[OSM-talk] Some thoughts against remote mapping

[moltonel 3x Combo]

On 14/06/2015, Kate Chapman <kate at maploser.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 14, 2015 at 9:26 AM, Simon Poole <simon at poole.ch> wrote:
>> Further we have additional material in the early simulations that Matt
>> Amos did that indicate that this is not unexpected given some
>> assumptions about editor motivation.
>>
> This sort of work has not really been updated recently however. The
> community has grown and changed over the years. I think if we were to look
> at motivations today vs. years ago they would likely be different. As OSM
> is used on larger and larger platforms it is possible that people have
> begun mapping to see their edits on Foursquare or Craigslist rather than
> previously where people might be mapping to make their own map.

Another aspect I see is that in the western world, proprietary maps
were already pretty decent when OSM started. In that context, the fun
of mapping a whole town is a important factor of community building.
Because otherwise, pragmatism entice people to contribute to the
proprietary map that they already use instead.

But if you're in an area of the world where government and commercial
maps are bad, and a HOT task suddenly propels OSM to being very
obviously the best map available for the region, then pragmatism
brings contributors to OSM instead. Compounding this effect, if you
live in these areas, chances are that life is hard and the you don't
have much time for editing or much mood for fun town drawing. In that
context, you're more likely to contribute if you can add a street name
here and a POI there than if you need to trace the basic road network
first.

You can take these musings with a grain of salt since I bring no study
to show how important these effects are, but I'd be really surprised
if the criterias that drive community-building of Nepal or Liberia
were the same criterias as for the USA or Netherlands.