[OSM-talk] Directed Editing Policy

[Christoph Hormann]

On Wednesday 22 November 2017, Mateusz Konieczny wrote:
> > This policy applies as soon as someone is
> > directed by a third party exactly what and how to contribute to
> > OpenStreetMap.
>
> Maybe it would be a good idea to exclude small scale guided
> editing. For example my friend asked me to show how OSM worked.
>
> I showed him/her a map and asked to find something missing or mistake
> and later showed how to add this.
>
> It was clearly a guided editing as defined here - and I am not going
> to set up wiki pages etc before doing this the next time.

The question where exactly to draw the line with directed/organized 
editing is something that has been in discussion since the idea first 
came up.  This is a tricky question.  The policy tries to solve this 
with two relatively simple and clear criteria but this will of course 
still lead to people wondering if they are covered by this or not in 
some cases.

In your example i would say this is quite clearly not covered by the 
policy because your friend is not directed by you exactly what and how 
to contribute to OpenStreetMap.  You decide together what you use as 
teaching examples (like let's find an unmapped house in X and i will 
show you how to map this).  There is no director-directee relationship 
between you and your friend.  Maybe your friend also says: Look, this 
house is missing in OSM - show me how i can add this.

This is why the policy says "directed by a third party exactly what and 
how to contribute to OpenStreetMap".  Both the what and how are 
necessary conditions here.  In a one-on-one teaching situation without 
a clear hierarchy between teacher and teached this is usually not the 
case.  You as the teacher tell how to map but this does not have the 
form of instructions, you just explain the rules.  If your friend then 
receives a complaint from a fellow mapper he won't say "This were the 
instructions i got from Mateusz".

Note this does not necessarily apply to every teaching situation - as 
soon as the teaching happens with a specific agenda - like for example 
a mapping event for a specific purpose (like mapping buildings in a 
certain city) where newcomers are given a quick crash course to enable 
them to map this specific thing at the event ("exactly what and how") 
the policy does apply.

This is just my personal interpretation of the policy of course - others 
might see this differently.

-- 
Christoph Hormann
http://www.imagico.de/