[HOT] Introducing myself to OSM world

[Andrew Buck]

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Thank you Alfred for introducing yourself to the mailing list and for
your interest in joining our community.  Just to let everyone know,
Alfred and I spoke via skype last week and discussed his mapping of
the town of Bo. He has contributed hundreds of POI names and addresses
for the town already and is interested in further collaborating with
HOT in order to more effectively map the town.  I suggested that he
post a message here to introduce himself and join the list so we could
discuss with the broader group how best to move forward in finishing
the map of the town.

As it currently stands, the town of Bo has most of the buildings
mapped (although they were apparently mapped from old imagery) as well
as most of the roads.  This means the additional tracing work by our
remote volunteers could contribute is somewhat limited, but not
completely impossible to make further contributions.  For example, the
imagery the buildings were traced from was mis-aligned according to
bing/gps traces in the area and also the building shapes are not quite
perfect.

This situation means the mapping is a bit trickier than just working
from a blank slate, however I think it is an interesting opportunity
to test our skills on a more complete town as well as working out a
good workflow for integrating remote and on the ground mapping and
trying to find better ways of doing both.

I encourage others who are experienced mappers to have a look at the
town, how it is mapped so far, and to think about how we might move
forward from this point.  Alfred is interested in doing more ground
surveys with his team, so I think we can have a really interesting mix
of local and remote participation and this could be a really good test
case for more detailed mapping.

I look forward to hearing what others on the list think about this
project and am excited to see how this will progress.

- -AndrewBuck

On 06/22/2015 07:34 AM, Alfred Bockarie wrote:
> Dear All
> 
> I am a Sierra Leonean lecturing in the Institute of Environmental 
> Management and Quality Control, School of Environmental Science,
> Njala University Sierra Leone. I also serve as Independent
> Contractor for George Mason University as GIS and Database Expert
> for a disease surveillance and research laboratory (Mercy Hospital
> research Lab) located in Bo City, Sierra Leone. I have done many
> consultancies for local and international organisations in Sierra
> Leone and co-authored many article publications in science
> journals. Among my skills include;
> 
> •	GIS data capture using GPS and mobile handheld devices (ODK
> Collect, Collector for ArcGIS, Avenza pdfmaps, Mytracks etc..) •
> GIS mapping using desktop software packages (ArcGIS 10.2, 
> GlobalMapper, Google Earth and QGIS) and Internet based platforms 
> (ArcGIS Online, Openstreetmap, Google Map, Mapguide and Ushahidi). 
> •	Development of relational databases for data management and
> analysis using MS Access, FileMaker pro and SQL •	Production of
> electronic based survey forms for mobile data collection using
> android devices •	Research data analysis and reporting using SPSS,
> MS Excel and ArcGIS
> 
> I wish to formally join in contributing to openstreet mapping of
> our homes, communities and countries to help solve a host of
> problems we are currently facing due to lack of spatial data
> 
> GIS would have been a better tool to fight the West Africa Ebola 
> outbreak but the outbreak came in meeting no relevant spatial data
> in store. If each incident case would have been mapped from start,
> it would have been possible to easily know the outbreak patterns
> and hotspot areas, and the statistically significant factors
> contributing to the hotspots. Through this, contact tracing could
> have been more effective and resources would have been properly
> allocated.
> 
> I want to become a reputable researcher and hardcore professional
> in areas of geographic information systems, management information 
> systems and research. I am operating a registered NGO in Sierra
> Leone called Research Agency for Health and Development
> (RAHD-Salone) with primary aim to promote research in areas of
> public and environmental health. One of our objectives is to
> provide research tools and information to organizations in line
> with their project objectives so as to be able to solve problems
> limited by research.
> 
> RAHD intends to create a data hub for storage of spatial and
> textual data so that researchers national and international can tap
> from them for their research work and be able to provide
> appropriate policy recommendations.
> 
> I hope the OSM community will partner with RAHD in modelling the
> world for better planning and easy navigation.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Alfred S. Bockarie
> 
> 

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