[HOT] Comment to HOT project managers about getting your project completed

[john whelan]

There have been a number of projects recently that have been mapped to a
fairly high standard and within a much shorter time frame than most without
having an urgent tag on them.

Basically they have had someone validating them from the beginning and
validating the work as it is done.  For consistency reasons it's helpful if
just one person takes the responsibility.  I think by now you're aware that
your project gets the lime light for about two weeks before it falls below
the newer projects on the list.  Those magic two weeks seem to make or
break the project.  If you can get the interest of a few mappers in those
two weeks then it starts to snowball and you get a sort of team effect.  To
build on it I've seen a project manager role out a new project as the old
one gets completed and manage to retain the experienced mappers who were
mapping the first project.

Maperthons are nice in that you get a lot of people but for data quality
first time mappers aren't the best and their productivity isn't anywhere
near some of the more experienced mappers using JOSM.  The other problem of
new mappers is they sometimes validate other work which means you can't
trust the validation.  Some maperthons are well organised and train well,
they also get people coming back time after time so their mappers are not
all inexperienced.  Others well, when you look at a project and see twenty
untagged ways, or fifty buildings tagged as area=yes you question the
training.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_Tasking_Manager/Validating_data

What isn't mentioned here is the feedback, it is important getting the tone
right makes the difference between getting someone to map correctly in the
future or saying forget this I'm off to play badminton.  Mappers have
different cultures and backgrounds, they are volunteers so treat them
gently and use third party things like the African highway wiki suggests
rather than you're an idiot for using living street in an African village.

I don't have a magic supply of validators but if you find one be nice to
them and grab them for your project day one.  Two months into the project
cleaning up all the mistakes that have taken place when new mappers weren't
corrected early is a hard slog for a validator.

If you want project numbers that support this approach email me separately.

Thanks John
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