Hello everyone in Algeria,
I’m writing this on behalf of OSM’s Data Working Group. A question has been asked recently about the use of “name” tags within various areas within Algeria, and I was asked to raise this in this forum. The problem is that in some places in Algeria, the “name” tag has swapped between French, Arabic and combinations such as “French then Arabic” and “Arabic then French” over the years.
As this document describes:
http://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/d/d8/DisputedTerritoriesInformation.pdf
OpenStreetMap tries to follow the “On The Ground” rule - if the majority of people in an area refer to it as “Name A” instead of “Name B”, then the name within OSM should be “Name A” (though of course other language names can co-exist, and all communities are free to make their own maps from OSM data using name:ar, name:ber, name:fr or another name).
There’s no need for the “name” tag to have the same language across a country. To take an example closer to where I live, in a predominantly Welsh-speaking part of Wales the “name” of http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/24433881 is the same as the Welsh name (name:cy), whereas in a predominantly English-speaking part, the name of http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/4801016 is the same as the “name:en”. Of course, communities worldwide can decide to do something different - for example, the Belgian community decided to use both languages in the “name” field of http://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/2404021 (though that’s quite rare and can be confusing for those that do not know what is happening).
What the Data Working Group would like to encourage would be for people to record all the names for a place that are in use, including where relevant Arabic (name:ar), Berber (name:ber), French (name:fr) and any others that might apply. This is in addition to whatever is chosen as for the “name” tag. Having all names recorded means that maps that can show multiple languages (of which http://mlm.jochentopf.com/ is a proof-of-concept example) can show the correct language when someone switches to that language.
Best Regards,
Andy Townsend (SomeoneElse), on behalf of OpenStreetMap’s Data Working Group.
Google translate to French: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=en&tl=fr&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.openstreetmap.org%2Fviewtopic.php%3Fpid%3D506642%23p506642&edit-text=, Arabic: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=en&tl=ar&u=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.openstreetmap.org%2Fviewtopic.php%3Fpid%3D506642%23p506642