Mapping coordination

As part of OpenStreetMap, mappers initiate their own subprojects and fellow mappers join them. A recurring issue lays in the coordination of such projects. This page will document different means for coordination of such subprojects.

Wiki pages

Many smaller projects have created wiki pages which list the current progress or include todo lists. One can find every country and many bigger cities here. There are a best practise guide and various templates. However, these pages tend to become rather time intensive to update and as a result they become outdated.

Gatherings

Another means for mapping coordination are physical meetings. The advantages are you can see the fellow mappers and socialise with them. Mapping parties are pretty common for local projects, but might require substantial preparation for geographically disperse teams.

Monitoring tools

Main article: Quality assurance#Monitoring tools

To avoid the issue of outdated wiki pages, several users have programmed tools to monitor changes of OSM data. The programs either just visualise specific changes or they compare data with some rule sets and highlight differences. Please do not blindly follow the error messages of such programs, they might be wrong, too.

The tools MapRoulette and Tasking Manager are commonly used for scoped mapping.

Communication

Main article: Communication channels

Most sub-projects feature their own communication channel. Typical examples include topic mailing lists and a forum, but social media might be used as well. It might be worth to note that some projects rely on self-hosted systems such as the OpenSeaMap forum and the OpenRailwayMap mailing lists.