[OSM-talk] Scientific paper on "Information Seeding"

[Richard Fairhurst]

Greg Morgan wrote:
> Let's compare Germany[8], the state of Montana[9] and the 
> United States[10]. We see that the size of Montana matches the 
> size of Germany. Yet, we see the population density is roughly 
> 82 million people in Germany to 1 million people in Montana.

I see a lot of varied mapping practice in the US while engaged on TIGER
fixup (trying to make it routable for bikes), much of it very good, which is
leading me to the conclusion that the density argument is mostly a red
herring.

Anywhere with a population of 3k+ should be able to support an OSM volunteer
or two[1]. Most people in the US, and most people in Europe, live in such
places. Indeed, the US has hundreds, thousands of such local mappers: there
are great examples of small-town mapping all over the US and it always
cheers me up to stumble across them.

55% of Montana's population lives in urban areas, compared to, say, 67% in
Wales. It's less (and there are differences in methodology) but it's not
_that_ much less. There is no density reason why Billings need be less well
mapped than Bangor, Kalispell than Carmarthen, or Missoula than Machynlleth.

That leaves the rural areas, which are big and empty. But, and you'll excuse
me stating the blindingly obvious, the thing about empty areas is that
there's not much there to map. The TIGER A41 issue continues to be a running
sore but, by and large, this can be (and is being) armchaired.

Richard

[1] other than issues with socio-economic and educational characteristics,
which is a whole different story



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