The OSM community some time ago adopted the ODbL license, which (roughly speaking) has two major requirements for users of our data:

1. To contribute their own data back to OSM (the “share alike” clause)
2. To include attribution on products built from our data

It’s almost certain that most mappers — especially those contributing regularly — have encountered a map on the web or in printed form based on OSM data that violated the attribution requirement in some way. The attribution text might have been shuffled out of the way, credit for our work given to somebody else, or the attribution was absent completely. By my estimate, around 10% of websites that use OpenStreetMap tiles lack proper attribution. This is in addition to an unknown proportion of maps with similar problems published on physical media (especially info panels installed outdoors), or ones using custom tiles not made by OSM. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that proper attribution is missing on widely-used map products published by large companies with hundreds of thousands to millions of users.

The OSM project celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and one would expect that should be enough time to develop effective mechanisms for addressing license violations. This obviously is not the case. We as a community delegated the right to enforce the license to the OSM Foundation, but enforcement is something this institution has yet to demonstrate. All the OSMF has accomplished in this regard is to publish a “love letter” which individual volunteers are supposed to use, containing language that asks violators to fix the attribution problem. There is no follow-up procedure in place for situations when the violator fails to respond in the desired way. We also have no mechanism that actively looks for violations, relying instead on volunteers to report cases to one of a number of case-tracking lists that mappers created over time.

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Today I mapped the village Shtëpëz in Gjirokaster. The location where the village is pointed is full of abandoned, ruined buildings. You can check here.

After mapping all the ruined buildings I moved downhill, closer to the river because it made sense that the village might have moved closer to the water source and indeed I found tens of houses scattered in the hill and closest to the river. I mapped this area, which seems to be the new location of the village.

“#100villagesin100days #day17”

We are a study group from the University of Brasília (UnB) conducting research on OpenStreetMap (OSM.org). Our goal is to improve OpenStreetMap by better understanding the profiles of its users. Through this research, we aim to gather valuable information that will allow us to identify the needs, preferences, and challenges faced by users when using OSM. Participating in the survey will take between 5 to 10 minutes. Your responses will be confidential and anonymous. Please answer all questions sincerely. For more information or if you have any questions, please contact us via email at gustavo.soares@aluno.unb.br. We count on your collaboration to improve this important collaborative mapping tool. Help us translate: https://kutt.it/translaterea

Survey on MS Forms

Survey Backup on Cryptpad

FAQ

Why are you using Microsoft Forms?

We have access to Office365 through an agreement between the university and Microsoft (I don’t really agree with this agreement), so for us, MS Forms was the best solution as it has no response limit and supports multiple translations. Why didn’t we use LimeSurvey? It’s paid. But if you’re not comfortable responding via MS Forms, we also published on Survey Backup on Cryptpad

Who are you?

We are an extension group at the University of Brasília (UnB). During university education in Brazil, we have the opportunity to develop projects that benefit the community. Currently, we consist of 2 students and two professors.

Is there an official project page?

No 😔 We are a small project. However, if it helps, I have published some diaries on OSM discussing ideas on how to improve OSM.org osm.org/user/PlayzinhoAgro/diary

How can I help?

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I have been deeply tempted to use this. There have been times when I didn’t even tag the disposal not because it slipped my mind, but because “pitlatrine” is wrong.

From the wiki for toilets:disposal=pitlatrine, “waste falls into a lined or unlined pit”. This is a lie. A pit is an unlined hole in the ground. A pit toilet uses an unlined hole in the ground. A lined hole in the ground is a vault and the difference is important to land managers and, I would argue, the end user.

As to land managers, one example would be the United States Forest Service. If an area has over a certain number of visitors a year, they try to supply a toilet facility. If that number is still few enough, a (unlined) pit toilet is sufficient. Over a certain amount, it needs to be a vault. This is due to the waste leaching into the surrounding soil with an unlined system. With sufficient volume, it’s more likely to cause contamination in the area.

When a pit toilet is full, the land manager digs a new hole, moves over whatever construction they’ve got in place to help you stay above ground while you make your deposit, and cover over the old hole. When a vault toilet is full, someone comes to pump that thing out and it stays just where it was before.

For the end user, well, the stories I could tell you about using a pit toilet. The floor of the one in Little Round Valley sagged as I stepped into it. Volunteers had just finished digging the hole and moving the little building over it at Santa Cruz Guard Station as I arrived. Practically smell free throughout the stay! Most of the rest of the backcountry pit toilets in the area don’t actually have full buildings, just 0-3 privacy walls around a topped hole. When not spacious by not having a complete set of walls, they tend to be exceedingly tight. The building of one near Blue Lakes was so tight, it was hard to stand to pull up my pants without opening the door.

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As a proud OSM contributor since the start of 2023, I’ve been busy mapping my way around Jalpaiguri and the North Bengal region, leaving a trail of improved data in my wake. It’s been an incredible journey so far, and I’m thrilled to have made a tangible impact on the OSM community. But, I didn’t stop there.

Last December, I learned about the Open Mapping Hub AP’s OMGuru Fellowship from a fellow OSM India member, and I just had to apply. Long story short, I got accepted, and it’s been quite great ever since.

Through the OMGuru Fellowship, I’ve had the chance to dive deeper into the world of OSM and learn about an array of tools and techniques for contributing to and improving OSM data and sharpen up my skills using JOSM. Specialising in Validation Track, I’ve honed my skills in ensuring the accuracy and quality of data – a crucial aspect of mapping that’s often overlooked. But it’s not just about validating HOT TM tasks; I’ve also acquired the skills to further map my region, add quality data, and even use it for research and analysis (cue the HOT x DataCamp Scholarship).

It’s been an incredible experience, and I’m excited to see where my newfound expertise takes me next. The OMGuru Fellowship has been a game-changer, and I’d like to extend my gratitude to HOT and APHub for the opportunity to have been a part of it, and to Mikko, Dinar and Honey for their guidance (esp. Mikko and Dinar, you guys have helped me out a lot and take on questions which I now realise were REALLY dumb :’D).

I started using OpenStreetMap in 2020 when I realized the amount of surveillance put upon us by Google and other similar services. I wanted to use software which respects my privacy. In the process, I discovered OpenStreetMap - a map which is privacy-respecting, run by the community, and can be used without restrictions, similar to Wikipedia. When I noticed that some points of my interest were not on the map, I started editing and adding things in 2021. Subsequently, I became an active mapper by mapping regularly over many years. Besides using and mapping, I also advocate and promote the use of OpenStreetMap and raise awareness about it.

At the start of 2024, I enrolled in the Guru Program of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and got to know about the OMGuru Mapping Fellowship program in March 2024. The tasks ranged from mapping amenities using mobile applications like Every Door to remote mapping using HOT Tasking Manager, which is a sophisticated mapping management tool.

Before the fellowship, I did not have much experience with remote mapping, especially buildings. This program gave me an opportunity to hone my skills in JOSM, adding one more editor to my mapping arsenal. My friend contrapunctus helped me in catching up with JOSM. Another skill I learnt was validating already mapped tasks, which is done to ensure data quality and provide feedback to mappers on their work. My mentor Honey Grace Fombuena was very patient and accessible throughout the fellowship, making my experience smoother.

I am highly grateful to HOT and APHub for providing me this opportunity.

Credits: contrapunctus and sahilister for proofreading.

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I thought i would never finish this village. Kafaraj is a big farming village surrounded by greenhouses located in Fier and with a population of around 1120.

“#100villagesin100days #day16”

It was a privilege for me to be part of the HOT’s Open Mapping Guru Fellowship Programme, where I sharpened my mapping skills and became more knowledgeable about OpenStreetMap (OSM) tools. Though I had many trainings for volunteers in OSMmany times, this was first time I am involved in a longer programme with a structured plan. The structured training activities and assignments helped me learn about OSM such as validation techniques, changeset discussions, and creating MapRoulette challenges. Beyond expanding my knowledge base, this fellowship introduced me to an energetic community of mappers that has livened up my journey as a mapper.

As a Fellow of Open Mapping Guru, my adventure was a crazy pursuit of education, discovery and community involvement. The program allowed me to go deeper into the Open Street Map (OSM) tools and sharpen my skills in mapping, validation and community collaboration.

In this fellowship period I explored some new JOSM plugins such as validator.other which made validation tasks much faster, easier and enhanced data quality. Another different aspect of mapping is when I would actively contribute to changeset discussions. The use of tools such as OSMOSE and OSM Inspector to identify issues of data quality was something which I liked the most in the entire program. For some reason creating my first MapRoulette challenge was not done to a satisfying level. I will be exploring the tool in detail later in the programme.

Besides that, going through OpenStreetMap Changeset Analyzer aka OSMCha again reminded me of how we dealt with vandalism in OSM of Taj Mahal before thanks to the development SEED blog post quoting the Taj Story. That was noticed by chance and usage of tools like OSMCha will help in analysing these in a much better systematic way.

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20 new districts will emerge in Cyprus on July 1, 2024.

Needs mapping

• Μεταρρύθμιση Τοπικής Αυτοδιοίκησης (Κύπρος) (Wikipedia)

• https://www.moi.gov.cy/moi/moiup/moi.nsf/All/DB4E590D370B845EC22587FB002B3982?OpenDocument#

• Mapping convention

Other:

• 2022 district groups

To map with a cause in mind…

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THROWBACK… My mapping journey began in 2016. I started as a volunteer of Project NOAH – a disaster risk reduction and management program of the Philippine Government. Through its risk mapping initiative, I was engaged in OpenStreetMap tracing of building footprints in some provinces of our country. Even though the project was phased out last 2017, I continued to contribute to other initiatives that utilize and improve on OSM data. Some of these are UnmappedPH and OSMaPaaralan. Driven by my interest in carrying out humanitarian mapping focused on Disaster Preparedness and Response, I was fortunate to join the 2022 Data Quality Internship of Humanitarian Openstreetmap Team. This program paved the way for more opportunities for me.

Forward to 2024, Open Mapping Hub Asia Pacific’s call for Guru Fellows:

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Kuzhnen was almost fully mapped, so I only had to add some buildings. I also surveyed the surrounding area and added a few more structures, but there wasn’t much left to map.

After that, I decided to explore around my hometown and added buildings in some small villages. Still not satisfied, I moved down the list and also mapped Kotorr.

I didn’t know we had a village named Kotorr in Elbasan. The only Kotorr I knew of was in Montenegro.

I have also been mapping in Kosovo and North Macedonia lately and have been enjoying the process.

“#100villagesin100days #day15”

It amazes me how much of my city mapping is already well kept and documented. I did not realize Trivandrum had so many OpenStreetMap enthusiasts till now!

Together, we can make the world a happier place by adding verified information to OpenStreetMap!

​Nice to see you all.

Fieldwork:

This is my town.

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Ever been so tired that you miss a day without even noticing? :P

In my head, I had already mapped the village for yesterday, and I was wondering why it was showing “No Changesets”. Had to refresh multiple times before realizing that I had indeed not mapped the village.

Anyway, today I mapped Lapulec a village in Mallakaster, Fier and the surroundings.

Following the suggestion from a comment on one of my previous diary entries i am also adding link to the mapped area osm.org/node/728420122#map=17/40.62743/19.73867 .

I am not sure how to add images in here. Will get there!

“#100villagesin100days #day14”

OMGuru Validation Fellowship 2024 Journey

This year 2024 I got a OMGuru Validation Fellowship of OpenMappingHubAsiaPacific. Fellowship was started in January 2024 and end will be June 2024.I had a great experience in the 6 month fellowship. I validated 125 task in tasking manager. OSM Data quality issue cleaned by OSMOSE or OSM Inspector. I created a Connected highway/cycleway MapRoulette Challenge

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And I validated the OSM data cleaning by OSMCha base on Mapillary Imagery. ##I also participated the training session : 1. JOSM Plugins 2. MAPSWIPE FOR WEB DEMO 3. Communication Skills + Miro Board Training. 4. Disaster Activation. 5. Rapid Editor with Meta 6. OM Guru Network X HOT Tech Training: Accessing and Visualizing Open Map Data 7. QGIS for Specific Use Case Scenarios: Flooding/Landslide, Land Tenure 8. QGIS to JOSM Workflow Training. 9. Overpass Turbo - Unleashing the Power of Querying OSM Data

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Using OpenStreetMap for the first time after meeting with one of the core devs on meetup.com! Decided to start small and add/edit some entries around my neighbourhood.

The greatest motivation for my mapping journey was to map those numerous people who do not exist on a global footprint and are overlooked. It’s not just about filling the blank spaces but validating their existence, recognizing these people and making sure that no one is left behind. Validation of the data makes sure that each data we create on OpenStreetMap (OSM) is accurate enough to create an inclusive and complete world. Through this diary, I share my enormous journey of these 5 months showcasing my motivation, challenges and triumphs that I encountered in maintaining the accuracy and quality of data in OSM.

Learning the Ropes

“Everything starts from a dot” - Wassily Kandinsky The journey from a beginner mapper to being an advanced mapper, trainee, a trainer has brought me here where I stand as a Validator Fellow from being a validator at HOT Global Validator. The opportunity provided by Open Mapping Hub Asia Pacific as an OM Guru Validation Fellow has not only boosted my validating skills but also opened the door to explore more new, powerful and qualitative tools to increase the speed as well as the quality of the validation. Validating tools like OSMCha, OSMose, Maproulette and many more have created an environment where we see the quality of the data through the lens of the mappers and make sure that they are adding quality data into the existing database of OpenStreetMap. There’s a saying “Practice makes men perfect”. I believe that practice along with patience and motivation makes men perfect and you have to be patient and there must be someone to motivate you while you’re mapping to embark on your mapping journey. The constant motivation and praises from mentors like Dinar, Mikko, and Honey have made this journey look great and fruitful.

Collaboration and Community

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set up JOSM, and intend to use it for most of my future changesets.