This is a very intersting discussion and something worth talking about. This should happen more.
I think we should distinguish between remote mapping, or armchair mapping, and putting 'color' on the map. Most remote mappers will just trace basic stuff like buildings, roads or other features that can be easily recognized. I think this ethical dilemma should be more about the actual stuff that matters. For example, what name has an area, what name does a street have, what kind of shops have we mapped,... in other words the local communities should decide what's on the map but basically roads and buildings will have to traced anyway and the result will most likely be exactly the same. In my opinion locals should always have the last word on what's on the map. You could also argue that some communities don't want to be mapped for various kinds of reasons. That's something we should probably think about a little more in HOT. But I'm afraid there is very little we can do about it too. Any military operation, that's most likely very questionable when looking at the good it will do for locals, can use use OSM too. To summarize, I think a HOT activation does more good than bad because the 'color' of the map is the most important part but we should be carefull about specific cases because maybe someone out there has a bad experience after we traced their home and suddenly everybody can see there are people living there. Cheers, Ben
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