Is MFM too reliant on Antyong?

[moeyhc]

This topic is not about relieving workload but a bigger picture of having resources to sustain MfM's operations in the event of retirement of our current leaders. Having entities with renewable manpower to take over and maintain our work is important. One good resource is from Educational Institutions. They have new students every year and their assignments can be geared towards the navigation and map making process. This will give rise to an unlimited resource to continue our good work while we give back to society the works of our most Valued Contributors. Our children will benefit from this joint venture.

IMHO educational institution is the better choice as monetary factors are kept to the minimum. We need to find them to kick start this challenging project.... 1/2 sen more.... cheers!

[vash_h]

wow.. looking at BCP already?

[ccwong]

This topic is not about relieving workload but a bigger picture of having resources to sustain MfM's operations in the event of retirement of our current leaders. Having entities with renewable manpower to take over and maintain our work is important. One good resource is from Educational Institutions. They have new students every year and their assignments can be geared towards the navigation and map making process. This will give rise to an unlimited resource to continue our good work while we give back to society the works of our most Valued Contributors. Our children will benefit from this joint venture.

IMHO educational institution is the better choice as monetary factors are kept to the minimum. We need to find them to kick start this challenging project.... 1/2 sen more.... cheers!

Well said.

I do believe the idea is workable, as students will try their very best to complete their assignments. Their ability is unbelievable!

In future, Antyong and the rest of members (valued contributors, mappers, etc) can become instructors and Examiners liao ...

Just my 2 cents!



Regards,
C.C.Wong

[tuah]

Nobody is going anywhere. Do your work according to the color given.

[waypoint]

More like Consequence Management...

wow.. looking at BCP already?

[shawchyn]

this is a very tough topic to discuss, and it might divert into too many branches.

List out the agenda to discuss during the April 10 GG, it is good time to have a discussion.

[rajabalak]

My livelihood depend much on the MFM topo map and street map make my life much easier, but can only contribute POI & track.

Just wondering is there any college or university that offer GIS courses? If they do, perhaps MFM can hook up with them to have the students do "internship" on line or do certain project that can earn them course credit? Is it relevant?

Releasing map once every two weeks should be fine, as there are so many POI already, plus one can always search the address as an alternative to get close to that place that wish to go. Maybe correcting error is more important than new POI.

Once again your maps are deeply appreciated and highly valued
Please please please keep up this noble job

THIS IS THE BEST THING IN BOLEH LAND AND BEYOUND!

[aikliang]

bro admin, looking at the topic, IMHO I suggest that this topic can be merge with the "MFM Future Dilemmas, Future and Possible Solutions" as they are basically discussing similar but not same issues. This topic, we are discussing issues like what happens if some of the senior bros (admin, moderators, mappers) were to leave - either voluntarily or due to higher calling, whereas the other topic discuss issues like the future - competition, softwares, hardwares, pnd manaufacturers, etc.

Anyway my 2 sens worth below:-

Sometimes, it is not that we don't want to contribute but we do not know how to contribute other than contributing track-logs and poi's. I have listed 4 possible scenarios and see what other bros think.

1. Input required for compiling the maps - Until now I am not very sure how the maps are compile and the actual work / effort needed. Most of us especially those who are not technically inclined or newcomers like me are in the same boat. If we can get an understanding of the work/effort/input needed, we can then assist better. Possible solution - a work flow / chart / tutorial on this for everyone.

2. Maps - I think we do not have to come out with a new map release every week. I would suggest a new map release once a month. Looking at feed-backs from the map download topic, the normal sequence will be that there will be problems associated with the release, members will feedback and then someone will then fix the problem. By the time this happens, it could be then be thursday or friday and it is time to do the next week release. Possible solution:- we do like software companies. A trial Map to be release at the begining of the month - think of this as the beta version or "release candidate (RC)". Members feedback and changes/improvement made (time-frame 2-week window) - think of this improving the beta version. As mentioned in item 1, I don't know if the maps need to be re-compile again or just sections where the changes are needed. By the 3rd week, the map should be stable and can be release as the final copy. 4th week - start work on next month release.

3. Workload - If I am not mistaken, all track-logs and poi's are sent to a mapper responsible for a certain region. From one of the feedback, these require cleaning to make it possible to be incorporated into the map. Possible solution - assign some one to do the cleaning up. Mappers concentrate only on doing the maps and fixing the problems highlighted.

4. Contribution by other members other than track-logs and poi's - as mentioned earlier, some of us want to contribute but because of certain reasons, we are unable to do so eg. new to gps, not computer fluent, etc. Possible solution - we can contribute in other ways such as financially to buy more bandwidth, map compliers, hardware (gps units for testing, up-grade mappers computers, etc) or to use our home pc's to do some of the compiling work. (NOTE: this method is actually in use now. I can't remember the site but I think it is from an education department. What it does is that it sent to members some raw material and the members then uses their home pc to crunch the raw material into useable data, which is then sent back to the establishment - all this is done through the internet).

The above are what I can think of right now, I am sure there are others such as open source, etc. But in a nut-shell, we should look at this in a corporate way of fixing or improving. Don't look at the problem singularly but to break it down into smaller problems which are easier to solve/fixed. By fixing/solving these small problems, the big problem by itself will then be fixed/solved.

My 2sen worth

[muurali]

Actually, if Otais r looking at recruiting assistants to help them in mapping projects, then we should have a kind of training session. Fix a date, venue and lets see how many of us can turn up. Then choose a few best new mappers among those who have attended the training. I'm very confident that there a lot of newbies want to contribute, it just that they are not very sure on how to do that. A hands on session. will give a great help....

[aikliang]

Actually, if Otais r looking at recruiting assistants to help them in mapping projects, then we should have a kind of training session. Fix a date, venue and lets see how many of us can turn up. Then choose a few best new mappers among those who have attended the training. I'm very confident that there a lot of newbies want to contribute, it just that they are not very sure on how to do that. A hands on session. will give a great help....

Totally agree with bro muurali on this suggestion.

Some idea / suggestion that I have:

1. Current set-up for mfm is having a senior mapper responsible for a region/state. We can expand this set-up to encompass sub-region. Think of it like parliament where you have MPs and ADUNs each serving a parliamentary district, another similarity can be like the districts in each state. Johor has 11 districts, so we will have 11 sub-region mappers. together with this 11 sub-region mappers, we can have one or more members helping him to clean up the poi and track-logs and also the polygon mappers, etc. Members will still post their contribution to the relevant topic in the forum. Once all of them have done their work for that particular map release, they then submit to the region mapper, who will check the data/map/etc. if ok, he then submit for compiling. if got mistake, either he corrects himself or sent it back for correction.

2. Another way members can contribute is through research. The internet is so huge that nobody knows what is in the internet or how big it is. But there are tons & tons of useful information if you know how to search and filter the contents. One of the ways we are mentioning is open source. there are already information and softwares and hardwares on the internet. All it need is a member or a group of members to go on-line and get this information. We also need another group of members who are familiar with gps and/or programmers or who understand about programming to shift through the information and use the relevant data/information. Maybe the 2nd group can come out with a search criteria for the 1st group to use.

Some of the suggestions that I have made are brain-storming ideas without going into specifics. These we can deal with or go into at a much later time. The idea here is to come out with suggestions from members, then shift through which are the workable ones and then move on from there. If we start debating the merits of each suggestion, we will not get moving forward.

We already have 21,437 members, some are active, some are not. Assuming that 10% is active, that's 2,143 members. Out of this 10%, if we can get 10% to help out with the work as I have suggested, thats 214 active members. Lots of work can be done with such numbers.

Confucius says " A journey of a thousand miles begin with one step". Let's us now take the 1st step on our project to secure the future of our forum.