Introduction

Humanitarian Openstreetmap Team (HOT) is an international team dedicated to humanitarian action and community development through open mapping.

Accurate and up-to-date data is essential for effective humanitarian response. Validators use tools such as JOSM and the HOT Tasking Manager to identify and flag errors and mistakes. From experience, i know that this is a complex and time-consuming endeavor.

One tool to save time and enhance the validation process is OSMCha.

The funding for OSMCha is currently at risk, which could lead to the degradation of this invaluable tool. In this diary, i want to highlight the essential role OSMCha plays in my own (and other’s) validation and quality maintenance workflow.

What is OSMCha

OpenStreetMap Changeset Analyzer (OSMCha) is a tool designed to monitor and analyze changes made to OpenStreetMap data. It enables data validators to quickly identify potential issues, track changes, and ensure data quality.

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OSMCha (https://osmcha.org/) was down and i felt crippeled. This tool has become an essential part of my workflow lately.

So to be prepared for the next time OSMCha is not available i gathered some usefull alternatives (although less “luxurous” as the original).

Changeset level:

• osm.org/changeset/100000000
• https://overpass-api.de/achavi/?changeset=100000000&relations=true
• https://osmhv.openstreetmap.de/changeset.jsp?id=100000000
• http://level0.osmz.ru/?url=changeset/100000000

Node/way/relation level:

• https://osmlab.github.io/osm-deep-history/#/way/1000000000
• https://pewu.github.io/osm-history/#/way/1000000000

This is primarily a “note to self”.

But if someone has nice additions to this list, please add them in the comments.

As a validator and #Slack validation channel visitor I am regularly confronted with complaints from fellow validators about the sometimes bad quality of the mappings of beginner mappers. This refers especially to buildings and to a lesser extent highways. Adding to the frustration is that instructive comments after invalidation of tasks hardly seem to be read by these same beginner mappers. The result is often that a task is invalidated several times for much the same reason(s).

Therefore validators can get the feeling that they are “fighting against all odds”. This can work as a demotivating factor. Possibly that even some validators quit validating.

Several solutions have been tried and applied. Ranging from getting the notifications more in sight within the Tasking Manager, limiting iD Editor in which features can be mapped to making Project authors creating their project more beginner friendly.

And of course there are the training webinars organized by the Training Working Group. These are good introductions for new mappers to get themselves onboard. However, they are imo mainly visited by the more motivated mappers. While the bulk of the problem is with the large group of casual mappers, of whom some only map incidentally (e.g. during a one-time mapathon event).

But why not attack the issue right from the start? Why not educate new mappers before they make their first edit?

There are several possibilities.

Sandpit

A virtual space where new mappers can exercise their skills and get some form of basic automatic feedback. Mimicking how mapping a real world task would look like. The mappings will not be saved in the OSM database, so mappers can make mistakes without consequences. Feedback is given automatically, through popups or messages in the margins. The ID Editor WalkThrough could serve as an example.

Quiz

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