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When doing #OpenStreetMap in person, there are typically three kinds of mappers: creators, updaters, and managers.

A creator is a mapper who creates new objects. Predominantly by adding amenities like POIs or more specifically: benches, waste bins, fire hydrants, street cabinets, etc.

An updater is a mapper who updates existing objects by adding missing data to complete the object. Most of #StreetComplete quests fall into this category.

A manager is a mapper who edits existing objects. This means that at least one key-value pair is incorrect. A typical example is that the opening hours are outdated. Other cases are updating highway or other line based objects like waterways, or updating land covers.

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One is usually a combination of the three kinds of mappers: creators, updaters, and managers.

Typically, one starts as an updater. Then once one is comfortable of knowing which objects exist, one adds creator to the mix. And finally once even more confident of the correct data format, one adds manager.

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Onto the in person mappers comes the goal factor. This means is the goal just to map or is the goal to get to a specific destination.

If it’s the latter then one needs to manage between achieving the goal while mapping on the fly. For such cases there are many apps that can achieve the updater aspect without losing too much time mapping. To name a few #StreetComplete or #EveryDoor.

In the manager aspect the mentioned apps can help or #SCEE or #OsmAnd or #Vespucci.

Though many times one doesn’t have enough time to navigate through the apps to accomplish the desired outcome. Thus jotting a note down or taking a photo can quickly save the details and later when more allotted time exists they can be updated.

#OpenStreetMap

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In the past, I uploaded the notes to the server and have (an outdated) note interpreter for my shorthand notes: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/barefootstache

Though these days, I only push notes if they are obvious and/or I am using a specific app that does not permit offline notes. Like being a bit too fast with floors or type of building in #StreetComplete, though the new buildings overlay should take care of this issue in the past.

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In the past, I already wrote a blog on how to create quick actions in #OsmAnd: https://bf5.eu/post/osm/how-to-quick-map-with-osmand/ and for the next couple of entries regarding shorthand note system (that I use), the notes are created in such a way that a quick action cannot replace it.

That being said, kind of wish OsmAnd had quick action presets, so that one can quickly ease the sorting of the quick actions when in various situations. Like in urban terrain fire hydrants and street cabinets are more frequent, where as in comparison in rural terrain the frequency of hunting stands and feeding places are higher.

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The first shorthand note are the cardinal directions denoted as n, e, s, and w.

These can be combined together to create more concrete directions like ne, se, sw, or nw. Or even more specific nne, een, ees, sse, ssw, wws, wwn, nnw.

An use-case is to denote more specifically where an object should be positioned relative to a way or an area. So if e.g. a path does not exist yet which branches off the current path and it is not perpendicular to the current path, then these directions can help to map the initial path head.

Hint: make sure to add the fixme key at the path’s tail to check if the path continues. The most simplest value is continue?.

#OpenStreetMap

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Another typical example are railings or fences along a path. Since one barely ever knows which direction the way is going, thus a safer approach is to use the cardinal directions to denote a one-sided barrier.

Caveats are more obvious cases like steps, where usually incline=up aligns with the way’s direction. In this case left|l and respectively right|r are used.

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While on the topic of barriers, these typically have a start and end. One could attempt to use the starting letter of start and one would realize that s has already been declared for south. Likewise doing for end, one gets e which is used for east.

For this conundrum one can look at the Greek alphabet and use the first and last letter. They are alpha and omega making it a and o.

Example of a railing south of the path. The start of railing: railing s a and respectively for the end: railing s o.

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One thing that I have done in the past is have a topic per hike. This means I have a generic note that just says other . This is then connect to a quick action.

So if the topic e.g. are bird perches, then each of them will just be denoted with “other “.

This is all good for maybe up to a couple of days, though if notes first get resolved weeks in the future, then that detail is lost, thus the effort is gone.

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Thus eventually instead of using the generic note for a random topic, it was agreed upon that it denotes a path.

Though lately removed the ambiguous definition and hard defined the word path|p. This removes any potential guess work in the future.

A simple example of a perpendicular path is other p where as a more complex one could look like other p sw which equates to a path that is going south west away from current highway.

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One of my #OpenStreetMap #MicroMapping areas is waterway=ditch mapping. In this realm one mainly needs to know the possible crossings, the water flow direction, and on which side of the highway it exists.

The flow direction is the trickiest of the three, since with the tag intermittent=yes one cannot depict directly the flow direction. The tag is used when the ditch is either dry or has little water across the year. This tag is optional, though since it exists, expect the outcome to meet such instances in the wild.

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There are (in general) three possible ditch crossings:

• tunnel=culvert, layer=-1 for the ditch
• bridge=yes, layer=1 for the highway
• ford=yes for the intersection between ditch and highway.

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To simplify such crossings the following keywords are added for note taking:

• culvert|c
• bridge <material>, the material is added if it differs from the highway
• ford

For example, if a new path exist with a culvert than the note says other pc or other p c. Or on an existing highway one would just add other c.