[OSM-talk] Examples of good paid mapping?

Oleksiy Muzalyev oleksiy.muzalyev at bluewin.ch
Mon Sep 14 04:50:07 UTC 2020


Good morning,

I agree that the existing tags are to be used. And they should be used 
correctly, as it's described in the wiki. It is applicable not only to 
professional but also to hobby mapping.

I think that it makes sense to survey objects before mapping by 
physically visiting them. During a survey one can record the GPS traces 
around the object of interest. It could be done with a dedicated GPS unit.

A modern GPS unit is capable to record traces for 24+ hours without 
interruption. So even the approaching roads (or railroads) could be 
traced. Having these traces in a map editor will let us see that the 
satellite images are aligned correctly, or to see if the satellite 
imagery outdated and what is not on it yet.

It is also possible to make some ground and aerial (oblique & vertical) 
HD  photos of the object from different angles during survey. And not 
only of the building itself, but also of other POIs around such as say 
bus or tram stops.

Having the photos from the survey would allow to add later the building 
levels, opening hours, bus stops names, etc. It is possible to upload 
the best selected photos to the Wikimedia or Flickr (after blurring 
vehicle registration plates and faces on them for privacy) and publish 
the corresponding links on the OSM map, so that other mappers can use 
these images too. Before uploading photos, the GPS coordinates can be 
added to them automatically from the recorded GPS trace.

Another big survey topic is the elevation [1]. Human settlements are 
usually located near water. It could be of interest to know if an object 
is above or below the water level of a nearby sea, lake, or river, since 
the risk of flood could be evaluated. However, measuring an elevation 
with an altimeter [2] is not as simple as it sounds, but it is doable.

My point is that the good mapping, both amateur and professional, could 
involve not only mapping via the satellite imagery, but also the 
on-the-ground surveys using such modern tools as the dedicated GPS 
units, ultra-light quad-copters, portable HD photo-cameras, altimeters, 
etc. Sometimes it is not possible to understand from the vertical 
satellite image, seeing only the rectangle of the roof and the shadow, 
what the object is exactly, how many levels it has, what additional 
features or services it contains. Besides, the satellite imagery in some 
areas could be outdated or misaligned, and a survey also helps to 
understand to what degree, so that we use it properly.

[1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:ele
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altimeter

Have a good day!

Best regards,
Oleksiy

On 9/11/20 22:06, James wrote:
> I've been paid in the past to do mapping for someone, but I was 
> already an active experienced osm mapper beforehand.
>
> How to be successful:
>
> В Listen to osm experts/community and not fight against them
>
> Use existing tags on the wiki, don't invent your own
>
> Verify data accuracy as muchВ as you can, not dump data
>
> When merging data, verify if data is older than yours, locals usually 
> have a better sense of what buildings/pois have been demolished/exist
>
> On Fri., Sep. 11, 2020, 3:56 p.m. MichaЕ‚ Brzozowski, 
> <www.haxor at gmail.com <mailto:www.haxor at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Hi all,
>     Do we have any examples of companies that do paid mapping
>     (preferably at scale) and do it right?
>     Maybe leading by example will help other mapping teams get along
>     better with local OSM communities?
>
>     MichaЕ‚
>
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