody wants to spend a day gathering data then editing for
that work to go to waste. That's the incentive for people to get
onboard. If you can show actual real benefits then people will start
investing time.

Once you have people you can develop better methods that throw away
less data. More importantly you can start building the structures and
hierarchies that are arguably needed to produce a consistent set of
tags. These things are not going to appear out of nowhere.

If that isn't good enough what other method is there?
How do you get from where OSM is now to the goal? Until someone starts
coming up with ideas that have some connection to reality this will
get nowhere. At the moment it is not much more than a bunch of people
yelling "this sucks" every 10 minutes.

-- 
DavidD

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Ulf Lamping
ed...@billiau.net schrieb:
> Frederik said
>> All this is possible *within* the existing OSM framework and without any
>> strong leader telling us where to go. I really do encourage you and all
>> those calling for leadership to get together, form your own advisory
>> board or tagging committee or whatever, create the structures you think
>> are required, and then offer them for voluntary use by the community.
>>
> 
> This is likely to result in several insular communities. In particular I
> am considering that au mappers would write a tight set of guidelines for
> mapping and, as an example, we wouldn't have to worry about "residential
> vs unclassified in rural areas" for any other country - we would define
> our own strategy and stick to it.
> If Au does that, and the Argentinians make their own set of preferences,
> and other groups do the same, we will have a project with multiple forks.
> I don't really want to split the project, but if it becomes the only way
> to peace it will happen by itself.

Funny to read: "likely to result", "we will have" ...

We already have insular communities (e.g. using highway=unclassified for 
this or for that or for something different), we have a special 
definition page for germany tagging and ...

Problem: "we" just don't stick to definitions or change it every few 
weeks/months.

Regards, ULFL


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread Ulf Möller
Roy Wallace schrieb:
> On Sat, Oct 3, 2009 at 9:08 AM, Frederik Ramm  wrote:
>> I really do encourage you and all
>> those calling for leadership to get together, form your own advisory
>> board or tagging committee or whatever, create the structures you think
>> are required, and then offer them for voluntary use by the community.
> 
> +1. Get on with it.

+2.  Though of course that is going to be more work than just saying 
"SteveC should do it"...


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread James Livingston
On 03/10/2009, at 4:29 PM, Gervase Markham wrote:
> Because sometimes, occasionally, a benevolent dictator (a phrase  
> used by
> lots of open source projects) has to break deadlock and dictate.  
> Things
> are working well when that power is used very, very rarely, but it  
> needs
> to exist. Mozilla has two - one code, one non-code, and I can't  
> remember
> the last time they had to break a deadlock in this way. But it's vital
> that they _could_.

As well as a benevolent dictator, they also have a power structure  
underneath them, which gives the community guidance on how to work  
together to solve issues. The guiding force of the power structure is  
why the benevolent dictator doesn't have to use their power very  
often. As far as I'm aware, OSM doesn't have any kind of power  
structure - there is no equivalent to the contributor->committer->core  
developer->maintainer chain.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I think we need a Tagging  
Committee. Not to develop tags themselves, but to oversee working  
groups who develop tags. If we had one, they could create a  
"footpaths, cycleways, and tracks" working group, who would then sort  
out the highway=footway/cycleway/path mess. The WG would work together  
to sort it out, and the TC would then say "we think your WG has  
achieved a consensus, your tags are now approved".

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread John Smith
2009/10/3 James Livingston :
> On 03/10/2009, at 5:02 PM, John Smith wrote:
>> This was not only highly frustrating but demoralising and as a result
>> I've not been bothered tagging any more school zones because I don't
>> see a point until there is a "One True Way" to tag school zones.
>
> Just do what I and a lot of other people have done - give up on the
> wiki being useful, and just go ahead and tag it however you like,

I would like the information I'm adding to be useful, not just there
to make up the numbers kind of thing, and if what I'm doing is
inconsistent with others then it most likely won't be useful in the
form I enter it and virtually a waste of time tagging it in the first
place.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread James Livingston
On 03/10/2009, at 5:02 PM, John Smith wrote:
> This was not only highly frustrating but demoralising and as a result
> I've not been bothered tagging any more school zones because I don't
> see a point until there is a "One True Way" to tag school zones.

Just do what I and a lot of other people have done - give up on the  
wiki being useful, and just go ahead and tag it however you like,  
checking tagwatch and similar to see what other people are actually  
using. If you do see an article on the wiki, you have no idea whether  
anyone actually uses it. If it's "approved" it was probably because  
three people voted on it and everyone else got sick of arguing and  
didn't vote.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread James Livingston
On 03/10/2009, at 4:25 PM, Gervase Markham wrote:
> Wikipedia has much less need for consistency than we do (e.g. it  
> doesn't
> matter if one article is in American English and another in Australian
> English; articles are not machine-parsed) and yet they have all  
> sorts of
> mechanisms for ensuring it.


I believe those mechanisms are something along the lines of "if it's  
related to a particular country, use their spelling, if not whoever  
creates the article first". Which of course leads to articles like  
Orange_(colour) and Grey using the British spellings, and most other  
colour articles using the American spelling. As long as it's  
consistent within the article, they don't seem to mind.


I'm all for working groups, who have their own mailing list (reporting  
to the rest of us occasionally), and having regular meetings. Pick an  
arbitrary time in UTC and rotate between that, that+8 and that+16 for  
the meetings. I think having their own mailing lis is important -  
because anyone who just likes to argue, and doesn't actually care,  
hopefully won't bother subscribing.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-03 Thread John Smith
2009/10/3 Gervase Markham :
> Two reasons off the top of my head: because we don't want to spend ages
> developing consistent tag sets and putting them on the wiki only to have
> someone else mess around with them. And because we'd like to get some
> sort of consensus before starting off on what will undoubtedly be an
> enormous chunk of work.

This is a really big thing for me, some suggest using a set of tags a
lot and then documenting, but I've done that with school zones only to
be told I did it all wrong and I should have done it some other way.

This was not only highly frustrating but demoralising and as a result
I've not been bothered tagging any more school zones because I don't
see a point until there is a "One True Way" to tag school zones.

So OSM has lost a collection of data from the real world as a result.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Liz
On Sat, 3 Oct 2009, John Smith wrote:
> If there is a need for more granular committees then so be it, but
> there is some fairly fundamental things that need to be addressed,
> like street numbering, like foot paths/cycle ways.
and street numbering has been looked at on the committee basis and a schema 
produced and named
this is an excellent example which i hope to see repeated


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Gervase Markham
On 03/10/09 05:16, Andrew Errington wrote:
> If you see a street on the map with no name displayed you might think one
> of two things:
>
> 1) The street has no name (and you might hum a tune by U2)
> 2) The street has a name but it has not been recorded
>
> Either way, it doesn't matter.

It darn well does if you don't want to be the eighteenth mapper to go 
and visit it specially to "complete the map" in that area and find out 
that it actually doesn't have a name.

Not marking noname roads is a giant waste of resources, because work 
gets duplicated.

> If I am a map maker then I know whether or not the street has a name,
> because I've been there and seen it.

There are multiple people working in each area. And no-one has a perfect 
memory.

Are you really saying "the memory of all local mappers" is the right 
place to store this information?

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Gervase Markham
On 03/10/09 01:08, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> It may be your way to try and understand a conversation by looking not
> at what has been said, but at who said it and what that might reveal
> about their personal situation, upbringing, education, employment or
> other circumstances.
>
> I'm used to this from previous discussions in which you participiated,
> but I still don't find it (morally or intellectually) acceptable to talk
> about what you think a posting reveals about its author.  This is
> off-topic and useless at best, insulting at worst, and reflects poorly
> on your intellectual ability to engage in factual discourse.

On the contrary; understanding where someone is coming from is vital to 
understanding their point. It's part of good communication. We are not 
robots, communicating using an unambiguous digital protocol. There are 
unstated assumptions, attitudes of mind and history in the lives of all 
of us which affect what we mean when particular words or expressions are 
used.

Everyone does this form of assessment, consciously or unconsciously, as 
part of communicating. It's just that (as another commenter pointed out) 
I said what I'd done so you could correct me.

I think you are (IMO mistakenly) opposed to people having authority 
because of your country's history and the negative consequences that 
ensued when people gave someone too much power because there were 
problems that needed sorting out. Am I wrong?

>> You need to distinguish between good leadership and bad leadership. Good
>> leadership sometimes tells people to do things they don't agree with.
>
> Because the leader is the intellectual visionary and the sheep cannot be
> expected to have the information or the intellectual capacity to
> understand. Yes, that is true with many religious, political, or
> business leaders of past and present.

So you think that a good leader never tells people to do things they 
disagree with?

How do you resolve disputes within GeoFabrik, if discussion does not 
provide an agreed way forward?

> Frankly, I think it may be a mistake to try an apply experience from the
> Mozilla project to OSM. I think there are vast differences between our
> projects on various levels, and it would be wrong to say "well they're
> both large projects to do with computers so they must be somehow the same".

That's not what I'm saying.

> I just don't think this is a lesson that can be transferred to OSM in a
> meaningful way.

I think that's an unwarranted generalization. You have to look at each 
point and see if the two projects are relevantly similar in that case. 
 From what organizations do you think that OSM can usefully gain insight?

How about just taking the lesson from every other provider of data? Who 
else has a data set with multiple values for true and false? Even two 
for each would be considered a bug to be fixed, let alone ten.

> * who has the power to decide which values are allowed for a certain
> tag? who would decree that "oneway" is boolean?
> * how is that codified in our software?
> * how is that codified in our social structures (votes, elections, who
> is allowed how many votes, who decides who has how many votes and how
> does the appeal process work)?
> * what happens if someone thinks they need an exemption from the rule?
> * what is the balance of power between mapper and user interests in OSM?

Right. And no-one is arguing "people should be forced to tag in a 
certain way", I am arguing that the regular, 
linked-to-from-the-front-page, normal namespace wiki should reflect a 
single, recommended way to tag, that particular sections of the tag 
space should be maintained by a loose group of experts in that area, who 
are recognised by their knowledge and contribution, that if they can't 
come to a decision then SteveC should break the deadlock among that 
group, and that after all that has happened, people can tag any way they 
like. But if they want to document alternative schemes on the wiki, 
don't do it by hacking around the page of recommendations.

> All this is possible *within* the existing OSM framework and without any
> strong leader telling us where to go.

Not, as Russ says, if any attempt is automatically branded "evil".

> I don't quite understand why those who crave most for strict rules etc.
> never, ever tried to do what I have sketched above, when it would seem
> the most natural way of evolving such a system.

Two reasons off the top of my head: because we don't want to spend ages 
developing consistent tag sets and putting them on the wiki only to have 
someone else mess around with them. And because we'd like to get some 
sort of consensus before starting off on what will undoubtedly be an 
enormous chunk of work.

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread John Smith
2009/10/3 Gervase Markham :
> My view is not that we should have one committee, but that groups of
> people with particular expertise should come together to develop the tag
> sets for particular areas (e.g. canals, mountain biking), those should

I was starting small, I thought if we could at least get a core set
that would a) stop the constant pointless/endless debates over the
same thing all the time, b) give people a known good footing on where
to start, c) have consistency for the entire database so that if
people edit things in one region (regardless if it's a county,
state/province/territory/whatever, county/local government area) it
won't matter because everyone should be doing something very similar
if not the same.

If there is a need for more granular committees then so be it, but
there is some fairly fundamental things that need to be addressed,
like street numbering, like foot paths/cycle ways.

> Wikipedia has much less need for consistency than we do (e.g. it doesn't
> matter if one article is in American English and another in Australian
> English; articles are not machine-parsed) and yet they have all sorts of
> mechanisms for ensuring it.

Exactly, what we're dealing with is the equivolent if all the
wikipedia information was in a single article and that article has to
be readable and not disjointed.

> As Russ says, freeform tagging != anarchy.

Some freeform tagging != anarchy, but completely freeform tagging
would be chaos...

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Gervase Markham
On 03/10/09 00:49, DavidD wrote:
> Just start making the decisions and build the thing on top of OSM. It
> wouldn't even be that difficult to start off. Just take planet.osm and
> strip "unapproved" tags and build up from there.

So OSM is in a state where it only becomes usefully consistent if you 
throw away a lot of the information? That doesn't sound like the best 
use of the time of the mappers who put it there.

Lack of guidance, which is what we have now, is a disincentive to new 
mappers, and a disappointment to existing ones. If I pick way #5 of the 
nine different ways to tag a road with no name, come back a week later 
and find that I spent two hours tagging but it's not rendered because 
Mapnik only supports ways #3, #6 and #7, then I'm going to be disappointed.

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Gervase Markham
On 03/10/09 04:00, Matt Amos wrote:
> are you suggesting that the best way forward is for some authority to
> decree that there is One True Way of tagging noname roads and forcing
> all mappers, editors and renderers to support it?

No, the best way forward is for some authority to decree that there is 
One True Way of tagging noname roads, and for mappers, editors and 
renderer authors to go "fab, that makes my life a lot easier" and choose 
to follow it.

At the moment, people are deathly afraid of the second half of your 
sentence, and so think that makes the first half impossible.

> it might be helpful if the wiki documented the guidance of experienced
> mappers, rather than the free-for-all of half-baked ideas that it
> seems to have become.

Quite :-)

> then why suggest placing any one person in an exalted "leadership"
> position?

Because sometimes, occasionally, a benevolent dictator (a phrase used by 
lots of open source projects) has to break deadlock and dictate. Things 
are working well when that power is used very, very rarely, but it needs 
to exist. Mozilla has two - one code, one non-code, and I can't remember 
the last time they had to break a deadlock in this way. But it's vital 
that they _could_.

> if mappers tag the way they feel is best and the tool authors (i.e:
> nonames layer) consume the tags in the way they feel is best then the
> two will converge, as long as everyone keeps an open mind and refrains
> from childish antagonism.

I think that is unrealistically optimistic. How long have we been going, 
and why hasn't it happened yet?

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Gervase Markham
On 03/10/09 06:00, John Smith wrote:
> No we need a committee to decide upon a core set of values that people
> should use where possible instead of naming the same "thing" 10
> different ways, the argument over boolean values just highlights the
> point.

OK, sorry, I thought that someone was suggesting setting up a committee 
just for this. :-)

My view is not that we should have one committee, but that groups of 
people with particular expertise should come together to develop the tag 
sets for particular areas (e.g. canals, mountain biking), those should 
be what's published on the wiki, and it should be an OSM community norm 
to tag in accordance with what's on the wiki even if you feel that it 
doesn't capture all the information, and you have to add 
MyName:extratag=value tags to make it absolutely clear what you mean.

Wikipedia has much less need for consistency than we do (e.g. it doesn't 
matter if one article is in American English and another in Australian 
English; articles are not machine-parsed) and yet they have all sorts of 
mechanisms for ensuring it.

As Russ says, freeform tagging != anarchy.

Gerv


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread John Smith
2009/10/3 John Smith :
> 2009/10/3 Apollinaris Schoell :
>>
>> On 2 Oct 2009, at 21:06 , John Smith wrote:
>>
>>> You do if you want a consistent data set.
>>
>> And what if I don't want?
>> There are 1000s of mappers and not everyone thinks like you and agrees with
>> you. If you can't accept so much freedom it's your problem not mine or
>> theirs.
>> there are many things I don't like in osm, but I am free to change it
>> because it's free and open or I can learn that others had better ideas and
>> accept it.
>>
>
> And so we'll end up with a database not with better map data but with
> a completely inconsistent kludge that won't be of any use to anyone
> beyond their local area... So people will just keep using commercial
> data and not bother with OSM because it's more hassle than it's worth,
> in turn no one will bother contributing because they can simply do an
> overlay on top of google data so they get a consistent set of map
> tiles...
>

Actually apart from bots what happens if you get 2 or more people in
the immediate area that prescribe to different tagging schemes, will
there be anything but an edit war as a result?

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Liz
On Sat, 3 Oct 2009, Apollinaris Schoell wrote:
> On 2 Oct 2009, at 21:06 , John Smith wrote:
> > You do if you want a consistent data set.
>
> And what if I don't want?
> There are 1000s of mappers and not everyone thinks like you and agrees
> with you. If you can't accept so much freedom it's your problem not
> mine or theirs.
> there are many things I don't like in osm, but I am free to change it
> because it's free and open or I can learn that others had better ideas
> and accept it.
>

I think muddling up this argument with 'freedom' doesn't advance it one bit.
I do note that "others had better ideas" was placed next to "accept" as if you 
are rejecting an idea belonging to someone else, who is hereby advised just to 
accept it.

Instead, could you (Apollinaris) tell us the arguments *against* a consistent 
data set?

Liz


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread John Smith
2009/10/3 Apollinaris Schoell :
>
> On 2 Oct 2009, at 21:06 , John Smith wrote:
>
>> You do if you want a consistent data set.
>
> And what if I don't want?
> There are 1000s of mappers and not everyone thinks like you and agrees with
> you. If you can't accept so much freedom it's your problem not mine or
> theirs.
> there are many things I don't like in osm, but I am free to change it
> because it's free and open or I can learn that others had better ideas and
> accept it.
>

And so we'll end up with a database not with better map data but with
a completely inconsistent kludge that won't be of any use to anyone
beyond their local area... So people will just keep using commercial
data and not bother with OSM because it's more hassle than it's worth,
in turn no one will bother contributing because they can simply do an
overlay on top of google data so they get a consistent set of map
tiles...

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Apollinaris Schoell

On 2 Oct 2009, at 21:06 , John Smith wrote:

> You do if you want a consistent data set.

And what if I don't want?
There are 1000s of mappers and not everyone thinks like you and agrees  
with you. If you can't accept so much freedom it's your problem not  
mine or theirs.
there are many things I don't like in osm, but I am free to change it  
because it's free and open or I can learn that others had better ideas  
and accept it.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread John Smith
2009/10/3 Jeremy Adams :
> I'm just a regular old mapper, but it's my humble opinion that the data in
> the database must be consistent across the whole database.  If different
> regions want to use the map for different purposes, display different tags,
> etc then they can apply their localization when they create their map.
> Otherwise there's no way for applications (routing and otherwise) to know
> how to work across the whole globe.

+1

> This also allows me or anyone else to use and/or edit data anywhere in the
> world without having to know 1500+ different local tagging schemes.

At this stage without intervention that's exactly where things are
headed, and even encouraged by some.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread John Smith
2009/10/3 Elizabeth Dodd :
> I'm not in favour of a fork - I'm in favour of a consistent schema.
> There are significant regional differences and no means yet to deal with those
> within the multiple flavours of English spoken throughout the world. Spanish
> speakers will have similar troubles adapting translations of different things.
> Motel is an example of a word in use in different places with quite distinct
> meanings.

The bigger issue here is, without consistent tagging people will
eventually end up writing bots to fix something in their country and
destroy the value of data in another country by accident. This has
already happened with ABS data in Australia, someone thought they were
doing the right thing by splitting long ways and moving tags to a
relation, instead this ended up causing other people more work to
revert the changes they've made.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread John Smith
2009/10/3 Roy Wallace :
> I think we are quite capable of (voluntarily) collaboration across
> country borders without needing an authority figure to enforce it.

You do if you want a consistent data set.

> Frederik's point is valid - if you want a tagging committee/working
> group/whatever, start one. If you want an international tagging
> committee, start one. If it's better than the current arrangement,
> mappers will flock to it.

No they won't, they'll think their idea is better and you'll end up
with 250 or more ways of doing the same thing.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread John Smith
2009/10/3 Gervase Markham :
> On 01/10/09 04:26, John Smith wrote:
>> I still like Shaun's idea of a committee
>
> We really, really need a committee to decide what values we are going to
> standardize for binary true and false?

No we need a committee to decide upon a core set of values that people
should use where possible instead of naming the same "thing" 10
different ways, the argument over boolean values just highlights the
point.

For example, a ford in Australia is a causeway, yet they are the same
thing, just known by different people as different names.

If we take a programming language as an example, we usually don't have
duplicate function names to do the same thing, except PHP seems to
break this rule.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Elizabeth Dodd
On Sat, 3 Oct 2009, Jeremy Adams wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 9:36 PM, Frederik Ramm  wrote:
> > Liz,
> >
> > ed...@billiau.net wrote:
> > > This is likely to result in several insular communities. In particular
> > > I am considering that au mappers would write a tight set of guidelines
> > > for mapping and, as an example, we wouldn't have to worry about
> > > "residential vs unclassified in rural areas" for any other country - we
> > > would define our own strategy and stick to it.
> >
> > In general, I think that this is a good thing. You know best how to deal
> > with roads in .au; you know what *you* need to map to make the data
> > useful for you - and not some tagging committee from England which tries
> > to accommodate Argentinia as well. If I, as a tourist, should visit
> > Australia, would I prefer a map made by a world-wide consortium who
> > tries to streamline every national idiosyncracy into their scheme, or
> > would I prefer a map made by locals? I think that's one of the great
> > strengths of OSM that we have the local knowledge on our side.
> >
> > I have often said, and do so again, that regional diversity is not
> > necessarily a bad thing and certainly not something that needs to be
> > eradicated for the sake of conformism - it can be dealt with on another
> > layer (for example the "likeness" thing that Steve recently mentioned).
> >
> > If there is a possible problem with my suggestion then that would not
> > regional tagging differences, but various "schools" of tagging evolving
> > and being used in one and the same area. But I think that would sort
> > itself out come time and anyway, we're not even there yet.
> >
> > > If Au does that, and the Argentinians make their own set of
> > > preferences, and other groups do the same, we will have a project with
> > > multiple forks.
> >
> > No, just regional diversity. I would somewhat expect the Australian
> > tourist, out of respect, to not apply their home tagging rules when they
> > map in Argentinia, but have a look around and do as the locals do. (As
> > most of us, I am sure, already do today!)
> >
> > Bye
> > Frederik
>
> I'm just a regular old mapper, but it's my humble opinion that the data in
> the database must be consistent across the whole database.  If different
> regions want to use the map for different purposes, display different tags,
> etc then they can apply their localization when they create their map.
> Otherwise there's no way for applications (routing and otherwise) to know
> how to work across the whole globe.
>
> This also allows me or anyone else to use and/or edit data anywhere in the
> world without having to know 1500+ different local tagging schemes.
>
> -Jeremy

I'm not in favour of a fork - I'm in favour of a consistent schema.
There are significant regional differences and no means yet to deal with those 
within the multiple flavours of English spoken throughout the world. Spanish 
speakers will have similar troubles adapting translations of different things.
Motel is an example of a word in use in different places with quite distinct 
meanings. 

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread James Livingston
On 03/10/2009, at 1:24 PM, Russ Nelson wrote:
> I suggest instead that in cases such as these, SteveC should bless one
> of them with his Holy Water of Antioch (and the number of the tags
> shall be 3, no more and no less).  His blessing will tip the stable
> disconvergance in one direction.

For cases where it's something like picking a value from "yes/true/1"  
or key from that list, sure. They all mean the same thing, and for the  
most part it's easy to change.

I'd be less inclined to have one person, or the Ministry of Tagging,  
to use argument-by-authority is there was actual contention about what  
the tag actually means, as in some other discussions. Those ones  
really need consensus, or you'll get groups of people (or whole  
countries) ignoring the authoritative decision, and actually changing  
existing use is much more complicated.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread James Livingston
On 03/10/2009, at 1:16 PM, Andrew Errington wrote:
> If I am a map maker then I know whether or not the street has a name,
> because I've been there and seen it.  I can look at the map and see  
> that
> this street has no name, but I know that it does.  So I will edit  
> the data
> to make it right.  This also covers the case where the name is  
> wrong, or
> misspelled.

Provided you like somewhere that has all of the streets names, yes.

If you live somewhere that has large swathes of unnamed (or completely  
unmapped) streets, then it certainly makes a difference. I could go  
drive somewhere to get that street name, but then find out it doesn't  
have one. Next week, someone else who lives nearby can go drive there  
to check the street name, and find there isn't one.

If we can record the fact it hasn't got one, we could all spend more  
time doing areas that aren't mapped properly, rather than re-checking  
the same places again.


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Russ Nelson
Matt Amos writes:
 > forcing all mappers, editors and renderers to support it?

Why do people keep saying that I want to use force?  From where do
they get this idea?  Have I ever suggested the use of force?  Gun,
knife, sword, empty hand?  Rejection of ill-formed tags at the API?
Please, quote me on it if you think I have.

 > if mappers tag the way they feel is best and the tool authors (i.e:
 > nonames layer) consume the tags in the way they feel is best then the
 > two will converge,

Let me propose an alternative course of events which is less
desirable:

Anyone who asks how to mark a road as having no name is told that
there is no consensus.  They might get sent to the Wiki page on it.
That page gives no advice or too much advice.  The mapper takes no
action.  The database has no tags, the tool authors don't implement
any of them because the data isn't there, and the issue doesn't
converge.

I point to the +1 year age of the Noname proposal and recent
inactivity and suggest that convergance isn't happening.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/Noname

I suggest instead that in cases such as these, SteveC should bless one
of them with his Holy Water of Antioch (and the number of the tags
shall be 3, no more and no less).  His blessing will tip the stable
disconvergance in one direction.

But for him to be able to do that, we need to not be throwing the
"sheep" or "Furher" word around just because some people are trying to
lead and others are trying to follow.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread James Livingston
On 03/10/2009, at 12:53 PM, Jeremy Adams wrote:
>  If different regions want to use the map for different purposes,  
> display different tags, etc then they can apply their localization  
> when they create their map.

It's not so much that there are different uses, but a lot of the  
assumptions and hidden implications in tags aren't the same. A lot of  
the tags are a bit Europe-centric because that's where OSM started,  
and where a lot of the mappers are. I'm not blaming anyone in Europe  
for this, it's just how it's developed. As such, people in other  
regions often take liberties with what the descriptions on the wiki,  
and historical consensus, to fit them to the local area.

If we want to have globally consistent tags across the world, we're  
probably going to have to go and modify a bunch of core tags that are  
extensively used everywhere. Like whether highway=* is a physical or  
importance thing, and what it actually implies. As I understand it,  
it's used consistently within some countries as the former, and used  
consistently within other countries as the latter. Either we have it  
not being globally consistent (see the International Equivalence  
table), or half the world will need to change.


> Otherwise there's no way for applications (routing and otherwise) to  
> know how to work across the whole globe.

They're always going to have to know local quirks. From the discussion  
a while ago about highway=residential, I got the impression that in  
Europe is has a semi-implied access=destination for the purposes of  
routing - that is, you shouldn't drive down a residential one unless  
you have to, because they're very thin. In Australia, we have a lot of  
residential roads that are wide enough for four cars (one parked and  
one lane, either way, so driving down random residential streets isn't  
uncommon.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Andrew Errington
On Sat, October 3, 2009 10:56, Russ Nelson wrote:
> Roy Wallace writes:
>
>> I think we are quite capable of (voluntarily) collaboration across
>> country borders without needing an authority figure to enforce it.
>
> Good!  Collaborate on this and remove 8 of 9 proposals:
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/Noname

I think this (the noname thing) is a non-issue and I would remove 9 of 9
proposals.  Furthermore I would not add a 10th.

The wiki page states "there needs to be a way to record that the absence
of a name tag is not a flaw in OpenStreetMap".  I assert that there does
*not* need to be a way to do this.

If you see a street on the map with no name displayed you might think one
of two things:

1) The street has no name (and you might hum a tune by U2)
2) The street has a name but it has not been recorded

Either way, it doesn't matter.

If I am a map user then I can not intuit whether the name is missing, or
there just isn't one.  If there should be a name it's too bad.  I can't do
anything about it.  In particular, if it's a street I'm looking for then I
will be frustrated if I later learn that the unnamed street was the one I
wanted, but again, it's too bad.

If I am a map maker then I know whether or not the street has a name,
because I've been there and seen it.  I can look at the map and see that
this street has no name, but I know that it does.  So I will edit the data
to make it right.  This also covers the case where the name is wrong, or
misspelled.

IMHO a map maker should periodically survey areas they are familiar with
to ensure that /what they know/ is actually recorded or is still correctly
recorded on the map.  They also need to trust other map makers that
whatever is on the map is true and correct and complete (for achievable
values of true, correct and complete).

A map user has to take the information in the map on trust too.  However,
he or she must always be aware that there may be errors or oversights, or
that things in real life change and the map doesn't reflect that
immediately.  To blindly follow the information on a map would be foolish.
 Map users should also be encouraged to become map makers (even if only
indirectly through OpenStreetBugs for example) if they discover such
discrepancies.

There is only a flaw if you know there is a flaw.  If *you know* something
to be wrong you can fix it.  If you don't know something is wrong then you
should leave it and assume it is correct.  If you start to suspect the map
then you will go mad.

In summary, the price of accuracy is eternal vigilance.  Or something like
that.

I don't expect to extinguish the noname debate with my argument, but I do
think it is a non-issue.

Andrew

PS I apologise if you now have a U2 tune in your head.


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Jeremy Adams
On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 9:36 PM, Frederik Ramm  wrote:

> Liz,
>
> ed...@billiau.net wrote:
> > This is likely to result in several insular communities. In particular I
> > am considering that au mappers would write a tight set of guidelines for
> > mapping and, as an example, we wouldn't have to worry about "residential
> > vs unclassified in rural areas" for any other country - we would define
> > our own strategy and stick to it.
>
> In general, I think that this is a good thing. You know best how to deal
> with roads in .au; you know what *you* need to map to make the data
> useful for you - and not some tagging committee from England which tries
> to accommodate Argentinia as well. If I, as a tourist, should visit
> Australia, would I prefer a map made by a world-wide consortium who
> tries to streamline every national idiosyncracy into their scheme, or
> would I prefer a map made by locals? I think that's one of the great
> strengths of OSM that we have the local knowledge on our side.
>
> I have often said, and do so again, that regional diversity is not
> necessarily a bad thing and certainly not something that needs to be
> eradicated for the sake of conformism - it can be dealt with on another
> layer (for example the "likeness" thing that Steve recently mentioned).
>
> If there is a possible problem with my suggestion then that would not
> regional tagging differences, but various "schools" of tagging evolving
> and being used in one and the same area. But I think that would sort
> itself out come time and anyway, we're not even there yet.
>
> > If Au does that, and the Argentinians make their own set of preferences,
> > and other groups do the same, we will have a project with multiple forks.
>
> No, just regional diversity. I would somewhat expect the Australian
> tourist, out of respect, to not apply their home tagging rules when they
> map in Argentinia, but have a look around and do as the locals do. (As
> most of us, I am sure, already do today!)
>
> Bye
> Frederik
>
>
I'm just a regular old mapper, but it's my humble opinion that the data in
the database must be consistent across the whole database.  If different
regions want to use the map for different purposes, display different tags,
etc then they can apply their localization when they create their map.
Otherwise there's no way for applications (routing and otherwise) to know
how to work across the whole globe.

This also allows me or anyone else to use and/or edit data anywhere in the
world without having to know 1500+ different local tagging schemes.

-Jeremy
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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread James Livingston
On 02/10/2009, at 7:12 PM, Nigel Magnay wrote:
> That's fine, so long as the tags themselves are namespaced. Otherwise,
> just as now, the semantics get confused.
>
> I.E, It should be the case that if I tag as
>
> FredericRamm:interesting=true

Going this route is really just reinventing XML, without the  
advantages of actually being XML (e.g. tooling, schemas). For example:
   
 
   

versus:
   http://osm.org/users/FredericRamm";>
 true
   


Not that I'm saying we should go that route, but if we want to start  
namespacing everything, we might as well do it properly.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Dave F.
Russ Nelson wrote:
> There's a set of people who feel that mappers shouldn't be given
> guidance, because if they accidentally don't follow it, they'll feel
> bad and might stop mapping.  But there's also a set of mappers who are
> editing because they want to create the best map possible. 
Russ, whilst I agree with you about guidance, I'm unsure why you feel 
the three groups of people you describe above are disparate.
Surely they are all out to (hopefully) "create the best map"?


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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Matt Amos
On 10/3/09, Russ Nelson  wrote:
> Jukka Rahkonen writes:
>
>  > You seem to believe that SteveC would make such a decision that
>  > makes you happy.  How about if he says that if you want people to
>  > continue working with OSM "in creative, productive, or unexpected
>  > ways" then true/false, yes/no, and 0/1 issue must be tolerated.
>
> That's okay, too.  What I want, what I REALLY want, is for SteveC to
> be able to exercise leadership without being told that he's evil for
> doing so.

i agree - there's nothing constructive about ad-hominem attacks. if
steve wants to breed dinosaur-spider-monkeys in the privacy of his own
home, that's noone's business but his.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BauW170B.jpg

> There's a set of people who feel that mappers shouldn't be given
> guidance, because if they accidentally don't follow it, they'll feel
> bad and might stop mapping.

this is a nonsense straw man.

> But there's also a [non-disjoint] set of mappers who are
> editing because they want to create the best map possible.

there's also a set of people who feel that mappers are perfectly able
to judge for themselves which guidance is worth following and which
isn't. this set is a subset of those who want to create the best map
possible.

>  We change
> true and 1 to yes when we edit something.  And we want to know what is
> the "proper" way to mark a road as having no name.  Going to the wiki
> and finding nine different schemes (none of which are supported by the
> Noname renderer) is not helpful.

are you suggesting that the best way forward is for some authority to
decree that there is One True Way of tagging noname roads and forcing
all mappers, editors and renderers to support it?

it might be helpful if the wiki documented the guidance of experienced
mappers, rather than the free-for-all of half-baked ideas that it
seems to have become.

> I'm 100% in favor of freedom.  I'm 100% in favor of free-form
> tagging.  But I'm also 100% in favor of guidance from experienced
> editors.

then why suggest placing any one person in an exalted "leadership"
position? guidance from experienced editors - we've got lots of that,
and sometimes they disagree. assuming that people can't make
judgements of their own about these issues is patronising.

> Oh, to hell with it.  I'll just mark the damned road noname=yes, and
> if you find a road with no name and YOU mark it noname=yes, then good
> for you.  And if not, then I don't have to cooperate with you either.

if mappers tag the way they feel is best and the tool authors (i.e:
nonames layer) consume the tags in the way they feel is best then the
two will converge, as long as everyone keeps an open mind and refrains
from childish antagonism.

cheers,

matt

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Russ Nelson
Roy Wallace writes:
 > I think we are quite capable of (voluntarily) collaboration across
 > country borders without needing an authority figure to enforce it.

Good!  Collaborate on this and remove 8 of 9 proposals:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/Noname

I'm not holding my breath.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Russ Nelson
Frederik Ramm writes:
 > Because the leader is the intellectual visionary and the sheep cannot be 
 > expected to have the information or the intellectual capacity to 
 > understand.

I'm pretty sure you've gone off into the weeds, Frederick.  Leadership
and followership in a voluntary organization is not a question of
Fuhrer and sheep.

 > I think that if some people devised a set of tagging rules or 
 > recommendations and laid it out in a structured way, including rules on 
 > how to create, discuss, amend the definitions, there would really be 
 > demand for that inside OSM.

Well, I've asked SteveC to lend his moral weight to this effort, and
he's said (not a direct quote) "No way, when I do that, people call me
evil."  What's to stop the same people from calling the committee
members evil?

When you call your leaders "evil", you end up with only leaders who
don't mind being called evil.  Are those the kind of leaders you want?

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Dave F.
Frederik Ramm wrote:
> On the face of it, this true/false thing is really not a big deal and we 
> would be truly stupid to waste so much time discussing it. 
Frederik, why can't you understand?

The problem is /not /about the differences between True/False, but the 
*similarities* between True/Yes/1.

It's VERY simple.

Dave F.

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Re: [OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

2009-10-02 Thread Frederik Ramm
Liz,

ed...@billiau.net wrote:
> This is likely to result in several insular communities. In particular I
> am considering that au mappers would write a tight set of guidelines for
> mapping and, as an example, we wouldn't have to worry about "residential
> vs unclassified in rural areas" for any other country - we would define
> our own strategy and stick to it.

In general, I think that this is a good thing. You know best how to deal 
with roads in .au; you know what *you* need to map to make the data 
useful for you - and not some tagging committee from England which tries 
to accommodate Argentinia as well. If I, as a tourist, should visit 
Australia, would I prefer a map made by a world-wide consortium who 
tries to streamline every national idiosyncracy into their scheme, or 
would I prefer a map made by locals? I think that's one of the great 
strengths of OSM that we have the local knowledge on our side.

I have often said, and do so again, that regional diversity is not 
necessarily a bad thing and certainly not something that needs to be 
eradicated for the sake of conformism - it can be dealt with on another 
layer (for example the "likeness" thing that Steve recently mentioned).

If there is a possible problem with my suggestion then that would not 
regional tagging differences, but various "schools" of tagging evolving 
and being used in one and the same area. But I think that would sort 
itself out come time and anyway, we're not even there yet.

> If Au does that, and the Argentinians make their own set of preferences,
> and other groups do the same, we will have a project with multiple forks.

No, just regional diversity. I would somewhat expect the Australian 
tourist, out of respect, to not apply their home tagging rules when they 
map in Argentinia, but have a look around and do as the locals do. (As 
most of us, I am sure, already do today!)

Bye
Frederik

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