[HOT] AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGH!

[Jonathan Webb]

Thanks Nick,
Glad I pitched in - I nearly deleted my post as an outsider...

I have found and been pointed to (by you & others) a load of useful info 
- there is not necessarily a shortage of info, just that it's in 
disparate places & I think this is the key issue.  In constructing this 
reply, I have found much of what I need to know but each strand isn't 
quite complete in itself & you need to find enough strands.  Ideally all 
the info would be in one place, in a coherent house style but that 
probably isn't possible.  I could have a go at that but I'd need a bit 
more mapping experience under my belt first.

Re your link - on the whole it is very helpful. First off, I would 
prefer the font to be a tad larger as there is a lot of text & I'm 
pushing 50 (I saw another older respondent as well so I'm not alone) & 
my eyes aren't what they were.

What I haven't found is much about the value judgements in interpreting 
the imagery for disaster purposes. Less of an issue for those with 
formal GIS/remote sensing training probably.  I think I am quite good at 
interpreting aerial imagery, but my experience is English Landscape 
(character) and heritage. This is very helpful: 
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Bgirardot/West_African_HOT_Mapping_Tips

To me, it would seem important to know whether a track can take vehicles 
but I do not feel qualified to guess at this - some tips on interpreting 
rural tracks etc might be useful.  This could be a valuable use of a 
small amount of time for someone experienced in this, as it would enable 
newcomers like me to make a more useful contribution.

In general terms, it would be helpful to have a concise "Executive 
Summary" about the aims of HOT - in terms of map quality & accuracy (in 
metres) and maybe some of the "woollier" aspects like whether it is OK 
to make an informed but subjective guess etc.

I've just seen this
https://datameet.hackpad.com/Nepal-Earthquake-Mapping-YDjLauUK0Ek
which addresses a number of the issues I think, in that it is a 
user-friendly, concise guide to resources.  Good work by the authors!

It may be that there is just a lot to learn!  To some extent I thought 
"I can do GIS", I can do this, but in reality cartography is a 
discipline in its own right & it is somewhat presumptious to assume that 
a layman can do it just because they want to help (without any 
training):  It might be useful to make this point, in a friendly way to 
deter would-be mappers who come in & lock squares but don't achieve much.

Hope I haven't waffled on too much - I've been exploring whilst I write 
this and consequently my position has changed a bit. But newcomers still 
face the task of finding the information strands.
Happy to help if I can
Regards
Jonathan


-- 
Jonathan Webb
Freelance GIS Specialist
07941 921905
http://www.jwebbgis.co.uk
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/jwebbgis
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