2023 quarterly projects ideas and feedback
We want to announce all the quarterly projects for 2023 in advance.
This will be in early December.
Tell us what quarterly project ideas you have or think are good! Here's an email sent to talk-gb earlier this month:
We had a call on 1st of November to discuss potential topics. Here’s a digest of what was raised.
I’d appreciate it if you could:
Add to these any other topics to consider with potential data sources, metrics, outcomes etc.
Add to the already mentioned topics ideas that could make it a good quarterly project.
We referred to https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:UK_Quarterly_Project as a starting point to the conversation.
There was a recap of what a quarterly project should be or achieve.
Easy to measure metrics can make it much clearer to monitor progress and success of a QP.
Some quarterly projects are to bring in brand new mappers, or get novice mappers to map more.
Other quarterly projects are to focus on enhancing a particular subject area on the map, resulting in more detail, coverage and/or tools.
Buses and public transport.
Are all bus stations mapped in detail (or at all?)
Are bus stops in the correct location?
Maintenance on bus route relations
Is there a better way we can present the NAPTAN dataset to mappers to help identify misplaced bus stops or missing bus stops? There was an idea floated of having an overlay that could be shown in iD/rapiD/josm etc. that could do a diff of where NAPTAN thinks a data point is compared to if/where it exists in osm and indicate that visually. This wouldn’t necessarily show the exact location of it as recorded in NAPTAN but just highlight a square on the map to direct in person survey, aerial use, streetlevel imagery etc. Added stretch goal doing a diff within NAPTAN itself so it would highlight where something has moved in that database since last update.
There was additional discussion on detail mapping other transit stations (like railway stations) though surveying these and tagging for these can be quite complex.
Places of worship.
Adding locations that are missing.
Enhancing existing datapoints with religion, denomination, wikidata links, etc.
Are there compatible 3rd party datasets which could help measure progress and direct surveys?
What other adjacent mapping activities could be included?
EV charging points
A lot of discussion on this as there are many databases that are all partial.
A guide to clearly identify and record the capabilities of common chargers in the UK (compatibility, power delivery, etc.)
The government has lots of plans about making this more open in the future using ‘OCPI data standard’ however this looks unlikely to be implemented in 2023.
Possibility of scraping through planning applications to direct surveys
Including H2 filling stations
Galleries, libraries, archives and museums + public art
Could we compare with local authorities lists for libraries (even with more libraries being volunteer run)
Public art installations, compare with wikidata and link to node in osm if possible.
Verify art installations still exist
A lot of metrics would need to be calculated up front.
Notes and fixme’s
The forever project. It can be worthwhile to focus on resolving notes to ensure they retain utility.
Latin America have done ‘notathons’ to great effect. https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2022/10/26/the-evolution-of-notathons-in-latin-america/
Lots of tools already exist to help monitor progress and help solve them.
Despite the usefulness, it can be difficult to get excited about.
Meta quarterly project
Nothing to do with the company
Focus on improving the wiki or other documentation sources
Collate and share data sources for the UK in one place.
Where to find the dataset, how you could use them – Think how many times you find a useful data set later than you’d like.
Welcome new mappers
Focus on welcoming new mappers in the UK using the welcoming tool https://welcome.osm.be/
Enhance tools, faqs
A road and motorway corridor detail + motorway gantries?
Using the ample streetlevel imagery, enhance the detail along the corridors of A roads and motorways.
Include motorway gantries as they were reportedly under-mapped in 2020 (need to recheck current state)
Difficult to measure any metrics on this.
SK53 Wed 11 Jan 2023 3:39PM
I will try and write up my experience of trying to improve mapping of Places of Worship in Wales. I tried to do obvious ones whilst adding roof top solar. There are quite good resources in terms of open data and old maps/documents, but they do need to used together. UPRNs can be useful for identifying chapels which have been converted into flats for instance.
I also did a tiny bit of grave mapping in a Welsh churchyard where my uncle (who died of Spina Bifida long before I was born) and my Great-grandmother are buried. Last time I visited I couldn't find the former grave and had to give up because my Dad couldn't cope with the rain, so I'd like to able to locate it quickly in the future. Unfortunately I only took close-up photos on my last visit which was prior to owning a GPS. (Note the Church of England are engaged in some graveyard mapping as well).
Megalithic (Andy B) Mon 16 Jan 2023 5:59PM
Hello, I am the founder and editor of the Megalithic Portal ancient sites web resource.
I am strongly opposed to adding megalithic sites to OSM as ‘places of worship’. That would be adding way too much subjective interpretation. They should be added as archaeological sites, nothing more, nothing less.
To a lesser or greater extent the same applies to sites such as labyrinth, hermitage, cave, grave, holy well, waterfall, source, or mouth of, a river, island or hilltop etc.
They should be added as what they are, not as someone’s subjective interpretation of what they are.
Andy
Guy Hayward Tue 17 Jan 2023 10:28AM
Is there another way these ancient (and natural) sites could be added to the OSM base map by the community on this forum, if they are not categorised as 'places of worship'? I don't think it is inaccurate to say that some of the behaviour of people around these site categories is what many would call 'worship', but I appreciate Andy's more neutral definition is less controversial.
I also think the world would benefit from a broader definition of 'place of worship', as the demographic of 'Spiritual but not Religious' continues to grow, and now represents a larger proportion of the UK population than identifying as 'Christian'.
The British Pilgrimage Trust promotes all the different types of sites equally (human-built and natural), but recognise that for some people, some storied ancient trees and holy wells and springs are more 'Places of Worship' than churches and cathedrals, due to them being seen as more connected with nature. It depends on your outlook and so we say: 'Bring Your Own Beliefs'.
But if the site categories listed by me above end up being categorised as something apart from 'Places of Worship', does it mean we would have to wait potentially years beyond Q4 2023 before they are added to the OSM base map? Or is there another way of expediting their inclusion on the map?
Tony Shield Tue 17 Jan 2023 11:37AM
I agree with Megalithic that archeological sites should not be interpreted on OSM. The form of the site can be important without giving undue interpretation.
Not sure how in fact to notate Guy Haywards Pilgrimage site - but see https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Camino_de_Santiago and https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:pilgrimage which tag routes/ways. There some tags for shrine - maybe the concept could be extended - however I do not have any firm view on an appropriate word to use - a word that is acceptable to all needs to be used.
RobJN Tue 17 Jan 2023 12:44PM
But if the site categories listed by me above end up being categorised as something apart from 'Places of Worship', does it mean we would have to wait potentially years beyond Q4 2023 before they are added to the OSM base map?
Step 1 is to agree what tags we will use. That is done by us, the community. At that point anyone can add these sites to the map database.
There are many visualisations of the map database (what most people would simply call "maps") and it's down to the maintainers if each to decide which tagged features to show on their "map". By "base map" I assume you mean the default one shown on OSM.org. It can take a while for that to start showing a new tag but we shouldn't worry about that. We can easily make our own visualisations.
Gareth L · Wed 28 Dec 2022 4:21PM
Quarterly Projects of 2023
In case you missed it, the quarterly projects for 2023 are as follows:
2023 Q1: Fixmes and Notes - Focus on fixme's and notes on the map.
2023 Q2: EV Charging Infrastructure - Where are the chargers? What are their capabilities?
2023 Q3: Buses and Transit - Bus station, transit stops. Better use of NaPTAN?
2023 Q4: Places of Worship and Cemeteries - Add places of worship and cemetery/graveyard use. Add denominations to places of worship.
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/UK_Quarterly_Project/2023