[Talk-GB] skobbler OSM bug backchannel

Kai Krueger kakrueger at gmail.com
Sat May 15 13:26:06 BST 2010


Hi,

I think the bugs page is quite nicely done and has made some good 
improvements over the first version. :-)

Some of my thoughts about it.

One of the problems I think with some of the bug reports are, that they 
aren't necessarily reported at the place where they actually occur. To 
some degree this is quite understandable. If you are driving along and 
are focusing on road safety, you don't really have the capacity to enter 
a bug report into your phone. Particularly not, if your satnav just sent 
you the wrong way and you need to reconsider the situation. So probably 
you are going to enter it much later when you do have time (unless you 
have a passenger to enter the text). I don't really have a solution to 
this, but one possibility that may be worth considering is to use an 
auditory entry system. At least in calm situation it is probably 
possible to press the bug button and then enter a note via talking. Not 
sure though how that would integrate into the rest of the system.

The other aspect I'd like to mention is one of phrasing to your users. 
In some of the descriptions about Skobbler, it sometimes sounds a bit 
too much that simply reporting the error will fix it. It might be nice 
if the wording could emphasis a bit more that the best way of getting 
the bug fixed is by actually fixing it your self rather than "simply" 
reporting it, as otherwise it may take an arbitrary amount of time till 
some OSMer gets to it. It is a tricky one though, as I suspect most of 
skobblers users just want a satnav and don't necessarily care about OSM, 
so over emphasizing it might not be that helpful either. It also appears 
like Skobbler has been successful in Germany in recruiting a reasonable 
number of new people to OSM. So hopefully that will be the case in the 
UK too.

Anyway, it is great to see an increasing number of people and 
applications actually using OSM data, as that is imho one of the best 
ways to help with quality assurance and spread the word of OSM.

Kai



On 01/-10/-28163 08:59 PM, Marcus Thielking wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> I'm one of the founders of skobbler. We have included a map bug report backchannel into the OSM-based iPhone navigation app that was just released in the UK/Ireland (this is not a sales pitch!). We really try to make this backchannel meaningful. It has been inspired by the well-established Openstreetbugs page.
>
> skobbler users can report errors that they have experience while navigating with skobbler from within the app. These reports are then displayed on our webpage with the intention to offer mappers a source of valid information on where to look for map improvements.
>
> It would be much appreciated if some of you could have a look at www.skobbler.co.uk/osmbugs and tell us what should be changed in order to make it more accessible for you.
>
> Each little icon on the map symbolizes/localizes a bug report by a skobbler user. When clicking on the respective unique "sko-xxxxx" number of the report, you can also find the respective user's advised and actual route within a small radius around the error report on a bug detail page (if (s)he was in navigation mode). The deviation between the two should provide additional info on where the actual error in the map is located. Here's an example: http://www.skobbler.co.uk/osmbugs/detail/sko-22995
>
> Any feedback is welcome. Please help us to make this a source of good OSM information to support the OSM improvement in the UK and Ireland.
>
> Cheers,
> Marcus
>
>
>





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