[Talk-us] Difficult USA mapper(s)
Alex Barth
alex at mapbox.com
Wed Oct 31 14:41:05 GMT 2012
It would help to know the concrete incidences - any way to know more details?
On Oct 31, 2012, at 10:11 AM, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Summary
>
> The Data Working Group has had a high number of complaints about a
> small number of mappers in the USA. The matter falls outside the
> normal activities of DWG. DWG would like to help, but need your
> guidance in how to do so.
>
> What is the Data Working Group?
>
> The Data Working Group exists to handle matters that users don't wish
> to handle. Namely:
>
> Resolution of issues in copyright violation, disputes, vandalism,
> and bots, beyond the normal means of the community.
> Helping to set policy on data.
> Detecting and stopping vandalism and imports that to not comply
> with guidelines.
>
> Most of this is uncontroversial and largely invisible to the
> community. As an example, when a mapper notices that somebody has
> created an imaginary town and notifies DWG, DWG can contact the
> mapper, block the account temporarily and revert the changesets to
> restore the real map data.
>
> It is also uncontroversial when a user self-reports that their bot or
> import has made an error and they ask DWG to revert the error for
> them. I should also note that many experienced users on the OSM IRC
> channels can offer help with undoing self-reported mistakes. DWG is
> called at times to block parties involved in edit wars and other
> harmful activities.
>
> The current matter
>
> An unusual number of complaints have come to DWG regarding a small
> number of accounts. It is unusual to get a complaint about any
> account from more than one other account. The numbers involved here
> beggar our experience in any other part of the world.
>
> The matters from that varied complaints are typically differences of
> opinion on tagging.
> The mappers involved have generally attempted to resolve the matters in private.
> The matters generally involve a local mapper and one from further away.
> The local mappers generally report that they are being 'over ruled' by
> a remote mapper who won't accept the local mappers local knowledge.
>
> DWG has the administrative tools to block an account. What we don't
> have is a clear rule stating that we can block an account for "being
> difficult".
>
> Questions for the US mapping community:
>
> 1) Do you want DWG to act on your behalf on this matter and or similar matters?
> 2) How would you frame your guidance to DWG so that DWG act
> appropriately now and in the future?
> 3) How would you frame your guidance to DWG so that there are no
> false-positives and few false-negatives?
>
> It is my opinion that this very limited number of difficult mappers
> are a large net-negative to the US mapping community and that the
> difficult behaviours must be stopped for the benefit of OSM.
>
> Best regards,
> Richard Weait on behalf of
> OSMF Data Working Group
>
>
> [1] http://www.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Data_Working_Group
>
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Alex Barth
http://twitter.com/lxbarth
tel (+1) 202 250 3633
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