Welcome back to the Census OpenMapping series. This is module 3, using the Tasking Manager.
In this lesson, you will learn the role of the tasking manager and controlling and coordinating
mapping workflow, and dividing large mapping areas into manageable chunks. You will learn
how to use the tasking manager, to determine which areas need to be mapped, as well as
monitor the overall project progress. Time to complete with self-paced learning breaks
should take you approximately 20 to 30 minutes. There are several tasking managers in operation
right now across the OpenStreetMap community, but for this lesson, we'll use the TeachOSM,
Tasking Manager. Point your browser to tasks.teachosm.org. Take a moment to review the landing page.
You'll see projects are listed in the column on the left. Using the drop-down menu at the
top, you can select projects by priority, date of creation, or last update. You can
also search for tasks by keyword using the search box. Pause the video here for a moment,
and try each of these controls. Let's now log into the Tasking Manager in the upper
right-hand corner click on the link login to OpenStreetMap. You will be taken to a page
that asks you to grant access to the Tasking Manager. Click grant access, and you'll be
taken back to the Tasking Manager landing page. Now select a project, for this exercise
let's search for Panama City, a task created specifically for this training. Once you locate
the Task, click on it. The topside section contains important background information
describing why we're mapping here, and what these maps might be used for in the future.
The middle section contains a short blurb on what the features to collect, plus a pre-populated
changeset comment. The bottom section contains detailed instructions on how you are to complete
the mapping. Please pause the video here, and read the task description and the task
instructions. Resume once you've finished. Click on the Start Contributing button at
the bottom of the page alternately. You can click on the contribute tab at the top of
the page. You will be prompted to: 1 select a task from the map, or 2 take a random task.
Let's select a task from the map by clicking on one of the grey squares. The map will re-center
on your chosen square, and the dialogue in the left-hand pane will change to reveal the
start mapping button as well as a comment box. The comment box will be used for later
after you've done some mapping in the square. For now, go ahead and click the start mapping
button. Once you click the start mapping button, the left-hand panel changes yet again. You
will see the task is locked down for you, for a two-hour period. In addition to the
edit width drop-down, you also have a link to split the task if it is too large and a
place to leave a comment as well as two buttons that either unlock the task for further mapping
or signal completion of the task. From the Edit with drop-down select ID editor. This
calls up the ID editor and centers the map in the square you selected. Your task is to
map the buildings and roads within the pink square. Please stay within the pink square
to avoid mapping on top of someone else or reduplicating their work. For this exercise,
we simply want you to add one building, tag it, and save it. After you've digitized your
one building, close your OpenStreetMap session and return to the tasking manager. Since we
did not digitize all the features in our square, we're simply going to unlock this task so
that other mappers are free to complete it. Once you've completed or unlocked the tasks,
it's good practice to leave a short note describing what you did and any problems that you encountered
digitizing this. Perhaps, some information about mapping conditions or imagery quality.
Sometimes the task squares, are very large and contain far more features that can be
mapped in a reasonable amount of time. For these instances we can split the task into
four small chunks, making it more manageable. Be careful though, once split, the tasks cannot
be reassembled into larger squares. By now, you can see how the Tasking Manager is used
to manage the work of widely distributed mappers and how it assists the workflow. This completes
the Module Three on the OpenStreetMap Tasking Manager. Congratulations, you've completed
the OpenStreetMap learning path in the Census Academy's open mapping program thanks for
mapping along and please be sure to check out the GIS Learning Path for even more open
mapping tools and techniques.