I am fairly new to OSM so I apologize for my inexperience with it. Some information like ferry schedules seems like it would be more easily managed in a different database. To take a step back, the obvious example of external databases tied to a map is businesses. It would be nice to have a database of businesses. The business is placed on the map using its postal address and possibly additional information. This allows for a much richer set of data for the business. I don't believe there is such a database tied to OSM?
This idea can be extend to more general addresses using the ref tag. If the ferry routes have a ref tag the external data can cite the ref. That database can hold ferry and other transit schedules. Managing this seems like it would be much easier than managing through the map. Of course, this also requires an external database. I would like to see the ref tag formalism expanded a bit to allow for this sort of generalized addresses, so that an external database could uniquely reference an object using the ref and related tags. Maybe by adding some tags for context for the specific ref? Generalized addressing applies also to things like stores in a shopping mall, gates at an airport, aisle/shelf/bin in a retail store, etc. These are all things that would be nice to reference from an external database. Having said this, I am not saying I am against also tagging information on a map. I don't think there is a well defined dividing line between what should be on the map and what should be placed outside the map. Dave _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
