[Osmf-talk] Humanitarian work

[John Whelan]

I think from both party's point of view it would be better if we worked 
a little more closely.  The pub meeting fourteen years ago set up the 
framework and how OpenStreetMap should work as far as nodes and ways are 
concerned.  The core were people who understood the need for accurate 
data and without that meeting HOT would not exist as it does today.

In Nepal there was a lot of mapping done that had to be cleaned up 
afterwards and I think that was a concern raised locally.

Currently in the Ebola crisis there is concern about the quality of 
building mapping.

In Africa generally the quality of some imports and mapping is such that 
it would generate outrage if done in a German city.

Far from HOT being the boogyman on the OSM lists it seems to me that 
OSM/OSMF is treated as the boogeyman by HOT for trying to maintain the 
quality of the map.

HOT I think concentrates on mapping to fill a specific request by a 
specific NGO.  OpenStreetMap works best by combining different mappers 
with different interests to produce a map for everyone.

Humanitarian work is not just done by the Red Cross.  Smaller 
organisations make use of OSM, I think one is a very small Belgian 
charity that installs water wells.  Just two or possibly three a year by 
water engineers in their vacation time.  These are far too small for a 
HOT project but they are important users of OSM.

We're seeing delivery services servicing areas that were unmapped before 
and they are paying mappers to map the roads.  They make money, their 
customers have a wider range of goods at lower prices available.  Many 
of these customers are in the income level that the NGOs try to improve 
their income.  It's happening without a charity being involved.

OpenStreetMap is used for many purposes and accuracy helps.

Cheerio John




Dale Kunce wrote on 2018-12-16 2:35 PM:
> Bluntly, I'm tired if HOT being used as the boogyman on the OSM lists. 
> I'm tired of the anti-humanitarian vibe of these list serves by a 
> small group of very loud and active posters. I'm tired of being told 
> that my mapping or opinion doesn't count because I have a non-European 
> centric view of OSM and I wasn't around at some magic gathering in a 
> pub 14 years ago. That just because I got paid to do OSM I'm somehow less.

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