Richard Fairhurst

OSM has an unrestricted tagging model. Mappers can invent and use any tags. While this is part of OSM's success story, it has lead to a database where the globe is described in ever greater detail. In this talk we want to explore how users of OSM data handle a tagging model with so few constraints. Richard, the owner of cycle.travel, and Sarah, maintainer of Nominatim, team up to share their experiences of a decade of working with, and occasionally fighting against, OSM's ever evolving tagging schema.

The OSM tagging model has significantly evolved since the first streets of London were put into the database. Not only are more and more different objects in the database, we also capture more of their properties and want to model ever finer nuances. This clashes with our goal to have one database for the entire planet. The closer we look the more differences between different regions there are. And to capture those the tagging has to become even more complex. Using the examples of the cycle tour planning site cycle.travel and the search engine Nominatim, we explore the evolution of OSM tagging from a data user's point of view. Looking at questions like * where do data users get their information about tagging * what kind of tagging can be practically used in software * how to handle local defaults and assumptions * how should OSM ideally document its tagging

Other people: Sarah Hoffmann

OpenStreetMap is the human-made map of the world. But how can one tiny human still make a difference in a project used by megacorps and crucial to millions of app and website users every day? How does OSM retain its individualism in a world that wants it to be consistent, orderly and predictable? Is it game over for the experimental, iconoclastic, independent map? Richard Fairhurst offers a challenging but upbeat look at the changing landscape for the OpenStreetMap mapper, user and developer.

2004: A crazy hobby project. One street mapped. One small mailing list. 2013: Edited by thousands every day. Beloved by hobbyists. Trialled by a few adventurous companies. 2022: The world's map. Worth billions. Used by everyone. What happened? Is there still a place for the individual in OSM, as mapper, user, or developer? How do you build with OSM when your competitors have free money on tap? Can OSM retain its iconoclasm and individualism when the Silicon Valley behemoths are involved? Richard Fairhurst is still as idealistic as in 2004 (but maybe a little calmer) and thinks that corporate OSM and independent OSM can co-exist, and better still, benefit from each other. In a wide-ranging, rollicking and occasionally factually accurate talk, he'll look at the OpenStreetMap economy in 2022 and how individuals can still make a difference. Expect: the secretive Kindred of the Kibbo Kift, situationists, books about pubs, bouncing phones.