Well, what a start to the year it’s been.

It’s taken a little while to get this post together, as I think myself and the rest of hot_tech needed a bit of time to recover after kicking of this year in 6th gear with two back to back RaDs.

Some of you may remember these daily posts introducing everyone to the concept of hot_tech Rapid Assessment Design Prints (aka RaDs). Back then, in writing, it all seemed so clear and clean. Now writing this, I remember just how muddy and messy this process is in action. A process of continuous lessons and learning.

Lesson 1: Sprint by name, marathon by nature. It may be called a sprint, but it requires the dedication, resilience and effort of a marathon.

Round 1

Our RaDs started with the intention of better understanding of who hot_tech served and how. Our BIG QUESTION - “What makes our groups stick, tick and thrive?”. We connected and explored with groups such as members of OSM Francophone, UN Mappers, Slum Dwellers International and a host of other super interesting collectives. We learned so much that to capture it all here would result in a post that is either too long, or under representative. As such, a few key learnings I wanted to share and the rest can be content for future posts.

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So, over at HOT_tech we’ve we’ve been working hard, so you can work easy. Our number one priority is hearing and helping, so we’ve made some changes to make it easy for you to notify us of bugs, issues and support requests.

All roads lead to…’hot_tech_requests’

We know that everyone likes to communicate in different ways; slack, email, online forms etc and we don’t want to change this. We want to meet you where you are. However, we also want to make sure that no request is left behind. As such, we have established a service desk that brings your request from where you are, to where we are - the hot_tech_requests desk.

So how does it work?

1. You send us a message however you want.
2. That message gets added to our service desk backlog (and you get a nice message to say ‘thanks’)
3. We work to resolve it
4. You get updates on how it’s progressing and when it’s done.

Raise your voice by raising a ticket and make sure that your voice gets heard and your ticket attended to.

So how do I do it?

Well, glad you asked, I was just about to mention. Everything can be done in three steps or less.

The hot_tech_requests desk (rapid response, requires email for updates)

1. Go to hot_tech_requests desk >
2. Select your issue and complete the form >
3. Done >

You will be automatically updated via the email address you provided

Shout out on Slack (regular response, requires slack membership)

1. Go to this channel in hotosm slack > #hot_tech_requests
2. Type a message related to your issue.
3. Done!

Issue updates will be posted directly to this channel so everyone can see the progress.

Send an email (regular response, no sign-up required)

1. Email this address techsupport@hotosm.org
2. Done

You will be automatically updated via the email address you used to send the request

GitHub (regular response, included in backlogs, github account required)

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Over the past few months HOT has been working in partnership with NESTA Collective Intelligence grants and 510 at the Netherlands Red Cross to implement an experiment to test the efficiency and efficacy of AI assistance on remote mapping of buildings.

The experiment is designed to compare the results of traditional remote mapping workflows (editing in ID Editor) with emerging AI assisted workflows (editing with RapID). To do this, we will be conducting mapping experiments of two locations (Uganda and US), with two different levels of mappers (beginner and advanced) using the two different remote mapping workflows (RapID and ID).

To this end, we are looking to run four experimental groups with > 50 people each, as follows: Beginner Mapathon - Uganda data Beginner Mapathon - US data Advanced Mapathon - Uganda data Advanced Mapathon - US data

Each mapathon will be a total of two hours, with participants being randomly assigned to map building footprints with either ID or RapID prior to beginning their mapping. Data will be gathered on the existence of map features, completeness of mapped features and similarity of map features, when compared with an OSM reference dataset.

For the mapathons we will be using convenience sampling from our networks by generating a public call for participants.

You can sign up to participate in the experiment here >

Kindness,

bo

Hi All,

For all those playing along at home, hot_tech - The tech team at Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team - kicked off our Design Sprints yesterday and I thought I would share the BIG question we’re looking to explore (and our pretty hot dot map).

Sprint Theme: Group Mapping
BIG question: What makes group glue? What makes mapping groups stick, tick and strong:

If you have some thoughts or opinions about mapping in groups (or what makes them stick, tick or strong) or any of the questions you see here, reach out to us and we can include you in our engage days (Wednesday and Thursday, any time zone). You can DM us here, or complete this form >

you get credit for what you finish, not what you start - unkown

Today is the day to put our ideas into the hands of the people that face the problem.

For those that haven’t heard of Paulo Freire, to introduce him here would not do him justice. However, he fundamentally shaped me both personally and professionally.

‘The people that face the problem, are those best placed to solve it’. - Paulo Friere

There is little I am more passionate about in this world than this statement.

It is for this reason, that Friday is one of my favourite days in the design sprints. It’s the day where we finally get to see if our listening and learning was translated into something that will help people solve their problems. Ultimately it is a day of practicing deep humility.

Whoever teaches, learns in the act of teaching and whoever learns, teaches in the act of learning. - Paulo Friere.

And that’s what we’re here to do. Learn. We are in search of the golden equation: problem + solution = value. Ultimately this is what matters most - no value, no solution.

And once we have found a solution of value? Evolution.

To be continued…

The end of one story, is the beginning of many more. - unkown

To do good, you actually have to do something - Yvon Chouinard

Well today is the day, straightup hackfest. The team will spend the day developing a prototype ready to be tested tomorrow.

We break from the daily structure on this one and the team will break out into smaller groups/pairs to hack together a prototype based on our decision yesterday. This all has to happen in one day, so this is an exercise in effort estimation and making sure we don’t bite of more than we can chew. The goal isn’t to have a refined product, rather something we can use to test our Big Question…

Want us to prototype a solution for your biggest problem? tell us about it here »

You cannot make progress, without making decisions - Jim Rohn

So, are you sick of reading me yet? Well, the good news is only two days to go. If you’ve been following along or read this far hopefully it’s been useful, or at the very least, tolerable.

Today we decide

I’m going to start by showing an image of how decisions are typically made by consensus.

The problem with this approach, is that all the regular voices are heard (typically also the loudest or most relentless ones), if you’re lucky, most people are ok to let the decision move forward (even if they don’t love it) and you end up most probably with a camel (a horse designed by a committee).

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Drawing is exercise for a restless imagination - Tim Burton

Finally, it’s time to put some pen to paper and start to turns problems into solutions. I can almost hear a collective sigh of relief from some of the hot_tech members, ‘finally time to get hands on’.

Do you want us to sketch a solution to a problem you’re facing? Hit us up here »

For the sole search today, each of us will be undertaking a redux session. Basically a redux session is us o’oking further afield to collect ideas that inspire us toward our solution. We will then prepare these ideas to be shared in the remix session thought ‘Lightning Demos’.

Remix
In our remix session today we will be conducting Lightning Demos. IThrough a three minute tour, each member will share their sole search inspirations and focus on what’s cool and what’s the big idea that may be useful for our Big Question.

And then, for async action we will be putting pencils to paper (yep, actualy paper) and starting to sketch out our individual ideas for our end. Sketches can be simple or sensational, weird or wordy. The main goal is to get an idea into an easy to understand ina structured process for even the least artistic amongst us. It’s a simple as 1, 2, 3…ok, 4.

1. Notes - You collect notes on all your inspirations and insights.
2. Ideas - You turn those notes into ideas
3. Crazy 8s - You sketch like crazy 8 images in 8 minutes
4. You then choose the one you want to ‘sketch’ for the group and give it (or them) a cool name (which will be important later).

And then today we’re done, for tomorrow we decide!

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Plan your work, then work your plan - Napoleon Hill

w2, already! And awayyy we to go. We’ve had time to rest, relax and reflect on our insights and surprises. So now what? Now we gotta actually do something…

Which brings us to week 2One of the main reasons I thought a design sprint would work for our team is everyone’s work ethic tuned to tangible, practical solutions. I knew a full 3 months of user research and no building might make the team go something something…

The great thing about the design sprint is the focus on putting something in the hands of our users.

So let’s start at the very beginning, the very best place to start…the end.

In Monday’s sole search, we have two goals.

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everyone you will ever meet knows someting that you don’t - Bill Nye

So given that it’s Friday and a cultural holiday for many, it seems only fitting that today is share day.

So, I thought that I should take a few minutes out to share a bit about this part of our RaDs.

This day is all about bringing together everything we heard through our conversations. We want to uncover the…
‘the things we don’t know,
the things know that just aint so that just gotta go.

What we do know know is confirmation bias exists so we want to use this as an opportunity not to solve but to surprise.

As we go through our share day we will be undertaking an exercise similar to a Johari Window.

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we need to turn up the volume in the silent spaces - Lily Cheng

One thing we really want to focus on during these engage days is to find out a whole lot of things. Summed up by meyrecent foray into poetry.

Hello, I’m Bo,
I know what I know,
But not what I don’t know,
But it’s what I know that just ain’t so,
That’s gotta go.

This is what excites me about engaging and exploring. To question everything I know and be surprised. I want my assumptions to be challenged and my beliefs to disrupted.

So come and make hot_tech question itself, by signing up here.

every good conversation starts with good listening - unknown

And that’s exactly what we plan to do.

The format will be mostly similar, however, less connecting as a team and more connecting with others connect with from day 2. While we are on the hunt for answers, we will actually be capturing a whole lot more questions in the form of HMWs, or How Might We…

The way these conversations work will be pretty straight forward. We will use our conversation starters based on our open queries and assumptions that are linked to our big question from day 1. We will open up any range of conversation paths and let those like you guide the conversation where is most important for you to take it.

As we go through this process, the team will be listening and everytime we hear something of interest it will be captured as either a note, or a ‘How might we…‘ Let me give you an example.

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great conversations begin with great connections - Oprah (kind of)

So at the end of RaDs day one (start) we have three takeaways:
_ A big question
_ A list of open queries
_ A list of assumptions

Great, easy, now we just need to some answers. Actually we have some more questions.
_ Who will be best placed to answer our big question?
_ Who can close our open queries?
_ Who will be able to validate our assumptions?

It’s time to connect

Following the same format as w1_monday, we will aim to do two main things here.
1. Connect people to the big question, our assumptions and our open queries.
2. Literally connect with the people we would like to have conversations with.

Would you like us to connect with you? Do you have something to tell us? If so, please fill out this form >

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Start where you are, with what you have, do what you can - Arthur Ashe

If you want to be involved, please join in by completing this form

To start we need to begin with a single step, a single idea, a single question.

The play by play for each day will look somewhat similar. It will be a mix of individual, group, sync and async work. This is to accomodate multiple timezones, multiple technologies, multiple working styles and most importantly, multiple people :)

Below is a quick snapshot of what each day’s sessions will look like and also shows what the activities we will be undertaking on w1_monday.

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The best journeys answer questions that at the beginning you didn’t even think to ask - Yvon Chouinard

For the next two weeks, I’m going to be posting (short) diaries about some design thinking that hot_tech is going to be undertaking to kic-off 2021. After such a bumper year and the welcoming of some fantastic new members, we thought now would be the perfect time to get to know you and what you need from us. To do this, we will be undertaking a series of two week sprints, that are a combination of a rapid assessment & design sprints.

So what are RaDs?

The goal of RaDs is to better understand what people need (or don’t need) from the OSM and [humanitarian]OSM - [h]OSM - universe. We want to know why people come to [h]OSM and what matters most to them when they are here. Most importantly, we just want to get to know more about groups of OSM users to learn more about your common goals, interests, values and purposes. We want to know what makes you feel whole and included.

If you don’t know what a Rapid assessment or a Design sprint is, great! Follow along for the next two weeks and each day I’m going post an overview of what the day will entail once the sprints are underway.

If you’re still not hooked, here’s a quick visual to give you an idea of what we will be doing.

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Welcome to hot_tech…Hya, Diana, Lily, Rob

So as everyone is well aware, it’s time to scale up time over here and hot_tech is no exception. We have been afforded an ‘Audacious’ (https://www.hotosm.org/projects/audacious/) opportunity to welcome some impressive new talent into the fold. I was once told never to assume you’re the smartest in the room and with the addition of these four new team members, I know for sure that I am not.

So, let me be the first to share with you a quick intro to each of the new team members, why they decided to join us and why we wanted them to be a part of the team. I have just done a short bio here for each, but you can read the full post over here » hot_tech blog

Hya Umaran

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OSM if full of different characters and identities, so I want to know…

• Who are you?
• What is OSM to you?
• What are you here to do?

We are about to undertake an experiement funded by the NESTA Collective Intelligence Grants to explore emerging trends in map feature digitization. You can read about the project here >

There will be more to follow for those who are interested in participating in the upcoming experiements, however, I thought it may be of interest to share some of the background first.

The project was originally applied (and accepted) by Felix Delattre and I have the good fortune of supporting its implementation. We are also partnering with 510/Netherlands Red Cross who are supprting the derivation of the ‘AI-Only’ data set.

I will also highlight, none of the data collected or used in the experiement will be added to the global OSM database, we are using OSMSeed instances with customized Tasking Manager instances to sandbox the entire project for data gathering.

Comments are welcome as we refine the design. The next entry will have more info for the specific experiemental design, so that may be a better opportuity also.

Enjoy.

Experiment: Comparison of machine learning assisted and traditional digitizing of map features in OpenStreetMap

Hypothesis Machine predicted map features, from state of the art machine learning models, can effectively and efficiently (w.r.t the quality and speed of mapping results) assist and improve the current volunteer mapping in OpenStreetMap.

Context Evidence-based approach to get insights about the effectiveness and efficiency of machine learning assisted methods for mapping in OpenStreetMap. Build trust through arguments. Elaboration of a scientific publication, shall be open data, open access, open science. Publish datasets and all documentation with open licenses to allow calculations to be transparent and reproducible, and this provides a general framework for conducting measurable and comparable experiments around this topic.

Sample groups

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Hi All,

A quick entry. We’re nearing the finalisation of the new Senior Technical Lead for the HOT_tech team, which we will be sharing with everyone soon. However, in the meantime, we are also on teh hunt for some additional talent to help add to the great team we have. We currently are looking for:

• Senior Designer » ad here
• Scrum Master/Mentor » ad here
• Jr Dev » ad here

Send me an email if you want to talk through any of these positions in person. Always happy to have a chat :)

Kindness,

bo

Hi All,

I thought it was about time I started my diaries and put some public thoughts out into the world of OSM.

I recently joined HOT to take on the role of Director of Technology and couldn’t be happier to be a part of it. I am by no means replacing my predecessor, Nate, rather doing my best to carry on and evolve the astounding legacy (and huge shoes to fill).

In the spirit of openness, you can look up my background here > https://www.linkedin.com/in/bopercival/

My HOT profile is here > https://www.hotosm.org/people/bo-percival/

the tldr; I’ve always worked in non-profit, NGO and community development and have worked over the past 7 or so years specifically on digital development, ICT4D or whichever turn of phrase you’d prefer. Over the last 5 years, I also worked alongside a couple of OpenSource projects in this space namely DHIS2 and Moodle. Things I care a lot about; design, inclusive technologies, gender & LGBTQI+ groups, transparency and universal access.

I’ve been a long time user of OSM in a recreational capacity (finding and contributing mountain bike and hiking trails while living in and around Asia), but I’m new making contributions in a professional capacity.

I have two personal mottos. i) ‘support the superstars’ and ii) ‘the best opportunities in the best interests of others’. My main goal is to facilitate and support the team at HOT as well as everyone in the OSM community to ensure all voices are heard for HOT’s contributions.

This article sums up me and combines my work life with my non work life > https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leadership-development-backcountry-guide-way-bo-percival/

Feel free to reach out to me on slack or email, I’m always open for a chat, feedback, ideas, anything you’d like :)