Adding village names to rural parts of Lesotho

Sue_Walters · 2018-09-22T15:19:54.000Z

Hi I’m based in the UK, doing research in Lesotho, Africa (mainly Thaba Tseka and Quthing districts). Villages are on OSM but many have not been named. How would I go about requesting they are added to OSM, there are Lesotho government produced paper maps with the names?
Kind Regards Sue

hadw · 2018-09-22T18:14:35.000Z

The primary request needs to go to the Lesotho government, as they will have to release the maps under a licence that is compatible with use in OSM. OSM cannot use arbitrary paper maps as a source.

Once you have the necessary intellectual rights clearances, the most expedient way of adding names would be to do so yourself. OSM operates on volunteer effort, and what gets mapped depends on the personal interests of the people who do the mapping. (There are some projects that target areas that require humanitarian assistance.)

Sue_Walters · 2018-09-22T18:38:11.000Z

Thank you very much for such a quick reply. I will see if I can get permission from the Lesotho government.
Sue

SK53 · 2018-09-22T18:58:11.000Z

There is an extensive team of people in Lesotho mapping actively, mainly belong to the Rural Planning directorate.

In addition they are supported by a number of mappers in Ireland, notably Ciaran Staunton (DaBigC on OSM), Dave Corley (@DaCor on twitter), and a Native of Lesotho current studying for a planning Masters in Dublin, Mats’eliso Thobei (@Tshedy4 on twitter & Tshedy on OSM). The Irish link stems from a long-term formal agreement between Fingal County Council and the Govt of Lesotho.

More broadly numerous ordinary OSM mappers have contributed to MapLesitho by remote mapping.

In the first instance I would suggest getting in touch with some of the people based in Ireland. I do not know why more place names have not been added given there are plenty of on-the-ground mappers. The explanation may be trivial, e.g., that places names are not important for the rural planning objectives of MapLesotho, or more complex. I’d therefore ask someone in the know before proceeding further.