[HOT] Validating - Take a Task at Random

Nick Allen nick.allen.54 at gmail.com
Tue Nov 11 18:31:50 UTC 2014


Hi,

For info of all who are consciously validating squares (& a few who may 
not realise they have been validating).

I've been contacted concerning one of the very successful recent 
mapathons. A little research after the event has shown that several 
squares of at least one project have been marked as validated by mappers 
extremely new to the system - unfortunately the squares are not up to 
standard and more work is taking place to correct this.

We think that the likely scenario is - When all squares of a project are 
either complete or locked by another mapper, Tasking Manager will 
allocate you a square to validate - if you are extremely new to the 
system you probably will not realise what has happened and will look 
round the square & then add a brief comment before marking the square as 
done. Having spoken at several mapathons, and listened to other mappers 
giving guidance I know that;
a/. you can't say everything before letting someone start, &
b/. even if you did they probably wouldn't remember it all anyway.

I've added to the entry on the tasking manager in learnOSM - link is 
http://learnosm.org/en/coordination/tasking-manager/#contribute-tab & I 
ask that validators just bear this in mind - have a quick look at the 
usernames of others who have validated within the project you are 
working on, and be prepared to reopen squares that may have already been 
validated if there are problems. I'm not talking about 'they missed one 
building in the middle of 200', I'm talking about buildings should have 
been traced, there were hundreds, but none were traced!

I can see how easy a mistake it is to make, and I think it's something 
we should be aware of and try to negate in the future. Meanwhile I 
suggest that if you find one, send a message to the mapper concerned 
including the above link.

To my knowledge there has never been a decision about what 
qualifications are required before someone validates, and I'm not sure 
there is an answer to that - a few of my thoughts;
1. I've checked up on one validator who had (at the time I checked) 
never completed a square - extremely good mapper with lots of experience 
in other areas of mapping, and gives good feedback - if it's you, keep 
up the good work, thanks.
2. I found someone mapping on the day their OSM username was issued. 
Their mapping was obviously well beyond the standard we expect of a new 
mapper. On sending a message I established they wanted a new username to 
use whilst mapping for HOT - I asked them to start validating. Again, 
keep up the good work, thanks.
3. I'm still learning.

Perhaps this is something for discussion at one of the working groups.
-- 

Nick

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

http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Tallguy

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

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