OpenStreetMap relies on constant peer review, but what if nobody does a second check? Although I took care to mark my field map as accurately as possible, I realized as I was recording my features to OSM that there is a great deal of room for error. My field map differs from OSM both in scale and degree of generalization. Many of the points I added have a margin of error of at least five feet.

I was not able to connect with a fellow student while doing my survey. This is why I chose to record multiple types of features. To increase the accuracy of my additions, I could do a second survey and make notations on an OSM printout. I would have done this if some of my additons were made before today (2/18).

I have done some mapping in the field with a gps and with survey equipment. This is different because you can’t be sure your features will be accurate.

I did have an Idea that would certainly increase accuracy. I know that there are apps which take gps data from a cell phone, and I think some of them may output to a shapefile format. I think that using this sort of app along with OSM could be really cool. I could take a point with my phone, take a picture of the point I just took, and upload it to arcmap as a reference. The downside of this is that you would have to have a georefferenced image or some way of matching the shapefile with the campus.

I would like to develop a web map that could take a point (in the projection that OSM uses) and saves it to a shapefile, or better yet, a format which OSM could somehow understand. I have a basic idea of the structure, but I don’t know if OSM has that sort of capability… yet.

p.s. Damon and Stephanie - I could’nt figure out how to link images in time so I’ll email my fieldmap.