[Talk-GB] OSM Analysis New Data and bot

[Richard Fairhurst]

Ed Avis wrote:
> Richard Fairhurst writes:
>>But if we were to put as much effort into marketing OSM and
>>improving our tools as we do into writing and indeed discussing bots, 
>>the 40% areas would be fixed.
>
> If that were true, then it would be no contest.  Given the choice between
> spending some effort doing an import and the same effort to recruit a huge 
> army of mappers who can cover the whole country, any sane person would 
> go for the mappers.

Lemme give you an example.

There are some really eloquent people on these lists. Granted, some of them
are eloquently arguing nonsense, but nonetheless, some really eloquent
people who can explain things lucidly, entertainingly, and convincingly.

So why does our documentation suck so hard?

Writing good docs is not easy, but given the right people, it is certainly
no more difficult than writing a competent bot. Certainly I know which I'd
find easier (which makes it a bit ironic that I do programming for OSM
rather than writing, but hey). 

There is approximately one person in the entire world who has made an effort
on documentation - stand up and take a bow, Richard Weait - but he can't do
it all by himself. And here we are all merrily talking about bots, while
every day dozens of people are signing up for OSM, staring at the screen,
and thinking "um, what the fuck do I do *now*?".

So how do we start to convert some of those sign-up-but-never-edit people
into real mappers? Get a group together. Have a mailing list (private if
needs be) to discuss what you're doing. Find an install of Dokuwiki or
Wordpress or whatever turns you on. Write some really good,
beginner-friendly docs. Start small: an English-language guide to
contributing basic mapping to OSM. (Bells and whistles and
internationalisation can come later.)

This little step would do a whole lot more for OSM globally than some street
names in Dumfries & Galloway ever will. And you can start it today.

cheers
Richard



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