[OSM-talk] Implement tutorship for newbies

Clifford Snow clifford at snowandsnow.us
Sat Feb 13 01:39:00 UTC 2021


Marcos,
I like your thinking. I was fortunate that when I joined OSM I was invited
by someone in a OSM meetup group. We could meet in coffee shops and pubs to
discuss how to map features. But most people seem to discover OSM by some
unknown process. Other than class assignments to map something in OSM, most
of the people don't seem to be connected to a group that could offer
support.

To get at your point of offering help, I welcome new users [1] in my home
state. My welcome message [2], which I stole from the Belgium community,
gives information on editing instructions and invites them to join the OSM
US Slack community. While I do often offer to help with edits, I only
rarely get a request. Research has shown that a welcome message can help
retain new mappers. I believe that by giving them some resources to grow
their editing skills that they can become better mappers.

If you think that creating a welcome message for your community might help,
let me know and I'll get you information on how to set one up.

Best,
Clifford

[1] https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Glassman/diary/395633
[2] https://github.com/cliffordsnow/newUsers/blob/update/WelcomeMessage.md

On Fri, Feb 12, 2021 at 3:56 PM <mail at marcos-martinez.net> wrote:

> Hi everybody,
>
> I am resending this mail which apparently got stuck waiting for moderator
> approval. I apologize If I did anything wrong...
>
> Am 03.02.2021 14:58, schrieb mail at marcos-martinez.net:
>
> Hi everybody,
>
> based on a debate in the Telegram Group regarding pros & cons of limiting
> newbie contributions an idea came to my mind which I'd like to share for
> discussion.
>
> Openstreetmap is a very complex universe. Although doing your first edit
> as a newbie is very easy, it seems that the more you dive into OSM the more
> intricate and confusing it becomes. When I remember the old days (more then
> 5 years ago - nothing in comparison with others here) one of the strong
> feelings I had was loneliness. There were no friends or relatives you could
> ask. As anybody else I presume, I basically had to read through wikis and
> threads, watching tutorials and How-tos. Some were more useful than others
> at that point but eventually I have now reached a certain level of
> confidence and understanding of the project. But heck, how much quicker
> would I have reached this level if there had been somebody clarifying just
> a few basics, may that be tagging basics or internal OSM process basics.
> And how many mistakes would I have avoided, done in good faith. Fair to
> mention that at that point I felt reluctant to join mailing lists or social
> media groups/chats. Call me naive but it took me YEARS to really become
> aware that people are perfectly allowed to use other tags than those
> appearing in the wiki, which I considered the bible, just to mention one
> point.
>
> My suggestions aims at making newbies feel comfortable, confident and make
> them understand those things that are OSM idiosyncratic. I'd like to make
> them feel part of a great community from the very start, reducing a huge
> amount of typical beginner mistakes, which wastes time of others who have
> to clean it up, creates unnecessary inconsistencies in the database for
> data consumers, and in parallel increases contribution quantity and
> quality. At the same time it probably also would increase the number of
> people that not only contribute but also actively participate in the
> community.
>
> How can we reach this? I have no technical background so forgive me the
> plain language.
>
> 1. First edits usually are done with ID. We already have the following
> clickbox: "I would like someone to review my edits." Maybe we could add
> another one such as "I'd like to get a tutor assigned", in case the box is
> ticked the newbie has to select the languages which he/she
> understands/speaks and optionally state the location he/she is mapping,
> maybe also the topics he/she is especially interested in (highways/tracks,
> public transport, POIs, 3D buildings etc)
>
> 2. We establish a voluntary tutor list or platform, probably applying
> minimum requirements regarding contribution time/days and number of
> edits/changesets, in which the tutor also states the languages he/she is
> fluent, as well as maxim number of assigned newbies.
>
> 3. Either automatically or manually (maybe creating a specific Working
> Group) those two list are matched so newbie and tutor can get in touch.
>
> I strongly believe that having someone the personally helps guiding
> through our jungle of tools, lists, data consumers, OSM use cases,
> processes, hierarchies etc will make attract more people which then really
> become part of the community and thus invaluable contributors and defenders
> of the cause. If something like this existed I'd immediately sign up for
> it: Languages: English, German, Spanish and Catalan.
>
> Looking forward to receiving feedback,
>
> Marcos Martinez (username: Mar Mar)
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> talk mailing list
> talk at openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
>


-- 
@osm_washington
www.snowandsnow.us
OpenStreetMap: Maps with a human touch
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