A space to discuss common topics representing Asia

(Please excuse my poor English.)
Different cultures have different attributes that define things, and common attributes must also be agreed upon.
So, I think we need a space to discuss common topics representing Asia, what do you think?

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This should be moved to ➕ New category requests - OpenStreetMap Community for https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/about-the-new-category-requests-category/ if discussions other than direct application are allowed there. For continents, there are already Latam and Africa, but they are based on existing communities on other services, not as intermediate categories.
There is an Asia group on Telegram. You should ask them.
Which “Asia” anyway? East, South, and Central Asia are already very different. Do you count Middle East and West Asia? They are closer to North Africa.

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Thanks for your kind help.

I don’t think it’s time to apply for a new category yet. I look forward to hearing from others.

I also posted to the Telegram Asia group, but unfortunately the group is very inactive.

The fact that there are large differences between regions even within Asia is a big concern for me. (Thank you. This is a very important point.)
I’d love to hear other people’s opinions on this as well.

@adreamy This looks interesting.

For example, Asia-centric tag schemes (e.g. shops for dried food, and religions or traditions matters) could be discussed, and several name:= tags might be. (or … fewer people have interests, maritime boundaries conflict and so on.)

Do you have any possible ideas for the discussion agenda?

Definition of Asia

I’m not sure of the exact definition of Asia.

But I think the definition could be very rough. The “main” target of the regions would be better to set though.

Wikipedia indicates the region is so broader. I guess East, South East and South could be for your thought?

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@nyampire Thank you.
Your empathy is a great help.

I often get confused because the features of the attributes I think and the features of OSM do not match.
Even if there are some unavoidable points because it is a ‘wiki’, I think that the difference in definition according to culture is the reason.
And it often feels like a European (Western?) perspective.
When defining the properties of a certain feature, I think it can reflect the Asian perspective.
And I think we can discuss the common or differences of Asian culture.

If Asia as a whole is too broad, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia have a lot in common with each other, so what if they were grouped together like that?
East-Southeast-South Asia = ESeS Asia? ESS Asia? :sweat_smile:

However, the Indian culture area is also very related to Western Asia, so it is a little ambiguous.
But that doesn’t mean there’s no reason why non-Asian people can’t be together…

What do other people think?
Please feel free to comment regardless of region.

@adreamy @nyampire I agree that the whole of OSM has had a distinctly European (Western ) perspective. OSM was started in the UK and spread out to Europe and North America. But this should not restrict your understanding of OSM.

The tagging could very well have been highway=pdgburntysy for example. Then you would not have the cultural problem. So please do not think that highway=living_street is something you cannot use because it does not sound familiar. It is just a tag. I always use Map Features as my guide. Look at the wiki pages for the features to see cultural differences. A good example is the highway=living_street which has a section National specialities that defines the different cultural understandings by country rather than region.

Even in European (Western) countries we have differences for Living Street - Slovakia- Obytná zóna ; Poland- Strefa zamieszkania ; Netherlands- Erf but we do not rename the tag because of that.

If a page does not have a cultural difference for your country then, after local discussion, it can be added to the wiki.

OSM is a world map (data base) for everyone and not just for a select few.

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Thank you for opening this thread. I was about to request a subcategory for community members in Asia… mainly because I would love to crosspost the discussion re SotM Asia and discuss with wider community. I agree that the Telegram group is quite inactive and looks like not a lot of members are here yet.

Do you think creating a subcategory here will encourage people to actively use this space?

Now, I am thinking to just crosspost the discussion using the general category. We might get ideas from other outside Asia too…

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Note that you can always start with an #asia tag over #general and then decide if the volume of conversations is high enough to request a separate category at any time.

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You can also give people the URL https://community.openstreetmap.org/tags/c/general/38/asia and treat it as a “virtual category”. It won’t appear on the front screen at https://community.openstreetmap.org/c/communities/9/none but that’s about the only functional difference.

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I think it’s a pretty good idea.
However, as some people have pointed out, there is a lot of cultural variation between regions, even within Asia.

Links for reference