[OSM-newbies] Welcome WG meeting notes

[Dudley Ibbett]

Hi 

In answer to the two questions.  

Not from the slippy map but from downloading the map onto my gps and discovering it was missing some paths and there were no field boundaries.  I will never be able to afford OS 1:25 maps for my gps but OSM will eventually provide this.  

Like many I will always try something first and only get out the instructions/guide if I have to.   If it were shorter it would make no difference to this.  Worse case is when you do have to read the guide/instructions and you still can not work out what to do!

Regards

Dudley


> Date: Mon, 24 Dec 2012 00:15:29 +0100
> From: michael at elfu.de
> To: newbies at openstreetmap.org
> Subject: Re: [OSM-newbies] Welcome WG meeting notes
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> > In the mean time, I think we should use this channel to carve out our
> > strategy and objectives. To help with that, let me ask newbies in this
> > list: what obstacles did you face in your first steps with OSM?
> 
> this is an incomplete summary of 'obstacles' I faced when I started with
> OSM, first as slippy map user, then as a mapper:
> 
> I started to use OSM in 2009 with the purpose to find new bicycle routes
> on the slippy map. At that time I just wanted to use OSM maps, not to
> contribute. But already there I faced obstacle 1, the map key:
> 
> O1: I was confused that the key (legend) of the slippy map is not
> complete. For example the various mapnik tracktypes are rendered in
> brown colour either as solid line or dashes / dotted line. The map key
> only shows a dashed line, but the map location I was viewing had a lot
> of solid lines.
> 
> It took a few weeks until I figured out that I can use the MapFeatures
> page as a better reference to understand better the items rendered on
> the map. I don't remember why it was so hard to find that page. Maybe
> because it's not linked from the map page, maybe because the term "Map
> Features" did not mean anything to me a german native speaker.
> 
> In mid 2012, when I started to become an active mapper with JOSM, the
> next obstacles have been:
> 
> O2: I wanted to map a new road, nonexisting in OSM at that time. I did
> my own gps recording on the new road. When I wanted to add it via JOSM,
> I thought I can upload the GPS track directly as a way, but I couldn't
> find how to do that in JOSM. When I found the JOSM feature: "Convert GPS
> track into data layer" the editor gave me a warning, that this should be
> avoided. After that I went back to the wiki to read how to map roads. At
> first I didn't get the point why I first should upload my GPS track to
> OSM, but not use it as new data for the map? Then, after more careful
> reading of the beginners guide, I got the point.
> 
> O3: I tried to insert a new track and it wasn't clear to me what are the
> rules to connect new tracks to existing tracks. After reading the
> Beginners_Guide_1.3.1 (General tips for adding roads or other ways) it
> was clear to me.
> 
> I think two questions conclude from this:
> - Are there more mappers like me, who became a mapper through the mere
> usage of the slippy map?
> - Is the beginners guide still to comprehensive for impatient newbies
> like me who do not carefully read the beginner's guide?
> 
> Michael
> 
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