[Osmf-talk] Africa as a training ground was RE: google Open Buildings usage request

[Pete Masters]

>
> It seems to be a valid request that every remote mapping project
> started shall have at least one local coordinator, who can
> actaully help writing and updating the guidelines and oversee
> validation. This is mostly about about HOT, but generally about any
> organised remote mapping event.
>

Hi grin,

Whilst I understand the intent behind what you're saying, I can't agree
with your blanket solution. I work for HOT, and prior to my current job, I
worked for many years for MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières), a humanitarian
NGO. Humanitarian response has benefited in a myriad of ways from
OpenStreetMap contributions, many of them from remote mappers miles away
from what they are mapping. In a humanitarian crisis -  a large measles
outbreak in rural South Sudan, for example - finding a local coordinator to
write and update guidelines and oversee validation isn't realistic. The
data provided by OSM contributors can make a real difference to how such a
response is planned and executed (from epidemiology to resource allocation
to supply and logistics) and the quicker it is provided, the more impact it
can have.

Of course, I am not claiming this as a parallel to the Australian bush fire
example you shared (contexts being very different) and neither do I hold
the opinion that any project tagged 'humanitarian' should have free reign
to do whatever it likes, whether remote or local. I just think the
discussion needs to be a little more nuanced than it currently is in some
regards.

Also, just to set the record straight a little bit on projects that involve
the use of the HOT tasking manager (https://tasks.hotosm.org/)... There are
HOT projects, of course (that HOT staff or volunteers publish and manage),
but these do not account for all projects. Just a snapshot, I know, but
currently of the top ten listed, there are three managed by HOT, two from
an Indian NGO partner supported by HOT and five from local communities in
Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Once a community or organisation requests project management permissions
(and is onboarded on how) to use the tasking manager, they take
responsibility for their own projects. HOT does not direct or gatekeep at
this point (although it does offer guidance and advice). It is correct to
call all of these projects tasking manager projects and it is correct to
call some of them HOT projects.

Lastly, I think these linked conversations about quality and community
engagement / leadership are super important and they are very live ones
within HOT right now.

Cheers,

Pete

On Mon, Aug 2, 2021 at 6:37 PM grin via osmf-talk <
osmf-talk at openstreetmap.org> wrote:

> On Sun, 01 Aug 2021 22:02:21 +0200
> Dave <dfjkman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > As the person who initiated this thread I just want to make it clear
> > that I did not intend it to be come a HOT bashing forum rather to
> > point out that Africa tends to be where mappers come to train, some
> > to then move on to map elsewhere others to never map again.
>
> I do not want to write a lot others already said well, just a comment:
>
> It seems to be a valid request that every remote mapping project
> started shall have at least one local coordinator, who can
> actaully help writing and updating the guidelines and oversee
> validation. This is mostly about about HOT, but generally about any
> organised remote mapping event.
>
> Also similarly there shouldn't be machine based updates/imports without
> human control, and the projects shall have at least one local
> coordinator to validate the edits.
>
> Remote mapping without any local support shall not be organised in
> general case, neither HOT nor AI, and the edits warned/rejected if it
> happens.
>
> My 2 'cents,
> grin
>
> ps: An interesting experience was the australian bush fire mapping
> event where (some of the) local people complained pretty loudly that
> they do not want to have the bush pathways mapped since it changes
> yearly and it's misleading in their own personal opinion; it was almost
> impossible to tell from 10000 km away who's right.
>
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