OpenStreetMap
The HOT team is currently working on mapping the country of Mali in response to the conflict that has recently broken out there. One of the big problems we have is that the country is very large, but very sparsely populated. Because of this we need help finding out where to map, i.e. where are all the people.
One of the HOT team members, PovAddict, has put together a nifty little tool for helping us with this problem. At the link below you will be shown a random place in the area we are interested in. If you see a building you click on it, otherwise you click the button to go on to the next one.
Help us out by doing some tiles yourself, and please pass this link around via twitter, facebook, etc. It is a great way for your non-mapper friends to help out the project without having to learn how to map in detail.
Discussion
Comment from BCNorwich on 18 February 2013 at 07:23
Hi, I spent several hours yesterday going through the map squares designating by mouse click those that contain buildings as then requested. Today I see you want dams marked as well. I’m sorry to say that yesterday I did not mark several squares with dams on them. So your dams count will be out! Regards Bernard PS I’m now going to mark to the finish, only a couple of thousand to go.
Comment from AndrewBuck on 18 February 2013 at 14:36
Don’t worry about missing the dams. The tool is still a work in progress and we are still refining exactly what to map and what zoom level to use, etc.
The dams themselves are only of secondary importance anyway. We are mapping them because water (of any kind) is important in a desert area, but our primary goal right now is to help aid organizations, and they are concerned where the towns are. The townspeople they help will know where the water is, so the main problem is to find the people. :)
Anyway, thanks for the help marking images, and thank you to anyone who shared the links via twitter/facebook. The ‘referrer url’ records on the webserver show a couple dozen people found the site through these links, so please keep sharing them. We will probably be putting up some more imagery in the future so check back and tell you friends.
-AndrewBuck
Comment from Zverik on 20 February 2013 at 14:19
Doesn’t work :(