Re: [HOT] Progression, Re: Mapping buildings with new mappers at a maperthon

[john whelan]

I think my thoughts are more we are adding mapping to OpenStreetMap, we are
not mapping in support of one charity or project.

Many many people use OpenStreetMap.  One of my favourite charities is one
that digs one or two water wells each year.  I think its Belgian and its
made up of a group of two or three water engineers who in their summer
vacation go out to Africa and construct one or two wells.

There are delivery companies, well two men and one motorcycle, that use OSM
to deliver goods.  They add value both to the person they are delivering
too and a spot of income to themselves.

They are dependent on OSM mappers making the map available.

When I look at an area that has been mapped by a group of remote mappers I
see the buildings that have been added but I also see what is best
described as junk.  Highways can be cleaned up although the number that are
labelled tracks is far too high but buildings are another matter altogether.

It takes 3 or 4 seconds to correctly map a building in JOSM with the
plugin.  It takes probably three or four times that to correct a badly
mapped building.  Basically you're asking someone to spend more time
correcting junk than it would do to map it from scratch.  Not only that but
the people running the maperthons are not taking responsibility for making
sure the mapping is correct.  I get the impression they are walking away
from it and hoping someone else will correct it.  For one new mapper fine
the community will sort out the mistakes etc. but leaving comments on
changesets doesn't work for mappers who will map once or twice and have no
idea what a changeset is and the community doesn't have the resources to
handle the very large number of poor edits left by a maperthon.

I think we need to think about how much mapping we are getting out of the
mappers.  I often see six to twelve buildings from a single mapper that
have been left untagged with the same HOT project code.  This is a
ridiculously low number of buildings for an hour's mapping.  Yes the
mappers time is free but we should be making better use of their time to
get more out of them.

I've added tags to thousands of buildings in Africa that weren't tagged.

Yes we can say we've added 500,000 buildings in the last month but how many
are accurate enough to do analysis on.  By that I mean get the square
footage so we can estimate population. How many doses of vaccine do we
need?  How many were mapped but not correctly tagged?  Landuse=residential
on a hundred separate buildings close together?

Yes I have a bee in my bonnet but prevention is usually cheaper than
cleaning up afterwards.  I'm not saying JOSM is the only editor to use but
for buildings at the moment it is much easier for a new mapper to use.  I
think there has been mention of a building_tool for iD that would work fine
but the mixture we have at the moment isn't working very well.

Cheerio John

On 18 November 2017 at 06:26, Donal Hunt  wrote:

> Thanks for the reminder Rupert!
>
> We did find that the participants found the videos from the beneficiaries
> that exist for some projects both insightful and powerful for the audience
> (we did get feedback that they could be shorter / more focused but actually
> getting the first-hand insight of how the mapping work was helping /
> contributing to getting results locally made a difference in my opinion).
>
> So +1 to having a 1-minute video that can be shown to participants at
> mapathons. Ideally created by leaders on the ground in the affected
> location but I feel that HOT personnel / volunteers familiar with the
> project and the region of the world could also supplement it where it's not
> feasible to have that direct connection.
>
> Regards
>
> Donal
>
> On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 10:43 AM, Rupert Allan 
> wrote:
>
>> Forgive typos. The sun is bright here on my screen.
>> R
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 1:42 PM, Rupert Allan 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi All,
>>>
>>> On this subject, I know this retention thing is much discussed at London
>>> Missing Maps/OSM events, and Ralph is a key point of contact there. I have
>>> spent much time thinking about it, and as a field operator I beleive that
>>> connecting remote mappers with the field. This is something we started with
>>> the WAMM2017 project, and we have a WhatsApp (the go-to local cal platform)
>>> group to which I can add members.
>>>
>>> Afterall, the ultimate magic of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap is that
>>> 'donors' can connect with 'beneficiaries', working shoulder to shoulder in
>>> a literally transparent virtual workspace, where no cash is exchanged which
>>> can muddy the philanthropic ideal.
>>>
>>> I wish we had a coordinator for this connectivity, and I try to build
>>> the capacity into all of our projects. Currently in Uganda (Sudanese
>>> refugee settlements), my chosen focal point for this kind of connection is
>>> Deo Kiggudde, whom I am trying to capacitate in the 

Re: [HOT] Progression, Re: Mapping buildings with new mappers at a maperthon

[Donal Hunt]

Thanks for the reminder Rupert!

We did find that the participants found the videos from the beneficiaries
that exist for some projects both insightful and powerful for the audience
(we did get feedback that they could be shorter / more focused but actually
getting the first-hand insight of how the mapping work was helping /
contributing to getting results locally made a difference in my opinion).

So +1 to having a 1-minute video that can be shown to participants at
mapathons. Ideally created by leaders on the ground in the affected
location but I feel that HOT personnel / volunteers familiar with the
project and the region of the world could also supplement it where it's not
feasible to have that direct connection.

Regards

Donal

On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 10:43 AM, Rupert Allan 
wrote:

> Forgive typos. The sun is bright here on my screen.
> R
>
> On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 1:42 PM, Rupert Allan 
> wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> On this subject, I know this retention thing is much discussed at London
>> Missing Maps/OSM events, and Ralph is a key point of contact there. I have
>> spent much time thinking about it, and as a field operator I beleive that
>> connecting remote mappers with the field. This is something we started with
>> the WAMM2017 project, and we have a WhatsApp (the go-to local cal platform)
>> group to which I can add members.
>>
>> Afterall, the ultimate magic of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap is that
>> 'donors' can connect with 'beneficiaries', working shoulder to shoulder in
>> a literally transparent virtual workspace, where no cash is exchanged which
>> can muddy the philanthropic ideal.
>>
>> I wish we had a coordinator for this connectivity, and I try to build the
>> capacity into all of our projects. Currently in Uganda (Sudanese refugee
>> settlements), my chosen focal point for this kind of connection is Deo
>> Kiggudde, whom I am trying to capacitate in the global connectivity of our
>> community support network. I am convinced that communication of realities
>> of the field is one of the keys to retention. Impact of remote mapping is
>> clear through these relationships.
>>
>> Couple that with the type of local OSM community members (aspirational,
>> bright, tech-savvy), and their interest in self-improvement as well as
>> community improvement, and you have a good formula. It just needs
>> implementing. Rebecca Firth, who does an amazing job globally, and I will
>> try my best to keep connecting people in relationships more locally as I
>> set up more intercultural/interactional WhatsApp groups.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Rupert
>>
>> On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 11:38 AM, Bjoern Hassler 
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear friends,
>>>
>>> Not in direct response to John, but on a tangent.
>>>
>>> Do people who organise mapathons have a sense of how many people come
>>> again vs. those who only come once? Do you have specific strategies to
>>> encourage people to come back?
>>>
>>> Do you have a plan for progression moving people onto JOSM, or as John
>>> suggests starting some/all on JOSM? Then moving people to validation?
>>>
>>> Would be interested to hear!
>>> Bjoern
>>>
>>> On Sat, 18 Nov 2017 at 00:20, john whelan  wrote:
>>>
 I'm not a great person for maperthons, the last one I attended could
 have gone a little smoother, there was a time delay before mapping.  They
 were mapping buildings and highways and although they were mapping for some
 time no tiles were completed.

 Recently there was another one locally which I drifted down to and I
 did the patter.  I took two laptops with JOSM preinstalled and set them up.

 As new mappers came in I just asked them to sit down at the laptops and
 start mapping with the building tool.  Then we set up their laptops with
 JOSM and they continued on their own machines installing JOSM, I think one
 needed to download JAVA and I had JOSM an a DVD.  They then continued
 mapping.  We had them mapping their first building within minutes.  The big
 delay was setting up an OSM account and logging into the task manager.

 12-15 people registered we had six mappers eventually, four were new to
 JOSM.  They mapped buildings quite quickly and I guarantee all were square,
 all were correctly tagged and none were more than six inches out of place.
 Most were spot on in Bing.  Tiles were completed and not just ones without
 buildings in them we deliberately pointed them to tiles that had a fair
 number of buildings in them.

 As they mapped they became more adventurous in drawing two squares on
 an L shaped building and joining them together.  We knew that one section
 was a caravan park so the mapper explored the tags and found
 building=static_caravan and was delighted to find they could select all the
 static_caravans and retag them all at once.

 One new mapper was a 

Re: [HOT] Progression, Re: Mapping buildings with new mappers at a maperthon

[Rupert Allan]

Forgive typos. The sun is bright here on my screen.
R

On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 1:42 PM, Rupert Allan 
wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> On this subject, I know this retention thing is much discussed at London
> Missing Maps/OSM events, and Ralph is a key point of contact there. I have
> spent much time thinking about it, and as a field operator I beleive that
> connecting remote mappers with the field. This is something we started with
> the WAMM2017 project, and we have a WhatsApp (the go-to local cal platform)
> group to which I can add members.
>
> Afterall, the ultimate magic of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap is that
> 'donors' can connect with 'beneficiaries', working shoulder to shoulder in
> a literally transparent virtual workspace, where no cash is exchanged which
> can muddy the philanthropic ideal.
>
> I wish we had a coordinator for this connectivity, and I try to build the
> capacity into all of our projects. Currently in Uganda (Sudanese refugee
> settlements), my chosen focal point for this kind of connection is Deo
> Kiggudde, whom I am trying to capacitate in the global connectivity of our
> community support network. I am convinced that communication of realities
> of the field is one of the keys to retention. Impact of remote mapping is
> clear through these relationships.
>
> Couple that with the type of local OSM community members (aspirational,
> bright, tech-savvy), and their interest in self-improvement as well as
> community improvement, and you have a good formula. It just needs
> implementing. Rebecca Firth, who does an amazing job globally, and I will
> try my best to keep connecting people in relationships more locally as I
> set up more intercultural/interactional WhatsApp groups.
>
> Best,
>
> Rupert
>
> On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 11:38 AM, Bjoern Hassler 
> wrote:
>
>> Dear friends,
>>
>> Not in direct response to John, but on a tangent.
>>
>> Do people who organise mapathons have a sense of how many people come
>> again vs. those who only come once? Do you have specific strategies to
>> encourage people to come back?
>>
>> Do you have a plan for progression moving people onto JOSM, or as John
>> suggests starting some/all on JOSM? Then moving people to validation?
>>
>> Would be interested to hear!
>> Bjoern
>>
>> On Sat, 18 Nov 2017 at 00:20, john whelan  wrote:
>>
>>> I'm not a great person for maperthons, the last one I attended could
>>> have gone a little smoother, there was a time delay before mapping.  They
>>> were mapping buildings and highways and although they were mapping for some
>>> time no tiles were completed.
>>>
>>> Recently there was another one locally which I drifted down to and I did
>>> the patter.  I took two laptops with JOSM preinstalled and set them up.
>>>
>>> As new mappers came in I just asked them to sit down at the laptops and
>>> start mapping with the building tool.  Then we set up their laptops with
>>> JOSM and they continued on their own machines installing JOSM, I think one
>>> needed to download JAVA and I had JOSM an a DVD.  They then continued
>>> mapping.  We had them mapping their first building within minutes.  The big
>>> delay was setting up an OSM account and logging into the task manager.
>>>
>>> 12-15 people registered we had six mappers eventually, four were new to
>>> JOSM.  They mapped buildings quite quickly and I guarantee all were square,
>>> all were correctly tagged and none were more than six inches out of place.
>>> Most were spot on in Bing.  Tiles were completed and not just ones without
>>> buildings in them we deliberately pointed them to tiles that had a fair
>>> number of buildings in them.
>>>
>>> As they mapped they became more adventurous in drawing two squares on an
>>> L shaped building and joining them together.  We knew that one section was
>>> a caravan park so the mapper explored the tags and found
>>> building=static_caravan and was delighted to find they could select all the
>>> static_caravans and retag them all at once.
>>>
>>> One new mapper was a teacher so since we had a very experienced iD
>>> mapper there after she had been mapping in JOSM for a period of time I got
>>> him to show her how to map in iD.  Her comment was not so complex to set up
>>> in that you didn't need to start JOSM first but per building it was more
>>> mouse clicks involved and more to remember.
>>>
>>> I don't know if the group of mappers we had was small enough we could
>>> give them a bit more one on one or they were just exceptionally good new
>>> mappers.  They all had Windows machines to work on.
>>>
>>> I do know that Jo has had some similar results going directly to JOSM
>>> for new mappers.
>>>
>>> It does look as if going JOSM and the building_tool plugin is a viable
>>> route for new mappers mapping buildings in maperthons.  Both the quantity
>>> per mapper and the data quality of the mapped buildings was high.
>>>
>>> Cheerio John
>>> 

Re: [HOT] Progression, Re: Mapping buildings with new mappers at a maperthon

[Rupert Allan]

Hi All,

On this subject, I know this retention thing is much discussed at London
Missing Maps/OSM events, and Ralph is a key point of contact there. I have
spent much time thinking about it, and as a field operator I beleive that
connecting remote mappers with the field. This is something we started with
the WAMM2017 project, and we have a WhatsApp (the go-to local cal platform)
group to which I can add members.

Afterall, the ultimate magic of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap is that 'donors'
can connect with 'beneficiaries', working shoulder to shoulder in a
literally transparent virtual workspace, where no cash is exchanged which
can muddy the philanthropic ideal.

I wish we had a coordinator for this connectivity, and I try to build the
capacity into all of our projects. Currently in Uganda (Sudanese refugee
settlements), my chosen focal point for this kind of connection is Deo
Kiggudde, whom I am trying to capacitate in the global connectivity of our
community support network. I am convinced that communication of realities
of the field is one of the keys to retention. Impact of remote mapping is
clear through these relationships.

Couple that with the type of local OSM community members (aspirational,
bright, tech-savvy), and their interest in self-improvement as well as
community improvement, and you have a good formula. It just needs
implementing. Rebecca Firth, who does an amazing job globally, and I will
try my best to keep connecting people in relationships more locally as I
set up more intercultural/interactional WhatsApp groups.

Best,

Rupert

On Sat, Nov 18, 2017 at 11:38 AM, Bjoern Hassler 
wrote:

> Dear friends,
>
> Not in direct response to John, but on a tangent.
>
> Do people who organise mapathons have a sense of how many people come
> again vs. those who only come once? Do you have specific strategies to
> encourage people to come back?
>
> Do you have a plan for progression moving people onto JOSM, or as John
> suggests starting some/all on JOSM? Then moving people to validation?
>
> Would be interested to hear!
> Bjoern
>
> On Sat, 18 Nov 2017 at 00:20, john whelan  wrote:
>
>> I'm not a great person for maperthons, the last one I attended could have
>> gone a little smoother, there was a time delay before mapping.  They were
>> mapping buildings and highways and although they were mapping for some time
>> no tiles were completed.
>>
>> Recently there was another one locally which I drifted down to and I did
>> the patter.  I took two laptops with JOSM preinstalled and set them up.
>>
>> As new mappers came in I just asked them to sit down at the laptops and
>> start mapping with the building tool.  Then we set up their laptops with
>> JOSM and they continued on their own machines installing JOSM, I think one
>> needed to download JAVA and I had JOSM an a DVD.  They then continued
>> mapping.  We had them mapping their first building within minutes.  The big
>> delay was setting up an OSM account and logging into the task manager.
>>
>> 12-15 people registered we had six mappers eventually, four were new to
>> JOSM.  They mapped buildings quite quickly and I guarantee all were square,
>> all were correctly tagged and none were more than six inches out of place.
>> Most were spot on in Bing.  Tiles were completed and not just ones without
>> buildings in them we deliberately pointed them to tiles that had a fair
>> number of buildings in them.
>>
>> As they mapped they became more adventurous in drawing two squares on an
>> L shaped building and joining them together.  We knew that one section was
>> a caravan park so the mapper explored the tags and found
>> building=static_caravan and was delighted to find they could select all the
>> static_caravans and retag them all at once.
>>
>> One new mapper was a teacher so since we had a very experienced iD mapper
>> there after she had been mapping in JOSM for a period of time I got him to
>> show her how to map in iD.  Her comment was not so complex to set up in
>> that you didn't need to start JOSM first but per building it was more mouse
>> clicks involved and more to remember.
>>
>> I don't know if the group of mappers we had was small enough we could
>> give them a bit more one on one or they were just exceptionally good new
>> mappers.  They all had Windows machines to work on.
>>
>> I do know that Jo has had some similar results going directly to JOSM for
>> new mappers.
>>
>> It does look as if going JOSM and the building_tool plugin is a viable
>> route for new mappers mapping buildings in maperthons.  Both the quantity
>> per mapper and the data quality of the mapped buildings was high.
>>
>> Cheerio John
>> ___
>> HOT mailing list
>> HOT@openstreetmap.org
>> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot
>>
>
> ___
> HOT mailing list
> HOT@openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot

Re: [HOT] Progression, Re: Mapping buildings with new mappers at a maperthon

[Donal Hunt]

I can share my experience with running events at my previous employer (a
large multinational) as part of their CSR efforts…

We ran a number of events over a few months and did indeed have some repeat
attendees (I didn't get round to validating the numbers but the data was
there I believe). Since the majority of people had never touched OSM or any
GIS tools before most people needed to learn what to do (we used a slide
deck with examples that we adjusted based on feedback at each session) and
then start mapping (baby steps).

The sessions were setup in what I would consider an ultra-social setup. One
of the benefits was that people from different teams got to meet and
interact outside of normal day-to-day activities. Having individuals that
had already attended a session was super helpful for covering off the
simple questions that new contributors always have. We actively  encouraged
people to first ask others on their table and then ask the leaders of the
event.

This was super helpful because it frees up the leaders to be able to
check-in with each table / group and verify that their quality was
acceptable and address any issues that were cropping up. If we saw a trend
(e.g. people struggling with particular types of buildings) we would stop
the mapathon, grab everyone's attention, cover the specific issue on the
big presentation screen and then let everyone got back to their task.

The intent before I left was to have most events be focused on new /
irregular contributors while running the odd event for people who had a
deep interest in contributing at a higher level. This would have covered
things like using JOSM, validating your work as you go, validating others'
work, etc.

Worth noting that our primary KPI was engagement (rather than anything
mapping related) though that could change over time once the effort was
more established internally at the company. So we also did some 45-minute
mapswipe events (setup and start-up time is tiny) which attracted both
casual contributors and regulars. For others looking to attract continued
engagement over the long-term, running short map-swipe events is a great
way for people to get a taste of how their contributions help (we used to
highlight the different types of mapping contributions as part of the
presentation at the start of each session).

My sense of things is that if you got 1 person who contributed at the
highest level for every 100 event attendees, you would be doing well. For
HOT, it may be worth gathering some data from various groups to see if that
ratio varies based on the group type (corporate events vs opendata events
vs charity events,etc). I suspect that having a regular schedule for events
probably plays a factor too.

Hope the insight is useful.

Donal

On 18 Nov 2017 08:40, "Bjoern Hassler"  wrote:

> Dear friends,
>
> Not in direct response to John, but on a tangent.
>
> Do people who organise mapathons have a sense of how many people come
> again vs. those who only come once? Do you have specific strategies to
> encourage people to come back?
>
> Do you have a plan for progression moving people onto JOSM, or as John
> suggests starting some/all on JOSM? Then moving people to validation?
>
> Would be interested to hear!
> Bjoern
>
> On Sat, 18 Nov 2017 at 00:20, john whelan  wrote:
>
>> I'm not a great person for maperthons, the last one I attended could have
>> gone a little smoother, there was a time delay before mapping.  They were
>> mapping buildings and highways and although they were mapping for some time
>> no tiles were completed.
>>
>> Recently there was another one locally which I drifted down to and I did
>> the patter.  I took two laptops with JOSM preinstalled and set them up.
>>
>> As new mappers came in I just asked them to sit down at the laptops and
>> start mapping with the building tool.  Then we set up their laptops with
>> JOSM and they continued on their own machines installing JOSM, I think one
>> needed to download JAVA and I had JOSM an a DVD.  They then continued
>> mapping.  We had them mapping their first building within minutes.  The big
>> delay was setting up an OSM account and logging into the task manager.
>>
>> 12-15 people registered we had six mappers eventually, four were new to
>> JOSM.  They mapped buildings quite quickly and I guarantee all were square,
>> all were correctly tagged and none were more than six inches out of place.
>> Most were spot on in Bing.  Tiles were completed and not just ones without
>> buildings in them we deliberately pointed them to tiles that had a fair
>> number of buildings in them.
>>
>> As they mapped they became more adventurous in drawing two squares on an
>> L shaped building and joining them together.  We knew that one section was
>> a caravan park so the mapper explored the tags and found
>> building=static_caravan and was delighted to find they could select all the
>> static_caravans and retag them all at once.
>>
>> 

[HOT] Progression, Re: Mapping buildings with new mappers at a maperthon

[Bjoern Hassler]

Dear friends,

Not in direct response to John, but on a tangent.

Do people who organise mapathons have a sense of how many people come again
vs. those who only come once? Do you have specific strategies to encourage
people to come back?

Do you have a plan for progression moving people onto JOSM, or as John
suggests starting some/all on JOSM? Then moving people to validation?

Would be interested to hear!
Bjoern

On Sat, 18 Nov 2017 at 00:20, john whelan  wrote:

> I'm not a great person for maperthons, the last one I attended could have
> gone a little smoother, there was a time delay before mapping.  They were
> mapping buildings and highways and although they were mapping for some time
> no tiles were completed.
>
> Recently there was another one locally which I drifted down to and I did
> the patter.  I took two laptops with JOSM preinstalled and set them up.
>
> As new mappers came in I just asked them to sit down at the laptops and
> start mapping with the building tool.  Then we set up their laptops with
> JOSM and they continued on their own machines installing JOSM, I think one
> needed to download JAVA and I had JOSM an a DVD.  They then continued
> mapping.  We had them mapping their first building within minutes.  The big
> delay was setting up an OSM account and logging into the task manager.
>
> 12-15 people registered we had six mappers eventually, four were new to
> JOSM.  They mapped buildings quite quickly and I guarantee all were square,
> all were correctly tagged and none were more than six inches out of place.
> Most were spot on in Bing.  Tiles were completed and not just ones without
> buildings in them we deliberately pointed them to tiles that had a fair
> number of buildings in them.
>
> As they mapped they became more adventurous in drawing two squares on an L
> shaped building and joining them together.  We knew that one section was a
> caravan park so the mapper explored the tags and found
> building=static_caravan and was delighted to find they could select all the
> static_caravans and retag them all at once.
>
> One new mapper was a teacher so since we had a very experienced iD mapper
> there after she had been mapping in JOSM for a period of time I got him to
> show her how to map in iD.  Her comment was not so complex to set up in
> that you didn't need to start JOSM first but per building it was more mouse
> clicks involved and more to remember.
>
> I don't know if the group of mappers we had was small enough we could give
> them a bit more one on one or they were just exceptionally good new
> mappers.  They all had Windows machines to work on.
>
> I do know that Jo has had some similar results going directly to JOSM for
> new mappers.
>
> It does look as if going JOSM and the building_tool plugin is a viable
> route for new mappers mapping buildings in maperthons.  Both the quantity
> per mapper and the data quality of the mapped buildings was high.
>
> Cheerio John
> ___
> HOT mailing list
> HOT@openstreetmap.org
> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot
>
___
HOT mailing list
HOT@openstreetmap.org
https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/hot