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

Is there any tool that helps users in contributing to OSM via recommendations on what and where to edit? Something that directs contributors to a specific location and tells them what needs to be edited there? Or even something that assigns specific tasks to contributors?

There is information on the how of editing. But I couldn't get information on the what, as in what needs to be edited on OSM.

asked 19 Mar '14, 17:51

vr3690's gravatar image

vr3690
664411
accept rate: 0%

3

With all the tools listed here: Please always keep in mind that tools only show hints what might be wrong. It does not mean that something is wrong. Please do not map for a quality assurance tool. Many tools also have a "false positive" button to hide such wrong hints; some sadly do not.

If possible take care to view object histories, to understand why something is the way way it is. You may find hints to systematic bad edits or to a user who may just needs some communication/help to learn how to do it better in future.

(20 Mar '14, 12:37) aseerel4c26 ♦

You are likely asking the wrong question. The great strength of OSM is that the data is gathered by local mappers on the ground, on location.

So the first and most important thing to check: is the area around me mapped correctly and is it complete? The result will depend very much on where you actually live and work, and could mean mapping from scratch to just adding details.

The size of the area you want to take responsibility for is up to you, but do be the steward for a piece of the world.

I could write a lot more on the topic, but I believe that the above is really the important bit.

permanent link

answered 19 Mar '14, 17:58

SimonPoole's gravatar image

SimonPoole ♦
44.7k13326701
accept rate: 18%

edited 19 Mar '14, 17:58

That makes sense. Now let's imagine two situations (non exhaustive) that I feel are likely: (1) A new user that lives and works in areas that have been thoroughly mapped. Where does such a person go from there? Let's say there are some aspects of those areas that do need improving, how is the user supposed to know of the same? That's like finding a needle in a haystack. (2) A user that has been contributing for a while and has mapped an area to a great extent and either wants some variety or doesn't really know what to do next? What do such users do?

(19 Mar '14, 18:54) vr3690

If the where is restricted to users' location, do you think providing them with the what can help? I am new to OSM and have very little experience with the community. But, I would love to understand how you feel about this.

(19 Mar '14, 18:58) vr3690
1

As I wrote I could carry on for a while (see for example my keynote at FOSSGIS 2013). Essentially you can go in to maintenance mode and use one of the QA sites (keepright, osmose) to pinpoint stuff that is questionable, or you start on a specific "new" topic, which for example could be 3d mapping.

(19 Mar '14, 19:00) SimonPoole ♦
(19 Mar '14, 19:49) andy mackey

OpenFixMap doesn't look particularly useful unless you're somewhere that there's osmose support (i.e. France), given that Mapdust and OpenStreetBugs are both dead.

(20 Mar '14, 13:15) SomeoneElse ♦

Mapdust is dead? I just took a look, and there are over 270000 open bugs there, so it doesn't seem dead to me. Sure, about 3/4 of them have the default bug text and are probably useless, but that still leaves almost 60000 potential bugs that might need to be looked at.

(20 Mar '14, 18:25) alester
1

@alester The RSS feeds stopped working some time ago. Even many of the bugs without the default text are created in a location unrelated to the problem (or the problem is a Mapdust software bug such as "volume control does not work"). The web site's dreadful (try and move the mouse over a bug and it moves out of the way!). I did use to monitor Mapdust bugs locally, but I'd guess that only 1 in 200 were of any value. When the RSS feeds broke, I stopped.

(20 Mar '14, 19:32) SomeoneElse ♦
showing 5 of 7 show 2 more comments

MapRoulette is one such tool.

permanent link

answered 19 Mar '14, 19:01

Richard's gravatar image

Richard ♦
30.9k44279412
accept rate: 18%

There are many Quality Assurance tools available for OSM. Just to name a few:

There is also a nice plugin for JOSM available, Quality Assurance Tools script, which offers a nice in-editor interface for multiple quality assurance tools.

permanent link

answered 20 Mar '14, 07:39

scai's gravatar image

scai ♦
33.3k21309459
accept rate: 23%

Your answer
toggle preview

Follow this question

By Email:

Once you sign in you will be able to subscribe for any updates here

By RSS:

Answers

Answers and Comments

Markdown Basics

  • *italic* or _italic_
  • **bold** or __bold__
  • link:[text](http://url.com/ "title")
  • image?![alt text](/path/img.jpg "title")
  • numbered list: 1. Foo 2. Bar
  • to add a line break simply add two spaces to where you would like the new line to be.
  • basic HTML tags are also supported

Question tags:

×352

question asked: 19 Mar '14, 17:51

question was seen: 2,284 times

last updated: 20 Mar '14, 19:32

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