[HOT] Could we get more out of our mappers by asking for less?

john whelan jwhelan0112 at gmail.com
Sat Feb 25 22:16:47 UTC 2017


Just an ideal thought.  It came about as I'm loading in bits of Nigeria by
the enamel bucket at the moment then looking for untagged ways and crossing
highways.

What stands out are blocks where every track and settlement is mapped and
blank bits of the map.  I've been attempting to join bits of highway
together to reduce the islands.

Projects that ask for buildings are different but for projects where we are
looking to map settlements and connecting highways if we omitted the paths
and tracks leading to fields and rivers and mapped say two or three
highways max to a cluster of three huts we might be able to get rid of some
of the large gaps in the map and unless someone can think of a reason why
tracks and paths leading to fields are essential I think many NGOs could
manage without.  In return we could make more settlements and highways
available in the same time frame.

Part of the problem is each project is looked at separately.  Each project
manager only thinks in terms of their own project rather than in terms of
how much resources are available overall.  I am aware that some
organisations feel they are independent having their own mapathons but to
get the quality up you need validation and if you don't believe me just
have a look at the map after a mapathon.  Nigeria is full of settlements
wrongly tagged, building=residential or yes are amongst the most common
incorrect tagging.  A number of small villages have been interconnected
with highway=primary etc.  Crossing ways by the hundred.

I don't know how you would write the instructions for a such a project but
it might help the projects get completed more quickly.  I heard an off the
cuff remark about a project recently, "It'll take a year at that level of
detail.".   Off the cuff comments are more gut feel than accurate but there
was an element of truth in the remark and I had the feeling the data was
desired within a month or two.  I would suggest if you want the mapping
done quickly reduce the scope a little.

Thoughts?

Thanks John
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