Dear friends, Many of you have participated in the successful Missing Maps project (https://www.missingmaps.org/>), in which volunteers create maps of sites in the developing world for the work of humanitarian organizations that help in those places. Our team Missing Maps Brno is part of the Czech and Slovak community of the Missing Maps project, which organizes regular mapathons in Czechia and Slovakia. The United Kingdom is known for its high number of mapathons and humanitarian mapping contributors. That is why I am addressing you this way.
Missing Maps Brno members are partly recruited from the staff and students of the Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. Therefore, we are also interested in mapathons from the scientific point of view. Already last year, our team conducted a scientific experiment on mapathons. This year we want to repeat the experiment after modifications. In recent years, artificial intelligence algorithms have been increasingly used to process aerial and satellite images, which can automatically detect buildings, roads and other objects in the image without human assistance. The question is whether automatic object recognition could also be used for humanitarian mapping purposes – to speed up and improve mapping. Do not worry. The machines will not replace humans at mapathons, but they can help them with mapping. In collaboration with the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (one of the founders of the Missing Maps project) we are organizing an experiment to determine how AI will affect the mapping results when building and roads data prepared by artificial intelligence algorithms are used and we are looking for volunteer mappers. Who we need: - We need participants – volunteers – for the experiment. The more, the better. - Participation is suitable for a wide range of mappers. Both for beginners and for more experienced ones who often map. For less experienced mappers, we are preparing a short training before the experiment. - The volunteers will not be exposed to any form of danger during the experiment. Their results will be strictly anonymized and the personal data of participants will not be passed on to anyone. When and where the experiment will take place: - The experiment will take place on two occasions in April or May. The votes of the registered volunteers will determine the exact days and times. Each participant will attend one of the mapathons. - The experiment will take place in the form of a mapathon, the length of which will correspond to a normal mapathon – about 3 hours. Each participant will - The experiment will take place online so that volunteers from different countries can participate, using some applications for online teaching – MS Teams, Zoom, etc. - After registering a sufficient number of participants, we will contact you, agree on a date and an online platform and explain everything. For more info and registration, please click here https://forms.gle/4YbedEjN9q7HVjLn8> Thank you on behalf of the experiment preparation team. Radim Stampach, Ph.D. Department of Geography Faculty of Science Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic _______________________________________________ Talk-gb-london mailing list Talk-gb-london@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb-london
