There are five language-specific Latin letters, č ć š ž đ, which we transliterate in int_name as c c s z dj respectively.
Granted, this is a “poor man’s transliteration” aiming to help “lazy typists” and “stupid software”, rather than something you’ll commonly find in actual signage; for formal inscriptions and proofread English texts, we should use the sr-Latn version (e.g. Wikipedia does). On the other hand, if it’s good for Novak Djokovic [Đoković] and our international sport teams, who am I to complain?
@PeachyOne You are correct in the Greek side of Cyprus we have a commission that is responsible for the translation of the greek names into the Latin alphabet for the street signs. We have specific rules and if you are not sure you can always use their tool to transliterate into Latin according to the ELOT 743 standard.
I am aware of both the commission and its tool. Personally I am more partial to the tool the Greek Police uses, as it follows a form of ISO 843 that doesn’t include diacritic marks (τόνους και διαλυτικά). For example, in the ΜΚΕΤΓ tool, Αγία Νάπα is romanised as Agía Nápa. However, in its own lists and in Cypriot signage, it is romanised as Agia Napa.
In any case, a list of romanisations and Greek equivalents for common names (politicians, mythological figures, place names) could be quite easily found/agreed upon.
It is more obscure locally specific names that would require local knowledge, street level imagery or surveying to find the Greek name.
So far, this way of tagging seems the most natural one:
As I see it, it follows ToG principle by supplying name and int_name tags with the spelling found on the official street signage. At the same time, many users may search for “Franklin Roosevelt” instead of “Fragklinou Rousvelt”, and that’s where name:en and other :lang names come in handy.
I don’t know if that would help anyone, but there’s an approach for cross validation of Greek street names in OSM against official Department of Lands and Surveys maps.
It’s not as automatic mass edit, but it still can be used manually for comparison of spelling. It requires using JOSM with PicLayer plugin.
The flow is simple:
1. Grab a pdf for a desired area from Οδικοί Χάρτες – DLS Portal
2. Covert this pdf to png
3. Import png to JOSM as a picture layer and manually align it against Strava (that’s the easiest one to use as a reference for main highways and intersections)
4. Save the imported image calibration data for future use
5. Edit the map as usual, now with the possibility of looking at the new picture layer as a way to double check street names
If I understand correctly, trying to redraw geometry or some features from these government maps would violate ToS. Using them only as a reference for the street names spelling should be okay in terms of licensing. Please correct me if I’m wrong on this matter.
Maybe this approach would be helpful for the task of reviewing street names and ensuring correct Greek spelling. For those interested I could share sample files for the Lemesos city as a proof of concept. This is how it looks like in the editor:
While this is definitely a great approach and workflow, I’m still not 100% on how well this would work out licencing wise. In trap street cases, geometry isn’t always invoked: styling and spelling is also used to prove possible infringement.
Oh okay, then let’s avoid this for now. Personally I didn’t make any edits with this data, just showed you guys this possibility as a proof of concept.
I found the following notice of the Department of Lands and Surveys web portal:
It is noted that the royalties for all the maps included on the website belong to the Department of Lands and Surveys. Therefore, if any of the maps are to be used for any other reason besides personal use (e.g. to be included in any publication or for commercial use), you are obliged to notify the Department of Lands and Surveys by (ayiannakou@dls.moi.gov.cy), in order to secure the required license for use or publish and to pay the relevant royalty charges.
Maybe it would be possible to contact Cyprus officials to ask for a permission of using this data in OSM specifically? There are some tips on the wiki
I have previously contacted the DLS for permission to use their rather detailed aerial photography, available under CC-BY.
The default projection that osm.org uses including Northern Cyprus and Northern Cypriot names as they are on the ground seemed to be a red line for RoC authorities, to the point where my correspondence with them was forwarded to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Any further licencing attempts are likely to hit the same stumbling block.
I was just going to point out that this is going to be an issue.
I had a rather long exchange with the High Commissioner for Cyprus in London back in 2013 and they were not happy with a long list of things that we were doing (for example showing airports in the northern part) . This was a major factor in motivating us to draft https://osmfoundation.org/w/images/d/d8/DisputedTerritoriesInformation.pdf
