Proposal:Certification

certification
Proposal status:	Draft (under way)
Proposed by:	JPinAR
Tagging:	certification=*
Applies to:	node, way
Definition:	Identify a type of certification for a business, path, or building. This is the broad stroke certification type that can be global while the accredited tag will reference the outside party supporting that certification.
Statistics:
Rendered as:	Potential as POI tag for things like food, sustainable, or
Draft started:	2025-01-29

Proposal

During a discussion around disability and sustainability and how to tag 3rd party outside organization that can certify standards for sensory, adaptive MTB, and sustainable compliance. The discussion group on OSM Slack started looking at other tags that today cover some sort of compliance or certification and the only ones we saw had to do with dietary (Kosher and Halal) and even those where very minimal. A response pointed to the common pairing of Wikimedia property - has certification and Wikimedia property - Accredited by liking how this was organized and very flexible yet capable I though it appropriate to bring these tags in line with OSM tagging standards and shorten 'has certification' to Proposal:certification it was also called out that this tag works best in a tiered association rather than leaning to heavily into namespaces. For example when mapping a sidewalk the typical tagging is highway=path + path=sidewalk in a similar manner is you want to support certain existing tagging with certification then you could combine diet:kosher=yes + certification=diet:kosher.

The 'accredited' tag proposal however we are swapping for a namespace tagging of certification:certifier=* this was the clearest namespace name for what information is to be sent of a few discussed. This also is the result of looking at existing certification=* tags listing only certifying agencies, typically abbreviated ones, that in and of themselves aren't clear 'what' they are actually certifying thus it makes sense that a certifier's value comes from pairing it with a certification=* tag to associate the 'who' of certification with the 'what' of certification.

The last item that had come up in discussion around tagging certification is that merging a certifier and that rating from that certifier was actually merging two things into one tag. While many times simply listing an independent certifier is sufficent many certifications have tiers or variation in their certification thus separating the certified from the rating was called out as a need. Thus one more namespace based tagging is being proposed certification:rating=* to use LEED Building certifications as an example this are issued by the U.S. Green Building Council for sustainable building practiced have multiple certifications of which LEED is onewith rating level (Platinum, Gold, Silver). As some organizations offer more than one type of certification the certification:name=* tag can be included to specify which. Thus an example showing the separation of these tags would look like:

certification=sustainably_built
certificaiton:certifier=us:gbc
certification:name=leed
certification:rating=platinum

Rationale

LEED Building Accreditation

The core inspiration for this tag are similar ones from Wikipedia mentioned above Wikimedia property - has certification while looking for equivalant I have found two buckets the first if a lot of certification=* that already exist but only list abbreviations for organizations that I only was able to derrive from looking at the context of the location and even then knowing the organization tells me nothing about 'what' is being certified. The second is a few namespace based tags with :certification tagged to the end but even there there is variation and a lack of consistency as keys will switch between answering 'who' is certifying, 'what' is being certified, and 'if' (yes/no) something is certified, but on the whole the tagging and namespace situation around certification is sparce and inconsistent. This tagging is focused on trying to bring consistency and simplicity to certification.

The other key is that each tag of tag:namespace capture one piece of detail per tag certification=* answers 'what', certification:certifier=* answer 'who', and certification:rating=* answer the type/level as specified by the 'certifier'.

Tagging

The below table provides a range of examples from use cases brought up just within the dialog that indicated there may be a need for such tagging and is setup to show the distinction between the certification=* being what is being certified being distinct from the certification:certifier=* covering what outside entity is supporting that claim.

Before getting into examples for each tag let me make a few best practice notes.

certification=* - the key values for this tag need to describe what is being certified while being agnostic of who is doing the certifying. Why? Because while by country or industry there may be a predominate certifier this doesn't mean for some things like being 'sensory friendly' or 'sustainably built' that there may not be similar competing or even cooperative certifiers for sensory KultureCity well known in the US but in the EU the EU has it's own distinct certification for 'sensory friendly' neither is right or wrong and if some cares enough to trust one more than another then they can look as certification:certifier=* as an additional filter. No party listed in the examples below was selected because they are the one and only standard for X they merely has been selected to demonstrate the variety and consistency of tagging certification.

certification:certifier=* - there are some advised best practice for these element:

• Use lower case this is for consistency in lookup and storage of tags and match OSM standards.
• Use Country and Sub-Country prefixes for regional organizations to minimize overlapping organization in different regions
  • While organizations that are understood and widely accepted to function internationally may bypass this
  • National (ISO 3166-1) based organizations may for clarity use the associated country prefix namespace for instance
    • us:faa for U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
    • ca:cra for Canadian Revenue Agency
  • Note that EU and UN also have independent codes for instance:
• eu:erasmusplus can refer to the EU Erasmus+ programme.
  • National (ISO 3166-1) and sub-national (ISO 3166-2) or local based organizations may for clarity use combined prefix namespaces for clarity for instance:
    • us-ia:bar association for Iowa Bar Association
    • ca-bc:kootenayadaptive for Kootenay Adaptive location is British Columbia
    • gb-sct:visitscotland for Scotland's National Tourist Organization
    • us-il:chicago␣rabbinical␣council - for a local example the Chicago Rabbinical Council from well Chicago, IL
• Use abbreviations only in contexts where no overlap exists
  • If in doubt spell it out.
    • Local organizations likely need to use their name but keep in mind the longer it is the more you introduce likely humen err to the equaton.
    • Within regions a government entity that commonly abbreviates likely can stay abbreviated or simplified (us-ca:dmv or us:nist for instance)
    • International Organizations should abbreviate only if the abbreviation is pretty globally known (nato or iso), however far to many are not well enough known to not spell out even still.

Dietary

certification=*	certification:certifier=*	certification:rating=*	Element(s)	Detail
certification=diet:kosher	certification:certifier=ou kosher	certification:rating=ou;ou-d;ou-fish	node or way (building)	OU Kosher is one of the largest provides of Kosher Food certifications which also certify restaurants.
certification=diet:kosher	certification:certifier=us-il:chicago rabbinical council	certification:rating=kosher;meat;fish	node or way (building)	Local Rabbinical Council
certification=diet:halal	certification:certifier=us:american halal foundation	N/A	node or way (building)	American Halal Foundation are one of a few major certifiers here in the US.

Accessibility

certification=*	certification:certifier=*	certification:rating=*	Element(s)	Detail
certification=sensory	certification:certifier=eu:erasmusplus	certification:name=autism friendly space	node or way (building)	The EU's 'Autism Friendly Spaces' runs a great certification for sensory safe places for those on the Autism Spectrum (ASD) as well as Autism friendly employer.
certification=mtb:scale:amtb	certification:certifier=ca-bc:kootenayadaptive	certification:rating=blue	way (MTB Trail)	For Adaptive Mountain Biking (AMBT) KASA has possibly the largest adoption in North America. For whatever reason their site is down right now so here is WayBack Machine.
certification=blv	certification:certifier=aria.io	N/A	node or way (building)	For Blind and low vision (BLV) a certification could indicate app based services, in this case many Starbucks offer free Aria service for customer visual assistive services.

Environmental

certification=*	certification:certifier=*	certification:rating=*	Element(s)	Detail
certification=sustainability_built	certification:certfier=us:gbc	certification:name=leed + certification:rating=platinum	node or way (building)	Despite being a US based sustainable building standards, LEED is also used internationally as a voluntary certification standards with EU variations.
certification=sustainable_business	certification:certfier=gb-sct:visitscotland	certification:name=earth check + certification:rating=gold	node or way (building)	Visit Scotland has their own certification for Green Business as part of their tourism department.
certification=manufacturing_sourcing	certification:certfier=forest stewardship council	certification:rating=recycled	node or way (building)	The International Forest Stewardship Council provides certifications for material sourcing

Business Credentials

certification=*	certification:certifier=*	certification:rating=*	Element(s)	Detail
certification=pilot	certification:certfier=us:faa	certification:rating=part107;part108	node (business POI)	The US FAA has one soon to be two Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) license(s) (accreditations) for Drone operators that are required to do commercial business. Drone based businesses may want to list their accreditations, which can be checked here.
certification=accountant	certification:certfier=us-tx:board of public accountancy	certification:rating=cpa	node (business POI)	Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) are commonly licensed through their state.
certification=lawyer	certification:certfier=us-ia:bar association;district8	N/A	node (business POI)	U.S. Lawyers who have passed the bar are typically licensed to practice at state level(s) and/or federal district level.
certification=financial_advice	certification:certfier=us:naccf	certification:name=fiduciary	node (business POI)	In the U.S. anyone can call themselves a financial advisor charge you and give advice that benefits them and not you and it is not regulated. However, certifier fiduciaries are legally bound to act in their clients best interest with regard to financial advice.

Examples

Headphone zone by KultureCity for Autism support

Throughout this page are various examples of physical signing for various certifications including but not limited to kosher, LEED for Sustainable Building design, and next to the example section a KultureCity sign designating headphone zones where things will be noisy, and headphone use is advised. KultureCity also have signage for Quiet Zones within facilities if people on the Autism Spectrum need a break. Most example are physically marked in some way or are certification/licensure that can be independently verified by members of the public.

Rendering

This varies based on the tagging association for Adaptive MTB trails, this could be a filter that removes rated trails for support that haven't been independently reviewed. For dietary this again may be a filter beyond diet:halal=* or diet:kosher=* where you want to remove any places that might have just added the tag but aren't really compliant and you want to only see the certified ones. As the list goes on, there is a pattern of being things you can already render, but this tag simply acts as a narrowed filter when certainty is required.

Features/Pages affected

I'll likely be following this page up with changes to my proposed but further along Adaptive MTB support tag Proposal:Mtb:scale:amtb replacing the 'mtb:scale:amtb:inclusive' tag with a certification=amtb and adding the certification:certifier=* option for those that want to list the specific party or organization providing the independent certification.

I believe that likewise the Proposal:Sensory page was likewise looking for a way to indicate some level of sensory certification both existing and referencing the outside party which sparked this proposal, so I could see this also being added there.

External discussions

The OSM.US Slack conversation that kicked the whole page off.

Comments

Please comment on the discussion page.