OSM has some more or less clear criteria to decide if a certain information should be added to it or not. However, these criteria only take a nature of it into account. For example, there is no doubt that store operator is verifiable once it is known. Anyone could confirm that using the same source (store nameplate that refers to a company, open business registry, etc.) But will they do that?

I mean, time passes, store changes its owner. How possible it is that someone will update this kind of information? Definitely, less possible than, say, in a case of changed store name. Simply because it is harder to notice that change than to find out all details when you just going to create a POI.

It doesn’t mean that we should avoid adding this kind of information, but it does mean that an ability to keep a certain fraction of information up to date should be taken into consideration before adding it.

This diary entry is inspired by a question I came across today: “How to/ should we add time zone information to OSM?” My own short answer was “no”. A longer answer is: while OSM is not an authority on keeping reliable time zone information (IANA tzdb is), nobody who uses this information for something important will look for it here. At the same time, OSM can not be an authority exactly because of its nature: “anyone can edit it” (and nobody is truly responsible for data quality, unlike with tzdb, where Paul Eggert is an official responsible person).

So, theoretically, time zone information meets general criteria for data that could be added to OSM database, but it just doesn’t make any sense to add it since nobody can guarantee that it will be up to date and more or less accurate/complete. Here, I’d suggest using another OSM principle that usually refers to new tags: “don’t propose (here - don’t add) anything that you aren’t going to use (here - to keep up to date) by yourself”.

This discussion might be truly endless, at least - while OSM has the same level of order enforcement as it currently has. I’m not claiming that I can say something new on this topic, but I just want to keep some arguments in one place.

There is a set of keys intended for language-specific names - name:<language_code>, such as name:en=*, name:fr=* and so on. OSM Wiki documentation explains its purpose quite clear: these tags should contain the existing commonly used names in corresponding languages (see Names article). It is not just a rule that comes out of nowhere. It originates from a core principle: OSM database should contain real factual information and nothing else.

If we take a look at Berlin, Germany with Overpass query, we’ll see that only about 750 nodes, lines, and areas have English names assigned. Usually, these are amenities, where name contains common nouns. Like:

• Botschaft der Republik Indonesien in Berlin (German),
• Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Berlin (English),
• Kedutaan Besar Republik Indonesia di Berlin (Indonesian).

… See full entry