[Imports] Suggestion: Recruit Mappers instead? Re: Preliminary Import/Organized Mapping Effort Idea

[Greg Morgan]

On Sat, Dec 21, 2019 at 3:08 AM Rory McCann <rory at technomancy.org> wrote:

> This is definitely an area of the map could need work. Did you go to the
> talk at SotM about Indigenous Mapping?
>
> I am a little surprised, and saddened, that you don't have, and don't
> require, any Native Americans involved with this.
>
> Can I make a suggestion?
>
> Rather than your team importing this data, what if instead you search for
> & mentor some Native American people to add this own data themselves? Part
> of the joy of OSM is putting areas one cares about on the map. Skilled
> OSMers like yourself can teach, mentor, and guide. There is a ready made
> project here for some enterprising, geeky Native American. You can show
> them what to do, help them navigate OSM, provide encouragement, show them
> how things work and how to get what they need.
>
> Yes, my “Find & Mentor OSMer(s)” project will take longer than your
> original “Import the data” project, and there will be a period of time when
> the N.A. reservations don't appear on OSM (maybe years!). And there will be
> lots of hard work for you, knocking on doors, pound the pavement and trying
> to recruit new people.
>
> But I think the end result is better. We would have some new, passionate
> OSMers, who already feel that they have made a big impact, and who come
> from traditionally marginalized groups. And, most importantly, it will be
> Native Americans themselves who are adding & mapping Native American areas.
> “Nothing about us, without us” and all that.
>
> If you aren't able to this recruitment & mentoring task, then you could
> walk away from this import, and leave it for someone else?
>
> There's lots of talk about diversity in OSM lately, and that's good. But
> remember that it comes in many forms.
>
>
Rory for goodness sake where do you live?  Because you lack local knowledge
of west, this sounds nothing more than Twitter/Facebook virtual signaling.
 OSM has no race creed or religion: Map what you want...if you have the
leisure time to do so.  That also means that you have to the economic
resources to do so.  I love Maps.me in the Western US because of missing
cellular connectivity.  The whole point of your idea--not that it isn't a
good one--is that everyone has power and internet connectivity and just has
all the free time in the world to add nodes to the map.  It is just not
true.[1]  Also, I can only speak for the tribal boundaries in Arizona but
most of them have a casino that attract people outside the reservation.
Most of the OSM changes are from mappers that do not live on the
reservation but "survey" there.  The economic development areas are
designed for people outside the reservation so that the people on the
reservation can make some money.

[1]
https://nypost.com/2019/05/20/after-years-in-the-dark-navajo-nation-homes-get-electricity/

...

The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority typically connects from 400 to 450
homes a year, chipping away at the 15,000 scattered, rural homes without
power on the 27,000-square-mile reservation that lies in Arizona, New
Mexico and Utah.

At that rate, it will take the tribal utility about 35 more years to get
electricity to the 60,000 of the reservation’s 180,000 residents who don’t
have it.

...
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