[OSM-talk] Organizational mapping policy

[Jóhannes Birgir Jensson]

Þann 14.05.2014 08:49, Pieren reit:
> On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 1:44 AM, Paul Norman <penorman at mac.com> wrote:

>> Some types of activities that *could* be covered are
>> - Teachers requiring their students to edit OSM as part of a course
> 
> I hope not. How can we have on one side a (foundation) group trying to
> reduce barriers for newcomers and on the other side a group increasing
> bureaucracy for newcomers and their teachers ?

Quite. I've been mulling over setting together a session that teachers 
could use in higher classes in primary school, aimed at introducing the 
children to the concept of not being only consumers but also 
participants and creators of material online.

An introduction to not only OpenStreetMap but also Wikipedia, Project 
Gutenberg and other such open data initiatives.

Requiring these teachers to get each of their students to not only 
create a OSM user but also to put a boiler-plate disclaimer on their 
user pages as they map the playgrounds or sport fields they attend 
mostly, or wastebins near their school, seems an overkill and it looks 
like the red tape that is choking the English Wikipedia (new contributor 
numbers and engagement is dropping steadily) is edging closer to OSM, to 
my personal dismay (I hardly touch the English Wikipedia these days, 
having to display signed sheets in triplicate from librarians confirming 
the knowledge is real - or that is what it feels like - when my edits 
haven't been reverted by disbelieving bots).

The focus needs to be on the problem at hand, which I gather is 
companies hiring people to map things using their own methodology 
incompatible with current OSM tagging guidelines. Is that correct 
understanding?

The focus needs to be on a problem at hand, not on increasing 
bureaucracy for everyone acting with a common instructor or goal in 
mind.

--Jói