[HOT] Mapping buildings with new mappers at a maperthon

[ralph.aytoun at ntlworld.com]

A useful guide to running your Mapathon can be found here http://learnosm.org/en/coordination/mapathon/ 

There is no hard and fast rule to running a successful Mapathon. As I point out, each Mapathon will evolve at it’s own pace and in it’s own direction dependent the expertise of the people organizing and leading, on the people attending, the facilities available and the number of people involved.

As to the choice of Editor used, I agree with John that JOSM is preferred, unfortunately that choice is not always available. We have found that dealing with new mappers using school or corporate computers/laptops it is not always permitted to download other programmes, or if you have a large group uploading/downloading at the same time can cause problems for the available WiFi, and with one really large group we overloaded the OSM server. So our choice is to start the large group of new mappers with iD Editor so that we can get them mapping as quickly as we can and then deal with any questions they have during the session.

I do not count any success on how many squares have been completed although it is encouraging to the group to be shown at the end how much their contribution has advanced the project they are working on. I prefer to concentrate on getting the mappers to a stage where they are comfortable with their mapping and confident enough to try mapping further on their own at home and hopefully interested enough to return for further guidance. Going around the room and looking at what they are doing is paramount to this success. Telling them that they have got it and their work is good gives them the assurance they need to continue and even become more adventurous, so John is correct in saying that the one-to-one does show more promise and achieve better mapping. Even stopping to show a new mapper how to improve and correct their work has a very positive effect on their confidence.

Working with small groups definitely is an advantage because of the personal attention they can get, but will be more effective it you can get them meeting on a regular basis to build on their experience and skill with the various tools on JOSM.

At the London monthly Mapathon we have three training sections running at the same time … iD , JOSM and Validating. And it is up to the individual as to which session they sign up to. If they want to start straight away with JOSM they are welcome to do so. The mappers know that there is going to be a Mapathon on the first Tuesday of every month so it becomes a fixed date on their calendar which does help with returning mappers. We also keep the email addresses of attendees and they will get invited back to future Mapathons with an Eventbrite invitation.

As a guide to success I would point you to the fact that most of the trainers at the London Mapathons started off as newcomers and have stayed and progressed, a number of attendees have gone on to start up mapping groups at their universities. Also at universities and corporate offices where we have run Mapathons they have started up inhouse Mapping Parties and Mapathons of their own.

Martin Dittus gave us some statistics early on in the process of evolving the London Mapathons which showed approximately 30% return rate but it tailed of quickly, which is why we decided to offer the returning mappers the option of going onto JOSM, this helped the retention of mappers and now we also have a MidMonth Mapathon for experienced JOSM mappers to get involved in more advanced work.

To sum up, yes JOSM is desirable in getting good building mapping and very definitely when the mapping moves into dense city centres or slums where they are built butting up against each other. But then for people with no previous map experience the learning curve is very steep, having to learn about OSM, the Tasking Manager, the Editor, read Satellite Imagery, drawing the features and also tagging correctly so reducing this slightly by using the iD Editor to start with does make sense when you have a limited time to get them started.

If you have any questions regarding getting started or running your Mapathon feel free to email me and I will try to help where I can.

Hope some of this might be useful.

Regards

Ralph


 
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