OpenStreetMap is creating the world's best map. I'll look at the technical and social concepts that make OSM work, and ponder the applicability of this approach for creating and sharing other kinds of data

Mikel Maron
mikel@groundtruth.in @mikel

http://groundtruth.in/

CODATA

October 30, 2012

And what (if anything) can other data projects learn

• GPS, removal of selective availability
• Broadband & Computing Power & Mobile
• More Educated People
• Neoliberalism and Mapping Agencies
• Web Mapping APIs and Open Standards

http://www.sdimag.com/201210201290/SDI-Magazine-Interviews-Prof.-Muki-Haklay-on-Crowdsourcing.html

• Iterative Data Correction and Improvement
• Monitoring and post contribution QA/Analysis, rather than moderation
• Revision History
• Social knowledge
• We are not embarrassed by data!

But No More

• API (restful, evolving, to purpose) easily understood standard
• Open Ethos
• Enthusiasm (we made surveying fun!)

• not collections
• with specific purpose(s)
• we must work together

• key / value pairs
• no predefined schema
• converges through conversation, consensus, code
• ever expanding

• OSM rails app encodes a lot of these practices in a usable way
• But not easy to deploy
• Some good experiments, USGS
• Contrast: MediaWiki is easy to deploy

OpenAerialMap

• Hard to acquire and process data
• Hard to combine seamlessly
• Takes a serious infrastructure

Fauna and Flora observations

• very dynamic and fuzzy boundaries
• some subsets (individual prominent trees, protected areas for endangered species)

world's most out of date map

• Diverge in code
• Manage tagging for time frames (start_date, end_date, and onwards)
• Editing tools and rendering tools
• Use Cases (OldSF, Burning Man, Historic NYC geocoder)

It is possible and we must try to accelerate data sharing and collaboration. work in climate, conservation, earth sciences is too crucial

"Contribute to the Grand Design of Improving Natural Knowlege and the Universal Good of Mankind" Oldenburg

• Define Minimal Basic Rules
• then Get Out of the Way
• But Keep Talking
• Iterate

• Collaborate within Dynamic Open Source Projects
• No Data or Code Silos
• Avoid Heavy Standard
• Don't architecture astronaut

Mikel Maron

http://groundtruth.in/

mikel@groundtruth.in

@mikel