See pt1 of this series here.

See pt2 of this series here.

See pt3 of this series here.

How Does This Relate To OSM Again?

If you have been following the articles listed above, you will know the Field Mapping Tasking Manager (FMTM) is a tool developed by HOTOSM to improve the quality of field verified data associated with geometries.

In the OSM world, this means adding and improving tags for OSM geometries.

A key element of this work flow is conflation of newly collected data with existing data in OSM. Some preliminary work was done on this, but for now the team decided to pivot and focus entirely on improving the usability of FMTM from the perspective of mappers.

The conflation work will be continued further down the line.

Currently, Rob Savoye is also continuing some work in parallel for conflation of roads in the USA, with OSMUS’s osm-merge project.

The roadmap for FMTM can be found here.

Easier Field Mapping

Since release 2024.5.0, we have be focusing on what we have dubbed the ‘Mapper Frontend’.

Our primary goals:

• Mapping should be as intuitive as possible for users, requiring minimal training or existing knowledge (with prompts).

• The application should be fast and responsive, tailored to field mapping needs.

• Data should load real-time, significantly improving the collaborative team experience. Joe wants to know where Jim is mapping currently, to avoid overlap.

• A secondary goal is the potential to package it up in a mobile app wrapper, allowing for easy distribution via mobile app stores.

Mapped Buildings Should Turn Green

• This was one of our first feature requests, and most important from the mapper perspective.
• When a feature is mapped, it should turn green on the map to indicate that it’s done!
• We have implemented this feature in the new mapper app, with further improvements to real-time sync of mapping status coming in the next release too.

Future Work

So, Sam, when can we use FMTM on iOS devices I hear you cry!

This is long overdue, and an essential feature to increase the reach of FMTM.

Over the next two / three months we are working on this as part of a larger push to integrate ODK Web Forms into FMTM.

Once complete, the requirement to install and switch to the ODK Collect app for survey data collection will no longer be present.

Instead, we will have a full field mapping solution built into a single streamlined web application!

Follow progress here, where this is part of the requirement for an ongoing mapping project of informal settlements in Brazil 🎉

Ongoing Campaigns

A project mapping settlements in the Tokha municipality of Nepal is about to commence!

We have also recently had projects mapping informal settlements in Ghana and Tanzania.

See the FMTM timeline with some additional projects listed here.

A Question To Our Users

The name ‘Field Mapping Tasking Manager’ (FMTM) was created quickly, showing an obvious link to the Tasking Manager.

However, we realise it’s probably not the most catchy name, and often creates confusion with the FMTM acronym.

Two possible suggestions have been made for a name change:

• Field-TM (consistent with other tools, e.g. Drone-TM, references TM).
• FieldTasker (describes the tool better, but does not reference TM).

Please comment with name suggestions, feedback, or other ideas!

Future Posts

I plan to make future posts about developments, technical deep dives, and usage of FMTM’s features.

If you liked this article and want to support the development of FMTM, please read the contributing guide here.

Show some love by adding a ⭐ to the FMTM Git Repo.

See you next time!