Martijn van Exel <m <at> rtijn.org> writes:

>> This is just an example, but you will have these assumptions for most
>> of the tags: for the local mapper they are included, but on a global
>> basis they won't be valid. The meaning of a tag is somehow always
>> dependent on the cultural background / area.
> 
>Yes, that is exactly where a semantic layer would come in! For
>example, I would tag a feature in a semantics-enabled JOSM in my
>native language, Dutch, as "provinciale weg". A lookup in the ontology
>would expose an ambiguity: a provincial road could be highway=primary
>or highway=secondary, depending on the road number. Human
>disambiguation would be required, the attributes of the semantic
>relation between 'NL:provinciale weg' and 'highway=primary' and
>'highway=secondary' could provide a clue to do this.

So you're saying that if some extra layer existed, you would be able to
add data to the map using natural language rather than following a tagging
scheme?  Or do you mean that different language communities would have their
own tagging schemes, with special values derived from their language (just
as current OSM tagging is derived from English), and an intermediate layer
would translate it?

Or maybe I have got the wrong end of the stick and the important issue is not
natural language but different classifications between countries, so that
the concept of a 'provincial road' exists in the Netherlands but is not an
official road classification elsewhere.  In that case, it would make most
sense even for Dutch-speaking users to tag it as highway=provincial_way
or another English-like tag scheme, to keep things consistent.

-- 
Ed Avis <e...@waniasset.com>


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