[OSM-talk] Smartphone mapping in Africa

[Rebecca Firth]

 Hey John,

I think others have mentioned the communications channels for OSM Africa
are mainly outside of this mailing list (WhatsApp, Telegram), so I guess
having this discussion in places where OSM Africa engagement is already
vibrant would be a first start!

In terms of local perspectives on mapping tools & needs, GeOsm is a great
initiative (homepage: https://geo.sm/ & webinar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqcWL5b9r9Y). Maybe Willy might be reading
this and interested to add his thoughts. Also the HOT Tech Team has
developed this list of problem statements based on user research with OSM
communities and partners in many countries
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dPWpvfBmodbbJMK8hnV4BNBSVLnAuw1FN94NwD4Rm6I/edit
(caveat: I work for HOT - not specifically promoting this research or HOT,
just sharing some of the problem statements that have been developed based
on user research!)

In terms of a map maturity model, I like the concept of a way to
demonstrate and measure increasing map detail, but disagree with local
engagement happening at Level 4. Much OSM mapping in Africa is driven by
local individuals or local communities. I'd suggest we focus on creating
the enabling conditions for communities to grow and do their own mapping.
In case you're interested I created this example in the past which shows
increasing map quality over time:
https://twitter.com/RebeccaFirthy/status/1202952838722342912 (another
caveat: this was developed really quickly, and there are huge and glaring
errors with it, I'm not arguing for it or defending it's content at all -
it's just an example of a communications tool to show increasing map data)

Thanks,

Rebecca

On Thu, Aug 19, 2021 at 3:38 PM john whelan <jwhelan0112 at gmail.com> wrote:

> So how do we tap the local perspectives?  There should be a few ideas
> floating around.
>
> I get the impression that capability and resources vary enormously.  I
> note that
> https://opencitiesproject.org/ is trying to use open data.  Locally
> having open data with the correct licence has been very useful.
>
> Perhaps we need a maturity model along the lines of:
>
> Level 0 blank map.
>
> Level 1 most towns and major villages are mapped.
>
> Level 2 most settlements have names.
>
> Level 3 they have connecting highways.
>
> Level 4 the locals complain about the quality of mapping.  This is
> interesting as it shows an interest and some knowledge of mapping.
>
> Cheerio John
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 10:06 Rebecca Firth <rebecca.m.firth at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I just wanted to add some perspective on some of the statements in this
>> thread
>>
>> > There are some smartphones in Africa but often internet access is
>> expensive and poor.
>>
>> The phrase "some smartphones" is somewhat of an underestimation -
>> organisations like GSMA estimated 477 million mobile internet users in Sub
>> Saharan Africa alone at the end of 2019 (
>> https://www.gsma.com/mobileeconomy/sub-saharan-africa/). Additionally
>> many countries have 'leapfrogged' (
>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leapfrogging) fixed line & dated
>> technology solutions, moving directly to much more advanced mobile
>> solutions. Internet access cost and quality is also hugely variable across
>> the whole world. Growth in OSM local editing requires local perspective &
>> with that, acknowledgement of the specific context of a particular place,
>> rather than generalisations.
>>
>> > I don't think the ability to draw in highways is essential but being
>> able to paste a preset building outline might be nice. If possible it needs
>> to display the local region and by local I mean say twenty kilometre square.
>>
>> I absolutely agree that we need more frictionless ways to contribute to
>> OpenStreetMap on mobile in order to increase local edits (quantity &
>> quality). We should focus on listening to the objectives of local
>> communities before jumping to technology solutions,
>>
>> Thanks, and interested in others perspectives on this,
>>
>> Rebecca
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 18, 2021 at 6:10 PM john whelan <jwhelan0112 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I think I hadn't looked at Vespucci for a while but looking at it now it
>>> looks much improved.  I like the fact you can vary the amount of map you
>>> download.
>>>
>>> Complexity I think is just a matter of documentation.  I ran a session
>>> with new mappers and JOSM once with the buildings_tool.  I just taught them
>>> what they needed to be able to add buildings.
>>>
>>> Thanks John
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Aug 18, 2021, 12:45 Mateusz Konieczny via talk <
>>> talk at openstreetmap.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Aug 18, 2021, 17:31 by jwhelan0112 at gmail.com:
>>>>
>>>> We can do a fair bit of remote mapping but at the end of the day it
>>>> works better with local input.
>>>>
>>>> There are some smartphones in Africa but often internet access is
>>>> expensive and poor.
>>>>
>>>> What is available?
>>>>
>>>> Osmand is not too bad but I note it's power demands are growing on the
>>>> OSMand mailing list.
>>>>
>>>> See https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Editors
>>>>
>>>> Android:
>>>> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Vespucci
>>>> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/StreetComplete
>>>> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Osm_Go!
>>>>
>>>> iOS:
>>>> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Go_Map!!
>>>>
>>>> I think we need some way to make small areas of Africa available in a
>>>> compressed format that can be unpacked on a smartphone with limited
>>>> storage.  We need software that is lightweight or can be side loaded to
>>>> avoid overloading an internet connection and the software needs some basic
>>>> functionality such as being able to add or edit tags on nodes or ways.  It
>>>> needs to be able to work offline and we need to get those changes home.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I don't think the ability to draw in highways is essential but being
>>>> able to paste a preset building outline might be nice.
>>>>
>>>> If possible it needs to display the local region and by local I mean
>>>> say twenty kilometre square.
>>>>
>>>> Local language support would be nice.
>>>>
>>>> Thoughts on what is available or what could be built?
>>>>
>>>> Vespucci fulfills your requirements from what I see.
>>>> Not sure about OSM Go!
>>>>
>>>> StreetComplete has offline capability but not via file unpacked on a
>>>> smartphone.
>>>>
>>>> Both Vespucci and StreetComplete have limitations - in short with
>>>> Vespuuci
>>>> people complain about too complex interface, with StreetComplete it
>>>> is extremely limiting (detail can be added to existing objects, no
>>>> mapping
>>>> of new objects).
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> talk mailing list
>>>> talk at openstreetmap.org
>>>> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> talk mailing list
>>> talk at openstreetmap.org
>>> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
>>>
>>
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