User:Mvexel/Welcome Working Group/report121213

The Welcome WG met today (12/13/12) to discuss ways of easing entry of new mappers into OSM. Next meeting will be 20 Dec 2012.

Highlights

The meeting focused on two primary areas: new user engagement and retention stats and documentation and entry path to OSM, with more of an emphasis on the documentation and entry path to OSM.

Number 1 takeaway for non WG-members: there's a lot of good stuff going on with learnosm. If you're interested, check it out: https://github.com/hotosm/learnosm/issues/1

Other topics: possible need for a Documentation WG & a Welcome WG mailing list.

Attendees/active IRCers included: Martijn van Exel, SomeoneElse, PovAddict, Manfred, RichardF, sabas, tmcw, LMC, jeffmeyer, alexbarth, shaunmcdonald & potential lurkers (lezurdis, Caterpillar, Blackadder, cypher...)

Details

Analytics

• Premise: we should pick some metrics for measuring how well/poorly we're doing with welcoming mappers to OSM. (jeffmeyer)

• There are some past studies of end user behavior worth checking out.
  • http://www.mdpi.com/2220-9964/1/2/146
  • https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/16461/Horizon%20March%202010%20(Haklay%20and%20Budhahtoki).pdf?sequence=2
  • http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Stats
  • http://osmstats.altogetherlost.com/
  • http://neis-one.org/

• And opportunities for studying new users in local outreach efforts - we could use better feedback from this outreach (alexbarth)
  • Sample template email to send local new mappers: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:SomeoneElse/new_mapper_messages (SomeoneElse)

• Segmentation of users could help design better paths for them through (sabas, others)
  • New Users -> learnosm.org
  • Commercial users -> switch2osm
  • Experts, nerds, addicts -> wiki

• We may want to survey past, inactive users (jeffmeyer)
  • Need to consult with Welcome WG on survey design & OSMF on restrictions for outreach (RichardF, mvexel)
  • Not everyone will be a lifelong mapper (mvexel), but we should learn if they leave due to OSM not being their bag or out of frustration

• ACTION: jeffmeyer to put together a summary of stats that might be helpful for measuring retention quality - it's not straightforward

• Have we analyzed how people get started in OSM & where they go astray? (jeffmeyer)
  • Several sites were identified as being separate from OSM, but potentially could be tied / integrated more tightly into the core OSM site:
    • http://osmbugs.org/

Documentation!!

• There are many good resources for newbies, but it can be easy for people to get lost as they go through the front door *-#toomanychoices?
  • openstreetmap.org / Documentation: takes you to wiki.openstreetmap.org, with separate login
  • openstreetmap.org / Help Centre: takes you to help.openstreetmap.org, with a separate login
  • learnosm.org (if you can find it)
  • http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Help:Contents lists several other places to go for help
  • http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Beginners%27_guide
  • Whatever is built into your editor flavor of choice

• In spite of all of these resources, HOT has chosen to build new docs: https://github.com/hotosm/learnosm/issues/1 (alexbarth)
  • (As in - existing resources weren't meeting needs for getting HOT's volunteers up to speed (jeffmeyer))
  • Value of docs created and maintained by people who train on a regular basis is a huge help for these docs' value (alexbarth)

• Many questions about how various editors influence new mappers' behavior (RichardF ;) )
  • e.g. current learnosm.org resources point at JOSM & QGIS, but not Potlatch, which might be easier entry
  • Current thinking on iD is that it will have tightly integrated documentation (alexbarth, RichardF)

• Much side conversation about the role / status / usability of the wiki as documentation (various)
  • This is left for a separate thread

• One example of a training program for students & beginners (Manfred)
  • http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comenius_OSM_and_Tourism - schools bringing students to OSM (Manfred)

• General consensus was that there are concerns in using a wiki for documentation (ironically...)
  • Github was cited as a suggested better alternative, with the example of its use for current Learnosm improvements: https://github.com/hotosm/learnosm/issues/1 (alexbarth, tmcw)

• ACTION: Welcome WG members to review the documentation being planned at https://github.com/hotosm/learnosm/issues/1