[OSM-dev] How to get non-technical users easily editing (offline)?

Sam Wilson sam at archives.org.au
Wed Sep 22 06:52:05 BST 2010


  Hi,

I am looking for advice as to how best to give a bunch of non-technical 
users a means to contribute data to OSM.  They currently draw 'mud maps' 
in a 'sketching' (i.e. a very pared-down MS Paint type of thing) 
component in a custom-built Java application, running on tablet PCs 
(with touch screens and inbuilt GPSs).

I'm currently thinking of changing this mud-map to use the relevant OSM 
tile as a starting point, and getting the users to sketch in their notes 
and modifications over the top, and then uploading these modified tiles 
to our server from where I can use them as backgrounds in JOSM.  I'm 
just wondering whether anyone's done anything like this before.

One issue I've got is that not all of the notes would be suitable for 
OSM, so I don't think it's possible to just give everyone JOSM and get 
them uploading straight to OSM.  There will be sketched-in fences, 
gates, etc., but also notes like "Go talk to the farmer up the road".

I would be very grateful for any suggestions!

Thanks,
Sam.



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