OK, following this discussion it seems clear that either nobody interprets the wiki literally (the elevation at a given point), or that the English term elevation never refers to man_made structures. In each of these cases the tagged value for ele would be the elevation of the surrounding ground. I suggest to improve the wiki.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:ele reads: Elevation (height above sea level) of a point in metres. This is mainly intended for mountain peaks but could also be used for elevation of airport runways and many other objects. For OpenStreetMap, please use the elevation above sea level defined by the World Geodetic System, revision WGS 84. I amended this: "In the case of buildings and other man_made structures use the elevation of the surrounding ground, not of the structure itself." cheers, Martin _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging