OpenStreetMap
Hello,
I am completing a piece of coursework surrounding the empowering potential of OSM. I am aware that it enables users to complete maps and to map features which they deem relevant,
However, are there any tensions? Are you restricted from contributing in any way? Have you had disagreements over what to map?
Your feedback would be greatly appreciated as always,
Thank you very much,
Sam
Discussion
Comment from Harry Wood on 4 February 2011 at 14:28
Disagreements? In the OpenStreetMap community? Never!
You could ask this question on the mailing lists, but you'd probably start an argument :-)
Comment from 42429 on 4 February 2011 at 16:17
Disagreements? Oh yes, especially in the German community! Try to ask the German forum for our disputed issues!
Accepting ODbL - yes or no?
City threshold - 50000, 80000 or 100000 inhabitants?
Displaying brothels - yes or no?
osm.org/?lat=53.548271&lon=9.961561&zoom=18
Mapping county roads (Kreisstraßen) as primary or secondary roads?
osm.org/?lat=48.97549&lon=8.47213&zoom=15
Mapping cycleways separately - yes or no?
osm.org/?lat=53.259106&lon=8.955942&zoom=18
Mapping footpaths as footway or path?
osm.org/?lat=53.229406&lon=8.777049&zoom=18
Cycleway/footway vs. path
Mapping motorroads as trunk or primary?
osm.org/?lat=53.5154&lon=8.4902&zoom=14
Using GPX or aerial photos?
The OSM community is usually tolerant and hardly anybody has quit our project due to a disagreement. One user was banned because he refused to read his mails.
Yours, FK270673
Comment from Zverik on 4 February 2011 at 16:31
Lots of disagreements in Russian community, even on smallest issues. Seems like we have more people chatting that people mapping. I don't map my own region and city because of such disagreements in past, preferring to draw the neighboring one.
Comment from !i! on 4 February 2011 at 16:42
Hi Sam,
well yes on a huge project like OSM there are always tensions but on different levels:
1.Mapping
That starts if a detail/object should be tagged in our DB and goes the long way how it should be tagged. (Please refer the tagging mailinglist). This comes with the different people working on OSM. There are the tech guys, that think on the technical consequences first and there is a group of users afraid that OSM gets to complex. Oh and a whole spectrum between this groups ;)
2.Organisation
There are always different oppinons on which course OSM should tage. For example should the osm.org map be for endusers or just fit the need of us mappers that are active in the project? Another example is the upcomming license change as said already was a big issue. There are also some problems on people working on the wiki and people that like just getting out and map.
But yes even esp. on this topic are hardliners we are very tollerant. So it's very important to us that you can get in contact with the mapper that might did something wrong.
But OSM is a "do-it-democracy" so to try a approach and showing the results to others is king. For example if you want to establish your proposed tagging scheme, the best thing is to make an killer map/app that uses your scheme so people like to show up their stuff.
You might refer to other accademic works focused on the social aspects on OSM:
osm.wiki/Research
Feel free to contact me for further informations, but keep in mind that I have only a limited view on the german chapter.
cheers,
Matthias
Comment from Sanderd17 on 5 February 2011 at 10:13
From what I see on OSM, there are tensions on the high level (e.g. defining standards or rendering the map). I don't even want to read the Public Trasport mailing list because of all the little fights.
But on the low level: the mapping itself, I haven't seen any dispute. I haven't seen edit wars like in wikipedia.
So as long as you don't bother with the mailing lists, you have an OSM life without tension.
Comment from av223119 on 5 February 2011 at 13:59
I second Sanderd17.
If you're mapping according to the most popular scheme in your area you'd unlikely have any tensions.
Still, edit wars are possible. I've seen a person deleting edits reflecting actual state and redrawing the place according to the Bing images ;)