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Hi all

I would like to do some research on social network in OSM. Would it be possible for me if I could get access to user data (ideally all users from when OSM launched to now) including userID, rank, and corresponding actions?

Many thanks for help.

Martin

asked 12 Jan '14, 17:28

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Digmaa
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accept rate: 0%

edited 12 Jan '14, 17:43


Hi, you are very welcome to do any research on the OSM community :)
Please also check out this page, to know about previous works and how we understand a coop with the scientific community: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Research

Every user has a unique ID that is tracked in edits ("changesets"). So you can use the API to start with your analysis. But to do more/global processing, I highly recommend to make use of our history planet, so you have a definite dump and can work locally. But currently there is kind of official user ranking out there. There are some unoffical stats, as 'how do you contribute' for example.

But you need to pay attention on just using that simple metrices on the work of users/the community, as there might be local aspects that you need to keep in mind (e.g. imports or availability of aerial imagery has an influence on the workflow etc...) Please also note, that there are various other communication channels that are used differently on the local OSM communities.

P.S. Just one more hint: Please be aware that a lot of people are very concernd about their privacy etc. So AFAIK even the OSMF won't allow you to get more detailed informations e.g. "statistics about signup email account TLDs".

permanent link

answered 12 Jan '14, 18:12

iii's gravatar image

iii
4.9k84082
accept rate: 10%

edited 12 Jan '14, 19:53

2

A tiny addition: OSM users are also likely to file issues at a variation of bug trackers like https://trac.openstreetmap.org/, http://josm.openstreetmap.de/report and https://github.com/openstreetmap (the latter with a lot of different tools to report to) Then there is also translation at transifex for iD, JOSM and (iirc) osm.org. Have fun crawling and keep the privacy. :)

(12 Jan '14, 20:14) malenki

Hi, thanks for answering, it helps a lot, but I still have some questions. I'm wondering what means every user has a unique ID that is tracked in edits("changesets")? Is that means changeset ID is the user's unique ID? But each user may have several changerset ID, so changeset is not unique for user. From http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Elements last table, it says uid is the The numeric user id and remains constant. So does that mean each user has a unique id: uid and has several changeset ID? Thank you

(27 Jun '15, 00:09) marla729

Every changeset has exact one userid but every user has one or more changesets. The id was introduced later and users had been able to switch their name (even that wasn't common for fame) https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/API_v0.6#Changesets

For further details about understanding OSM aspects, I recommend to switch to the OSM forum or local user groups, as this allows to post multiple questions and get longer responses .

(27 Jun '15, 06:26) iii

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question asked: 12 Jan '14, 17:28

question was seen: 8,449 times

last updated: 27 Jun '15, 06:26

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum