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State of the Map 2026

2026.stateofthemap.org

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Re: State of the Map 2026

#12

Post by wongarsu »

plasticsoprano wrote: post #4
Jimpulse wrote: post #2

Does OpenStreetMap comply with US executive order naming?

Well, when you visit it https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=7/23.765/-87.100 there's no naming of that area at all. At least when looked at from a US IP. And when you search "Gulf of America" it returns "Gulf of Mexico". So take from that what you will.

Also https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=8/43.622/-78.852 shows "Lake Ontario". But it does carry the tag "official_name:en-US": "Lake America", so search will find Lake America and a mapping app could decide to show the official name

Though generally official names are the names nobody uses. For example the country labeled "France" also has the attribute "official_name:en": "French Republic"

Re: State of the Map 2026

#13

Post by gmiller123456 »

mikeocool wrote: post #7
Jimpulse wrote: post #2

Does OpenStreetMap comply with US executive order naming?

The President of the United Stated doesn’t actually have the authority to tell anyone besides the executive branch what to name geographic places. So the order only forces official US government maps created by USGS and the like to be updated. Other maps can choose to update if they want to. Open Street Map tends to reserve the “name” tag for what things are commonly called by the local community. It appears that for…

Even though he can't tell others to follow them, they often choose to do so anyway. E.g. Google Maps displays the Gulf of America.

Re: State of the Map 2026

#14

Post by kylecazar »

Jimpulse wrote: post #2

Does OpenStreetMap comply with US executive order naming?

It's up to the renderer what to display. OSM tags data according to global consensus, they use Gulf of Mexico for 'name'. There is an attribute for 'official_name:en-US' that returns Gulf of America. Same approach for other disputed names/places.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:official_name:en-US

"Few if any renderers consume official_name=* or any of its subkeys; in practice, the purpose of this key is for geocoders to find the feature when a user searches for the official name."

Re: State of the Map 2026

#15

Post by numpad0 »

Weird little quirk I've recently encountered, somewhat related to OSM: the `mkgmap` tool used to convert OSM data to Garmin map files display Chinese pronunciation as English names next to POI names in Japanese, due to 1) Japanese OSM maps have a lot of entries written in Japanese without indication of language, 2) no one is doing anything about it, due to Wikipedia style community nuances or something, and 3) the tool have no "--assume-language=$LANG" style of options(plus Japanese script->pronunciation mapping isn't even remotely bijective).

e.g. There's a bicycle parking next to the parkside exit at Ueno station, "上野駅公園口自転車駐車場". This is:

  meaning:        Ueno    station   park    entrance   bicycle     parking  ground in English,
  read IRL:      ue   no    eki     kouen    guchi    jitensha     chusha    jou   in Japanese, but written
  on the map:  shang  ye    yi    gong yuan   kou   zi zhuan che  zhu che   chang  as Chinese(in Pinyin but I don't know how to type it).
...I would imagine that utility of that is limited for non-Japanese users. Makes me wonder what are the reasons why master OSM data hadn't had missing pronunciations autogenerated or mkgmap tool given an auto selected language flag, but I'm not intending to be OSMian nor am I wanting to be the one to define national borders for bunch of nation states, so there's that...

Re: State of the Map 2026

#17

Post by kenmacd »

gmiller123456 wrote: post #13
mikeocool wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The President of the United Stated doesn’t actually have the authority to tell anyone besides the executive branch what to name geographic places. So the order only forces official US government maps created by USGS and the like to be updated. Other maps can choose to update if they want to. Open Street Map tends to reserve the “name” tag for what things are commonly called by the local community. It appears that for…

Even though he can't tell others to follow them, they often choose to do so anyway. E.g. Google Maps displays the Gulf of America.

It doesn't for me (although it does include it in parentheses after the real name), so I'm going to hope this is only an 'only in the US' change.

Re: State of the Map 2026

#19

Post by tescreal »

gmiller123456 wrote: post #13
mikeocool wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The President of the United Stated doesn’t actually have the authority to tell anyone besides the executive branch what to name geographic places. So the order only forces official US government maps created by USGS and the like to be updated. Other maps can choose to update if they want to. Open Street Map tends to reserve the “name” tag for what things are commonly called by the local community. It appears that for…

Even though he can't tell others to follow them, they often choose to do so anyway. E.g. Google Maps displays the Gulf of America.

Did they adopt the petty naming spat over Lake Ontario^WAmerica?

Re: State of the Map 2026

#20

Post by fitblipper »

Contributing to Open Street Map has given me a ton of satisfaction. Knowing that my somewhat minor efforts to correct one address, add one feature, correct one trail will propagate to so many different places and help other people not get lost, find something new, or just be able to navigate more safely in the world makes me feel like I am leaving the world a better place more than a decade of working at FANG ever did.
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