[OSM-talk] online survey about the OSM community

[john whelan]

It's actually quite an interesting survey by looking at the questions you
can often get an understanding of what is in the questioner's mind.

One of the most difficult bits is getting a good sample so please go back
and complete it even if it doesn't appear to make sense to you.

It does show a fair amount of bias, for example OSM is very important to
cyclists but no mention is made of tagging for bicycles.  Some terms are
not explained well.  What is a college degree for example?  Colleges and
Universities in my experience have different levels of entry and different
qualifications this may be different in the US.

It asks how often you map but not how many edits you have made.  These are
quite different values and a link to OSM to show your number of edits as
well as how often you map might have been interesting.

Another problem we have is turnover, we have an enormous drop out rate.
Perhaps a question of when did you do your first edit?  Again a link.  If
we could understand this better we might keep a few more mappers.

OSM adds value in many ways.  Locally I sat down with the city officials
and we looked at the city cycle path map.  We then looked at the OSM map
and signage and determined that many multi-use paths were not tagged as
bicycle=yes.  The city's own map now has three times the amount of cycle
paths marked on it as it did before as a result of that conversation.  The
local OSM map hasn't been updated in quite the same way, locally some
mappers feel that they know better than the city bylaws if something is a
footpath or a multiuse path.

I quite like the wedding company that now uses OSM maps since they can
print them out and hand them to people.  You can't do that with Google.
Yet the survey implies that only electronic apps are used for maps.
Printed maps are still quite popular and the ability to take the data and
render it with different rules is very important to many people.

A strong part of OSM is mapping parties but realty is single interest
mappers those who drop in bus stops with the phone numbers to call for the
next bus for example often add a lot of value.  Locally small businesses
have added tags with their web site which OSMAND etc can link to, it breaks
the Google / Bing monopoly.  With an aging population could we engage them
to do armchair mapping?  Someone I work with creating virtual models is
eighty five and getting out and about is a problem to him.  However he has
an Internet connection and a PC, how much do we need to map in Africa?

We have an issue with tags.  Sometimes things are tagged incorrectly,
sometimes for a particular renderer, some people will go to the OSM feature
page wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features some do not.  It might be
interesting to find out how many knew it existed or why people tag the way
they do.

The survey seems to assume that people go out and survey then map.  I don't
think that is the case.  Some do, some just add GPS tracks, some refine the
tags.  Some work on software such as OSMAND, Maperitive etc.  Sometimes
directly, sometimes by adding a feature request.  There is a whole software
infrastructure that is part of the OSM environment, it ain't just maps.

Cheerio John




On 19 August 2014 15:38, Clifford Snow <clifford at snowandsnow.us> wrote:

> I had the same issue. It stopped being about OSM. Which made me suspect
> that his intent was other than what was announced.
>
> I'd be willing to help the OP if he was agreeable to suggestions.
>
> Clifford
>
> Typos by tablrt
> On Aug 19, 2014 11:15 AM, "Lester Caine" <lester at lsces.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> On 19/08/14 17:47, OSMR wrote:
>> > Thank you in advance for your potential participation and apologies for
>> > the lengthy message in case you are not interested.
>>
>> I gave up before I got half way - just seems like a load of useless
>> crap? Anybody actually managed the whole thing?
>>
>> --
>> Lester Caine - G8HFL
>> -----------------------------
>> Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/wiki/?page=contact
>> L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk
>> EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/
>> Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk
>> Rainbow Digital Media - http://rainbowdigitalmedia.co.uk
>>
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>
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