The “Reuse” page on the OSM Wiki is our “Switch to OHM” guide for prospective data consumers. You can find a link to it towards the top of the OHM wiki portal. Please spread the word! If you’d like to contribute your know-how toward a standalone site similar to Switch2OSM, feel free to crib from that page, and ping the forum if you run into any questions translating from OSM to OHM.
As for data providers, @jeffmeyer and I have practically worn out our welcome on the Digital Humanities symposium circuit pleading with academics to share their data with OHM, and there are lots of existing resources for tracing old maps and other OHM-specific workflows. However, you have a point about needing to document more. The wiki doesn’t have a lot about how to import data into OHM. I think that’s primarily because everyone who’s done imports so far has just winged it, often without any discussion. For better or worse, pretty much everyone who contributes to the project so far has had to roll up their sleeves and blaze their own path.
You might recall OSM being like this 15 or so years ago, before Process began inserting itself into community norms. Process benefits those who aren’t as bold in breaking new ground, but comes from experience and a bit of scar tissue. We would eventually like to have Process too, but first we would need more Experiments, both successful and otherwise, that we can tout as case studies.
In the meantime, OHM’s usual process goes like this when anyone catches wind of a promising data source:
- List the data source on the global “Resources” wiki page.
- List the data source on the appropriate community project page if it exists. If it doesn’t, consider putting together one that contains a wishlist and a few starting points for research.
- Create a topic on the forum to gauge interest.
In time, someone who’s interested in this topic will pick it up based on these starting points. The community is around to provide moral, if not technical, support. This could be less passive, but we’re doing what we can with the resources we have at the moment. If you know of anyone who can help to champion this sort of stuff from the inside, we’d welcome their help every bit as much as the actual importing.