OpenStreetMap
League Table of World Countries and the Quality of the OSM Mapping for those countries/ entities.
Posted by chris_debian on 31 July 2023 in English.Do we (OSM) have a league table for all countries/ entities (non-countries?), which is based on the quality of OSM mapping in that country?
I ask this question, because I was undertaking a MapRoulette challenge, to help with mapping in Algiers, and although some pockets of excellent mapping existed, it seemed clear that this was very much the exception.
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How do we gather metrics, to assess the quality of mapping in a given country, so that quality can be improved?
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How do we engage with the ‘local’ OSM community, to perhaps help them to improve mapping?
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Can we define a regular (and repeatable) set of MapRoulette challenges, that would enable remote mapping to be carried out, in support of ‘hands-on’ mapping/ surveying carried out by ‘locals on the ground’?
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How do we publicise tools such as StreetComplete, to help populate the data/ metadata of a country, in order to build upon the ‘big picture’ data that is gathered?
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What are we missing, above?
Please add to this, and edit, as appropriate.
Many thanks,
Chris
Discussion
Comment from Fizzie-DWG on 31 July 2023 at 22:35
Nice idea, but what do you call “quality”?
Is it simply the number of things mapped in a country, or how well the limited amount of mapping has been done? (which is not something a remote mapper can tell).
I have seen comments “recently” on the Forum, from African mappers, concerned about overseas mappers, often working via HOT programs, overriding what local mappers have done, because “we’re from a big country so we obviously know better” :-(
Other comments with regard to Maxar disappearing have said that the alternative imagery is ~6 years out of date, so villages & towns frequently don’t even appear, again leading to remote mappers deleting things that locals have mapped from their local knowledge! :-(
Your list of questions should possibly be re-arranged to make Q1: “How do we talk to local communities to find out what help they need, if any”?
Comment from chris_debian on 8 August 2023 at 12:40
Hi, Fizzie.
Thanks for commenting, and apologies for my delay in replying…..work…
Q. Nice idea, but what do you call “quality”?
A. This was what my first question was meant to ponder: How do we gather metrics, to assess the quality of mapping in a given country, so that quality can be improved?
I agree with your points about out of date imagery, and that local knowledge is superior to ‘well intentioned’ foreigners. Conversely, these foreigners often help locals get on to the next rung of the ladder. Obviously, a plethora of exceptions exist. I agree that engaging the locals should be a high priority; the reason it wasn’t number 1 was that it’s probably best to establish what to talk about, before engaging, even if just initial thoughts.
For clarity, my idea of League Tables, wasn’t aimed at African countries, it was aimed at all countries, where map usefulness is welcomed/ encouraged. I’m certainly not ascerting that African countries are ‘backward’ with mapping, it just seemed sensible to try to measure things, so we can work out how to improve them.
Again, thanks for responding, Fizzie.
Chris.
Comment from Fizzie-DWG on 8 August 2023 at 21:32
Yeah, it’s terrible when life keeps getting in the way of fun, isn’t it? :-)
No problems with anything you said - I also wasn’t concentrating on Africa to the exclusion of all others, it was just a handy example.
Maybe it also needs a Forum post to get the question out to the wider community?
Good luck with it! :-)
Comment from SK53 on 13 August 2023 at 18:57
There is a, by now, huge academic literature on measuring quality on OSM. A decent starting point would be looking at the references in the paper by de Sabbata and colleagues : Bright, J., De Sabbata, S., Lee, S., Ganesh, B., & Humphreys, D. K. (2018). OpenStreetMap data for alcohol research: Reliability assessment and quality indicators. Health & Place, 50, 130-136. doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2018.01.009.
DisasterNinja implements a fairly simple quality metric (the coloured hexagons) which is based on some of the values which academic research has picked up.