User:ZeLonewolf/Achieving Consensus on OSM

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I've been a contributor to OpenStreetMap since 2010. Over that time, OSM has proliferated, and is often the map of choice by projects that need geographic data but don't want to be locked into a proprietary solution. OSM has achieved this, remarkably, by allowing any user to edit anything anywhere on the map, with no real controls whatsoever on what's edited. Despite this open stance, vandalism has generally not been a major problem; obvious malicious edits are quickly noticed when they appear on the map and quickly reverted.

In general, an open stance is good; however, as the community grows large, the need for some level of structure and bureaucracy appears. The strengths and weaknesses of OSM can be summarized as follows:

  • The greatest strength of OSM is that anyone can edit anything without oversight.
  • The greatest weakness of OSM is that anyone can edit anything without oversight.

Tags

In OSM, Tags are what give meaning to the dots and lines that users draw on the map. Whether it's a Sushi Bar, a National Park, or an airport, there are sets of tags (expressed in key=value pairs) that describe the features that users draw on the map.

Over time, tagging grows organically, and sometimes tagging schemes arise which are either duplicates or just plain weird. Mappers come to accept strange tagging as "just the way it is". It can be difficult to break through that inertia; it requires listening, and carefully extracting the community consensus.

Quotes

Remember that OpenStreetMap does not have any content restrictions on tags that can be assigned to nodes, ways or areas. You can use any tags you like, but please document them here on the OpenStreetMap wiki, even if self-explanatory.
— Alv, OSM Wiki, "Any tags you like".

Rendering, while not required, has always been a large part of the "reward" that OSM volunteer contributors receive as they enjoy mapping: getting to see one's efforts "blossom" in a rendered map is a distinct dopamine hit that literally CAUSES good mappers to continue good mapping (to some extent, that's not the only thing that keeps any of us mapping).
— stevea

If you want any change in OSM, you not only have to describe (and possibly implement) what you want; you also have to think about a method of transition from the status quo to whatever it is that you would like to have.
— User:Frederik_Ramm, User:Frederik_Ramm/Ideas_for_API_0.7

with new tags we have luxury of making definitions. In case of tags used millions of times it is too late to introduce definitions changing how tag is used, we may only describe real usage
— User:Mateusz Konieczny, Talk:Tag:landuse=forest

No tagging is 100% approved by the "OpenStreetMap community" because there is no centralised community and everyone disagrees with one another [...] relying on usage magnitude to drive tagging development is inherently biased toward whichever scheme came first (unless a special effort has been made to deprecate the tagging in which case it's biased toward the newer scheme).
— kymckay, iD bug tracker, on Jun 29, 2019

I want to give simple, clear answers when newer mappers ask questions but instead I say "well let me tell you the history that I know about this tag..... read these 5 wiki pages.... check out this mailing list thread...." :grinning: because I don't feel like I really know the answer authoritatively. I just know what I do that no one else has told me is wrong.
— Zeke Farwell, OSM US Slack discussion

Changing a poorly conceived tag to a more useful, accurate one is a *genuine* edit to improve the quality of the OSM database, not a 'fiddle'.
— DaveF, tagging mailing list

We shouldn't be surprised that people use all sorts of creative and organic methods to build (OSM) community.
— stevea, tagging mailing list, March 2021

We cannot all have our own definitions for everything, we must agree on the same meaning of tags so that the data is useful.
— Martin Koppenhoefer, tagging mailing list, April 2021

OpenStreetMap is not the argument room from Monty Python. [People] who want to be in a community have to accept that sometimes the consensus isn't what they'd like, and they can either live with it or take their ball and join another community. More importantly they have to demonstrate a willingness and an ability to participate in that consensus in the first place. If they can't play sufficiently well with others to help form a consensus, or refuse to accept what a clear majority has adopted as the consensus if they don't participate, then I'm not sure they can really be part of the community in any meaningful sense.
— Chris Lawrence, talk-us mailing list, February 2013

[...] there have been "flurry, then abandonment before substance" plenty of times in OSM before. At first, this really disappointed me and I thought I had hitched my wagon to a broken project. But then I saw it (as I do now) as a form of experimentation: people trying to figure out what sort of "let's get this party started" it takes to get to a real party.
— stevea, Private correspondence, recorded with permission 7 Feb 2022

Either the community can do some serious reflection on what brought it here and evolve to meet the moment, or it can dig [its] heels in by doubling down on the same old things that got it here and eventually die out.
— Adamant1, Community Forum, 16 Dec 2022

an individual country doesn’t get to ignore a global standard just b/c some mappers feel like doing what they’ve always done and don’t want to engage on a better way.
— 1ec5, OSM US Slack, 24 Dec 2022

Our mission is to "create and distribute free geographic data for the world", not to promote free software.
— Richard Fairhurst, mailing list, 23 Apr 2024

I’m honestly not sure that insulting people who disagree with you is the best way to win them round, though I grant you it has a long and honourable tradition on the OSM mailing lists.
— Richard Fairhurst, OSM Community Forum, 23 Apr 2024

Critical Essays

Oddities

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