[HOT] Thank you from MSF!

Phil Wyatt phil at wyatt-family.com
Sun Apr 7 02:13:26 UTC 2019


Hi Folks,

 

I am not a mapper for HOT or MSF but undertake mapping in emergencies for other organisations. In this case I would suspect that MSF obtains data layers from many sources, OSM, local agencies, on ground knowledge/organisations. The map examples will be made up of all these layers, not just OSM.

 

Designations such as Moto, Car and foot may have been applied to OSM data downloads and may well just apply in the current emergency situation and not reflect the general use of such areas. Likewise, boundaries names etc may just be local designations and not ‘approved names’.

 

It would be great to have locals with an interest in OSM and I am sure everyone encourages updates to the OSM basemap where possible, however it does take a concerted effort to onboard good mappers and keep them interested in improving the maps, plus easy access to the technology may be limited. Ironically, post disasters is often when people start to show an interest as they have first- hand knowledge on how the maps are used. During the emergency, the staff will have their hands full recording other data and may not have the time or resources to make updates in OSM.

 

Cheers – Phil

http://hdyc.neis-one.org/?tastrax

 

From: Ralf Bernhardt [mailto:raabee at gmx.de] 
Sent: Sunday, 7 April 2019 1:33 AM
To: John Whelan; Frans Schutz
Cc: hot at openstreetmap.org
Subject: Re: [HOT] Thank you from MSF!

 

My point this time is not the classification of a few roads. What I learn from this, is that our data is processed and reviewed again. If a mapping error is detected by local staff, it will most likely only be reported to their own mapping department. It will also only be fixed locally. We as mappers or validators will never learn from this process. All errors will remain in the OSM Database. That might be understandable in an emergency situation like now.  But without direct feedback from map users we will never improve. We should also demand that more local knowledge will be shared with OSM. A simple thank you is not enough.

Ralf

On 06.04.19 13:29, John Whelan wrote:

There is another wiki guide 

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Highway_Tag_Africa

both get updated from time to time.  As a general rule of thumb I tag highways between settlements as unclassified not track, I leave it to the local mappers to say if it is a higher classification.  Occasionally I'll tag as high as tertiary. Normally I leave the tags alone but have been known to retag motorways between two small settlements as unclassified.

I think step one is to get something mapped.  Step two is correct it and with lots of new mappers with different ideas we'll always see some problems.

Cheerio John 

Frans Schutz wrote on 2019-04-06 6:27 AM:



Hello Ralf 

you pinpoint to a situation which is not always clear. 
First of all. we ty to keep ourselves to the East African Highway tagging wiki 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/East_Africa_Tagging_Guidelines 

Different mappers judge different how to tag a highway. Out of my own experience lots of mappers (and validators) struggle with how to tag a highway.  Looking to the importance, the routing, and the width of the highway, which is hard to measure from a satellite image, we have to decide. A big number of new mappers are joining us and have different ideas (nor no idea at all) how to tag a highway. I've seen taggings as secondary highway as a connection to 2 hamlets and so on. So we try to tag as good as possible, but often it is a (calculated)guess which tag is relevant. Take also in account that there is a huge time pressure on these disaster mapping projects, so sometimes you accept the tagging as they were made. When there is no time pressure you can take a look to each highway and decide. 
I hope you get an understanding how we have to deal with this subject. 
Best regards 
Frans Schutz 
Validator 



Op 5-4-2019 om 20:10 schreef Ralf Bernhardt: 



Interesting when compared to the openstreetmap data. 

There are many POIs I would like to see on Openstreetmap too, also 
boundarys and place names. 

I also noticed a different tagging scheme: Car, Moto and Foot. I would 
guess that Roads not passable for a car but by foot and moto should be 
highway=path in OSM. 

But most of them are still tagged as unclassified or residential. Is 
there a reason for that or will you change them later? 

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