[HOT] Validating - message being sent

[Nick Allen]

Hi,

Severin (sev_hotosm) commented in an earlier message that validation 
needs to include an overview of a whole area being mapped, and having 
attempted to validate a whole town, I agree with him. The checking of 
the small squares from the Tasking Manager  can only be an early stage, 
as you don't get a realistic view until you zoom out and look at the 
whole thing - in a little square something may look like a footpath 
partially obscured by trees, but when looking at the whole thing it 
becomes part of a tertiary road obscured by trees in just that square.

For the past few days I've been sending out messages through OSM to 
users (10 so far) who have contributed to the mapping in 
http://tasks.hotosm.org/job/141#. If possible I've looked at several 
completed squares before sending the message.

The message, with slight variations to suit the circumstances, reads;

/Hi & thank you for helping the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). /

////

/I am an experienced mapper (still learning though!), and have looked 
through one (two..?..) of the squares you have completed for task from 
the OSM Tasking manager. You got it right, thanks!/

////

/If you are a regular contributor to HOT then keep up the good work. /

////

/If this is one of your first contributions, then thank you & please 
keep up the good work. There are many tasks outstanding in 
//http://tasks.hotosm.org///, all are for very good causes & it would be 
great if you could keep contributing./

////

/http://hot.openstreetmap.org///and 
//http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Humanitarian_OSM_Team//will tell 
you more about HOT. You can keep up to date about HOT, or particular 
areas by subscribing to the relevant lists at 
//https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo//. There is also 
//irc://irc.oftc.net #hot <irc://irc.oftc.net/hot>//for a link to others 
mapping for HOT, and the page 
//http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Irc//lists all of the IRC channels 
if you have an interest in a particular area./

////

/Keep up the good work & I hope to see more squares completed by you in 
the future./

////

/Regards/

////

/Tallguy"/

//
I'm intending to continue with this, aiming to;
a/. Encourage mappers to continue with HOT,
b/. help to provide a level of confidence & security that partner 
organisations would like to see, &
c/. help any mapper who obviously needs help.

We all make errors, and I'm not aiming to nit-pick. If I spot something 
I think should be added, I'm probably just adding it. I have 
'invalidated' a number of squares, but mainly because they were marked 
as complete a year or so ago, and more recent imagery showing more 
buildings & paths is now available, and this needs adding to OSM - if 
I've got time I'm doing it myself. One square was obviously a technical 
hitch - had been marked as complete, but nothing had been mapped in it.

Although it's very time consuming I'm hoping it will be seen as worthwhile.

I'd like others thoughts on the message I'm sending - I'm not picking 
out particular users, but sending it to everyone who's work I look at. 
Many people receiving the message will be better mappers than me and 
more experienced with HOT, but there are mappers who have not mapped for 
HOT recently, and I'm hoping this may make them think about contributing 
again. I'm not intending to send the same message to a user every time I 
validate one of their squares.

A few things to think about;
How any validation system should be managed, and by who? Anyone who uses 
the Tasking Manager is going to see this word 'validated', expect 
something to happen, and it may be an idea to put something on the 
wiki's about it. (I'm willing to have a go at the wiki myself, if that 
would help)
When a task is created, is the creator expecting to validate it 
themselves, or ?
Aid agencies - please comment as to whether this is what you would like.
Who decides who the validators are, and how?
Would you be willing to validate?

Thanks for reading.
-- 

Nick

Volunteer 'Tallguy' for 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Humanitarian_OSM_Team

Mapping volunteer 'Tallguy' for http://www.openstreetmap.org 
<http://www.openstreetmap.org/>

Treasurer, website & Bonus Ball admin for 
http://www.6thswanleyscouts.org.uk/ (treasurer at 6thswanleyscouts.org.uk 
<mailto:treasurer at 6thswanleyscouts.org.uk>)

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/hot/attachments/20140217/445cd3ba/attachment.html>