None in particular at this time, I didn’t mean this entry to be a go at a specific project. Those who tend to work blindly are non-geographical teams who work on a subject: railway, roads, walking… Their behaviour is on par with Wikipedians who blanket edit articles under the scope of their project with no regard to established grammar, language, writing or in this case, drawing styles. Seafaring (OpenSeaMap) editors are exceptions, their work has been far above that of other teams. On occasion, disputes are dispelled with a few exchanged words.
This was but a thought, I am not pointing fingers.
All I can suggest is to comment on the discussions on the changesets concerned - explain what the problem is, what they did wrong, and how you’d have done it. Say that you’re local and offer to check anything they want the next time you’re in the area of (whatever it is).
If you can and if appropriate, add changeset discussion comments in a language that the author is likely to speak as well as yours (even a Bing Transator or similar translated text is better than nothing).
If they don’t reply after a week or so, explain again that it’d be really nice if they did reply, pointing out if necessary that you’re another OSM mapper who just happens to live in the area; you’re not some disembodied “system error message”.
If that doesn’t work and you still have a problem contact the Data Working Group at data@osmfoundation.org (disclaimer: I’m a member) and we can try suggest that they really ought to engage with you, and can take further steps if necessary.
Obviously I’ve no idea what the “project team” was that prompted you to write this diary entry, but I suspect that “team mapping” will be more prevalent not less as we go forward. Several companies who widely use OSM data have mapping teams, and there are lots of other “mapping projects” using OSM data. The quality of mapping from people on these teams varies, just like it does from other OSM mappers. Some “project team” mappers have been OSM contributors of long standing before starting their current team membership; others seem to have no knowledge of OSM and seem to have been picked up via an ad-hoc jobs board. In most cases the wider OSM community gets them “trained” eventually. The most common mistake “team leaders” (or whatever sort) make is forgetting that OSM is a community more than it is a project. If you come in and add any old rubbish to the data people will comment on it and fix it.
Meersbrook, please explain concerns about your locality or what “common mistakes” you see. So if they are true, you simply can point to them next time somebody have to make hard decisions in unknown territory for them.
Examples:
don’t detail territory A because it was changed recently
please help me with common highway graph mistakes
there no road, bridge was broken 2 years ago
please don’t trace highways in territory B because …
In the end, they are just editors of OSM, but with less knowledge of territory than you.
Use note=* tags in data, so nobody have to guess how poor or outdated imagery is. Use your native language if you feel slow in English.
Use more descriptive comments in changesets about important objects. Your commenting style “Features around (territory)” http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Meersbrook/history can be deduced from bbox of your changeset.
If a changeset should contain link to your guide, then post link in changeset comments!
OpenStreetMap
Discussion
Comment from SimonPoole on 3 March 2016 at 10:50
Any specific editing you are concerned about?
Comment from Meersbrook on 3 March 2016 at 11:08
None in particular at this time, I didn’t mean this entry to be a go at a specific project. Those who tend to work blindly are non-geographical teams who work on a subject: railway, roads, walking… Their behaviour is on par with Wikipedians who blanket edit articles under the scope of their project with no regard to established grammar, language, writing or in this case, drawing styles. Seafaring (OpenSeaMap) editors are exceptions, their work has been far above that of other teams. On occasion, disputes are dispelled with a few exchanged words.
This was but a thought, I am not pointing fingers.
Comment from SomeoneElse on 4 March 2016 at 17:26
All I can suggest is to comment on the discussions on the changesets concerned - explain what the problem is, what they did wrong, and how you’d have done it. Say that you’re local and offer to check anything they want the next time you’re in the area of (whatever it is).
If you can and if appropriate, add changeset discussion comments in a language that the author is likely to speak as well as yours (even a Bing Transator or similar translated text is better than nothing).
If they don’t reply after a week or so, explain again that it’d be really nice if they did reply, pointing out if necessary that you’re another OSM mapper who just happens to live in the area; you’re not some disembodied “system error message”.
If that doesn’t work and you still have a problem contact the Data Working Group at data@osmfoundation.org (disclaimer: I’m a member) and we can try suggest that they really ought to engage with you, and can take further steps if necessary.
Obviously I’ve no idea what the “project team” was that prompted you to write this diary entry, but I suspect that “team mapping” will be more prevalent not less as we go forward. Several companies who widely use OSM data have mapping teams, and there are lots of other “mapping projects” using OSM data. The quality of mapping from people on these teams varies, just like it does from other OSM mappers. Some “project team” mappers have been OSM contributors of long standing before starting their current team membership; others seem to have no knowledge of OSM and seem to have been picked up via an ad-hoc jobs board. In most cases the wider OSM community gets them “trained” eventually. The most common mistake “team leaders” (or whatever sort) make is forgetting that OSM is a community more than it is a project. If you come in and add any old rubbish to the data people will comment on it and fix it.
Comment from d1g on 4 March 2016 at 23:20
Meersbrook, please explain concerns about your locality or what “common mistakes” you see. So if they are true, you simply can point to them next time somebody have to make hard decisions in unknown territory for them.
Examples:
In the end, they are just editors of OSM, but with less knowledge of territory than you.
Use note=* tags in data, so nobody have to guess how poor or outdated imagery is. Use your native language if you feel slow in English.
Use more descriptive comments in changesets about important objects. Your commenting style “Features around (territory)” http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Meersbrook/history can be deduced from bbox of your changeset.
If a changeset should contain link to your guide, then post link in changeset comments!
Have fun!