[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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