[OSM-talk-be] Unamapped ... errrrrr Sparsely mapped places :)

[Ben Laenen]

On Thursday 18 October 2012 07:51:01 Nicolas Pettiaux wrote:
> Thanks Brice,
> 
> Very interesting. With only 17 places left, we can tackle the work more
> precisely.
> 
> Wouldn't it be interesting to organize a mapping party in one of these
> locations, after preparation and contact with local people, perhaps the
> tourist authorities, to let them know that, with their help, we plan to
> come and map better their locality ?

If you look at the places that are sparsely mapped, I don't think it's really 
any use to have mapping parties at those exact locations.

Langemark-Poelkapelle for example is just a result of our fused 
municipalities, the place node has to be somewhere in the middle of nowhere 
between Langemark en Poelkapelle (which are both properly mapped) 
http://bmaron.net/osm_stats/unmapped/?zoom=15&lat=50.91117&lon=2.93411&layers=B0TT

The same with Meeuwen-Gruitrode:
http://bmaron.net/osm_stats/unmapped/?zoom=15&lat=51.09158&lon=5.55373&layers=B0TT

Paulatem, a village with a population of 140, not many streets are missing 
there then...
http://bmaron.net/osm_stats/unmapped/?zoom=16&lat=50.8958&lon=3.71461&layers=B0TT

Roborst and Sint-Blasius-Boekel: both tiny places, but all their streets are 
mapped
http://bmaron.net/osm_stats/unmapped/?zoom=15&lat=50.86228&lon=3.75367&layers=B0TT
http://bmaron.net/osm_stats/unmapped/?zoom=15&lat=50.84965&lon=3.7208&layers=B0TT

Oosterzele: because it also merged with other municipalities, Oosterzele has 
over 10000 inhabitants and thus the place node becomes "town", but the village 
itself is much smaller, and all streets are there:
http://bmaron.net/osm_stats/unmapped/?zoom=14&lat=50.94527&lon=3.80038&layers=B0TT

And so on... So I think it's basically hitting the limits of the algorithm 
that decides which are the unmapped or sparsely mapped places, rather than 
telling us which places are really sparsely mapped.


> THis could be one opportunity
> 
> 1/ to meet (at least the one who want, like me, to put a face on a name
> often read), especially when working on finalizing an OSM-BE association,
> 2/ to involve some people who are NOT yet mappers and let them know what we
> do and why, and appreciate the result afterwards, maybe let the use it for
> their internal or external promotion,  for example using
> http://maposmatic.org/ that we could show also and use to leave them with
> the tools to make their own local maps,
> 3/ to attract the press and further support
> 
> What do you think ?

Mapping parties can be done of course, but I think there are better options 
than the sparsely mapped places. "Unfortunately" by now most places are mapped 
(nothing beats the joy of starting to map somewhere which is barely mapped -- 
e.g. the Hoboken/Turnhout/Deinze mapping parties long ago), but there are 
still quite a few places that needs to be cleaned up (bad or missing street 
names, missing oneways etc.). But I don't have any suggestions on where to 
start with that for now.

Greetings
Ben