OpenStreetMap contributor Kate Chapman had a question on her mind and
an instinctual answer. Then she looked in to the numbers to find out
what they said.
There is no question the collaboration of the
OpenStreetMap community in the month following the earthquake in Haiti
was amazing. People from all over the world traced satellite imagery
and imported data to create comprehensive street data for
Port-au-Prince and the rest of the earthquake affected parts of the
country. After reading this Ethan Zuckerman blog post, I wanted to do
some analysis of who exactly made the map. Was it primarily the
already existing OpenStreetMap community? Or was it those who didn’t
want to just text message their ten dollars and actually wanted to do
something to help and OpenStreetMap became a venue for that? This new
group would mostly individuals coming from CrisisCommons during the
many CrisisCamps that occurred during this time. I’ve always stated
that it was the already existing OpenStreetMap community that did the
majority of the map, but I was going on gut instinct, not actual
statistics and facts.
Read the rest of Kate’s analysis, and find out which OSM user was
first to contribute improvements to the Port au Prince map after the
earthquake on her blog.
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