[Talk-us] Why does the USA currently lag in OSM map quality?

[stevea]

Ian Dees writes:
>Increasing awareness through mapping parties/events seems to help a 
>lot in urbanized areas, but we still haven't figured out how to 
>apply that to the rest of the country. Tools like MapRoulette and 
>fixme can guide existing mappers to areas that are probably in need 
>of help. Are there methods of remote sensing (street-level imagery, 
>data from other places on the internet) that could help us with the 
>locality problem?
>
>Any other ideas for how to make the rural US better?

I agree, I feel this pain of "the US is often an OSM desert" and I 
have for many years -- most of the history of this project. 
Concomitantly, I do what I can to promote "wider area" contributions 
to our data (as opposed to "more local" efforts like Mapping 
Parties).  This includes national bicycle networks, large-scale 
(statewide and larger) rail improvements, better/newer national 
forest data, and other, similar wide area campaigns.

These are not always deeply successful (though they are frequently), 
and I and we have learned much along the way:  wikis can help, follow 
Import Guidelines if importing, coordinate with a "divide and 
conquer" strategy -- usually state-at-a-time, do everything possible 
to keep quality high... and I'm sure there are many more.  Key is to 
extend effort towards BOTH local (Mapping Parties...) and wider-area 
(statewide, regional, federal/national level) improvements.  There 
really is an urban/rural divide in the USA (for purposes of this 
discussion) and once you "fall off the cliff" (of urban areas and 
mappers), we see a steep decline in data and participation.  There 
ARE "things" which fill in these holes (like long-distance bicycling, 
state-to-state rail...) in more rural areas, and I believe it is both 
cool and a neat challenge to do them, and do them well.  Especially 
when we ignite the passions of wider participation via a well-run, 
well-coordinated "project."

But often, (and I've gotten a number of "+1!" comments about this), 
when there are "projects on a shelf" that somebody who has a yen to 
map can just "reach up and grab a state's worth of work," we do see 
the checkerboard effect filling in blank spots.  Yes, the USA is big, 
even huge, BUT:  keep that up, (relentlessly, with coordination, over 
time...) and we'll simply improve our map as we need to.  I know I'm 
saying obvious things here.  Elephants are best eaten one fork at a 
time, and while it can seem overwhelming, we simply must keep 
chipping away at adding good quality data (as this sub-project, that 
sub-project...) with growing numbers of dedicated volunteers, over 
the medium- and longer-term -- ESPECIALLY in rural areas that "link" 
us.  That's a vital method it will take as we get there.

I'm not just cheer-leading, I want to see better coordination of 
these ideas:  efforts by OSM-US to take them to heart and leadership 
to get more people acting like this.  There are dedicated, smart 
people who WANT to throw more shoulder (or two!) into OSM.  Let's 
offer well-structured "projects" (for lack of a better word) for them 
to be a part of.  This works, I can say from actual personal 
experience.  It is part of a good future upon which to continue 
building our map.

SteveA
California