[OSM-talk] Some thoughts against remote mapping

[Simon Poole]

Kate

I could go in to great lengths to define what the core mappers are,
perhaps the 5% that provide 95% of the data or the 10'000 that could
easily map the equivalent of a MM-mapping party on their own in an
afternoon and so on.

But that is not the point, Robert was claiming that the remote part of
MM was designed to address 'the Western "core" of OSM contributors'. His
words, not mine, and clearly, from the first events on, that was not the
case, regardless of definition.

Everything is geared towards churning through newbies and generating as
much as possible media coverage, not fast, efficient and quality
coverage of the areas in question. It may have not been intended so from
the very start, but that is definitely what it has turned out to be. I'm
sure it is a big boon for the involved organisations in any case.

Everybody can do more or less do what they please in OSM which naturally
includes MM, but just so I don't have to like everything and I do
reserve myself the right to call a spade a spade.

To end on a positive note: the team from HOT working on the activations
in the wake of the Nepal earthquake had to come to grips with the
reality that using disasters as a newbie recruiting events is perhaps
not such a good idea and after a considerable number of issues labelled
a lot of the tasks explicitly for experienced mappers which is likely
the way it should be.

Simon


Am 15.06.2015 um 17:33 schrieb Kate Chapman:
> Simon,
> 
> Can you explain to me who the "core OSM" contributors are? 
> 
> Is the issue that people doubt the usefulness of the remotely mapped
> data? That we don't really believe in our own success?
> 
> -Kate
> 
> On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 12:20 AM, Simon Poole <simon at poole.ch
> <mailto:simon at poole.ch>> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
>     Am 15.06.2015 um 04:11 schrieb Robert Banick:
>     ...
>     >
>     > Remote mapping was easier to set up in the early phases of the project
>     > and much more accessible to the Western “core” of OSM contributors, not
>     > to mention sympathetic journalists, who wanted to check out and perhaps
>     > contribute to the project. As a result the remote component has gotten
>     > an outsized amount of attention within the greater OSM community even
>     > though it’s only half of the story.
>     ...
> 
> 
>     I had a long diatribe here as a response that I thought better of, but I
>     really did want to point out that the remote part of missing maps has
>     never addressed the core OSM contributors at all. I don't think, even
>     with giving everybody a lot of slack, that it can be seen as anything
>     else than a marketing activity of the involved organisations in which
>     the net result is not of any real concern. And I don't think shifting
>     the blame for the above to the journalists is in any way fair.
> 
> 
>     Simon
> 
> 
> 
> 
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