[OSM-newbies] Conversational gambit: New to OSM?

[Dan O'Hara]

Hi all

I wrote up an OSM for Dummies guide that fits before the Wiki Potlatch Primer.  I have tried to post here but need list moderator approval because of the file size (its just over 2 pages A4).  It may appear soon.  If not I will try other ways to post it.  It may help.  I had 2, more experienced, OSMers go over it and who otherwise contributed bits and pieces.

Dan




________________________________
From: Aspen Swartz <aspendel at gmail.com>
To: newbies at openstreetmap.org
Sent: Tuesday, 6 October, 2009 11:57:04 AM
Subject: Re: [OSM-newbies] Conversational gambit: New to OSM?

> On Sun, 4 Oct 2009, Richard Weait wrote:
>
>> 1. What first brought your attention to OSM?  A magazine article?  A
>> web site interview?  SteveC's FLOSS Weekly interview?

I think one of my friends shared an article about it on Google reader.
I thought being able to create & edit maps without buying arcGIS was
wicked cool.

>> 2. What made you decide to get involved and join this list?

I was having fun but lost.


>> 3. What is the trickiest part about starting with OSM, for you?  Can
>> you suggest how to make this tricky thing less-tricky?

The trickiest thing for me is that I am not a programmer.  I don't
speek leet, I have never edited a wiki page, I joined my first
listserv last year, I don't own a GPS, and I am not a database
administrator.  So there are a lot of things that confuse me that are
obviously old hat to those on the "newbies" list- who are, it appears,
new to OSM but not to collaborative programming/ data projects.  There
are no answers on the wiki for questions like "what is a tag?" or
explanations of how tags work in OSM.  For that matter, it's hard to
figure out what a way is.  To someone approaching this from the world
of maps, "way" is not an obvious term for all lines.  (to me, "line"
would be more intuitive).  And the fact that all areas are continuous
ways is confusing to someone looking to add features to a map that,
when you look at it, has areas colored in- but then the area=yes tag
doesn't turn your circular way into an area unless it's the right sort
of way.  It took me a long time to realize that there were such things
as relations, and what they are.  I still don't really understand what
they are.  I can't write scripts and there are no instructions that I
understand on the wiki for learning that skill.  I tried using JOSM
for editing, but when I was unable to resolve upload/ download issues
I returned to Potlatch, which is an ideal tool for me.


What would help?  Those who write on the wiki (maybe including me
someday!) keeping in mind the perspective of a geography geek as
opposed to a computer geek would help.   As a geography geek, the
questions of "what are the defining features of a canal, and how can
it be symbolically represented" are interesting and resolvable;
questions about which slippy tile I'm on are not.  (I still have no
clue why they're called slippy, or tiles, or whether they slip and how
or why).  A glossary would be nice- searching for a term will unearth
debates about it if it's a tag, but for something like "slippy tile",
searching won't produce a definition, a history, a non-technical
description of function.  Despite my vast ignorance I'm having fun and
(I think) contributing usefully.  But I need a newbie-er newbies list
than this to become competent.

That said, stumbling around is remarkably useful to learning, and I
have had the patient assistance of a few users who discovered me
mucking around and making a mess, and set me up better.  So I
appreciate that, and to others, imitate the good example I've seen and
don't assume that people "should" know better- we all know what we
know and then we know more by sharing.

Aspen
(eulochon)

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