Monthly Archives: January 2013

Some European OpenStreetMap growth statistics

I often get requests about the growth and competitiveness of OpenStreetMap in regards to commercial maps. While OpenStreetMap excels especially when it comes to details, people want to see figures that are more comparable to the commercial maps – mainly navigatable road networks.

I came across some internal evaluations of the recent planet files and thought I just share those figures figures with. These statistics are Europe related and show the values separated for Western and Eastern Europe.

In general we can report a healthy growth over the last 9 months – despite the license change that caused some loss of data.

Osm_drivable_roads_europe_cc

The drivable road network continues to grow in Western and Eastern Europe. While some countries like Germany have more or less reached 100% coverage of the driveable road network, others still have potential. In Eastern Europe I want to stress the growth of Turkey by 39% and Russia by 19%. In Western Europe we see Spain growing by 18% and France by 19%.

Osm_turn_restrictions_europe_cc

Turn restrictions show a strong growth – Eastern and Western Europe alike. Saturation has not been reached in any country –even Germany has grown by 34%.

Osm_segments_europe_cc

The overall growth of road segments shows an uptake after the license change had been completed.

Overall we see stronger growth in Eastern Europe, which means the gap between Eastern and Western Europe is narrowing.

This is showing just an extract of available data but allows extrapolation with a good confidence level. If you have questions don’t hesitate to contact me.

Toronto OpenStreetMap Developer Weekend

Come one, come all, to the Second Canadian OpenStreetMap Developer Weekend, eh? 

As last year, Ryerson University is providing a dry roof overhead, lots of space, and rock solid wifi for the software development portion of event. 

There will also be a public event, possibly an expert panel, Friday afternoon at Ryerson.  Details to follow.

Also as last year, there will be a ton of socializing and meeting and greeting with the local OSM community Friday night and Saturday night. 

Last year, attendees travelled to Toronto from England, The Netherlands, USA and even the Toronto suburbs.  Join the fun!  See you in Toronto. 

Sign up now on the wiki so we can plan for your arrival and the requisite Red Carpet.  

And there are sponsorship opportunities!  Want to sponsor a core developer who could otherwise not participate?  Want to buy the coders dinner and a few drinks?  Let me know. 

Weekly OSM Summary #60

December 30th, 2012 – January 13th, 2013

A summary of all the things happening in the OpenStreetMap (OSM) world.

Did we miss something? You can contact us via weekly.osm@googlemail.com

Authors: Pascal & Dennis – (thx @ “Wochennotiz”)

1 million OpenStreetMappers

OpenStreetMap has just passed 1 million users! That’s a million people who have signed up on openstreetmap.org to join in with creating a free map of the world.

At first glance you may think that OpenStreetMap is a map. Those who know more will tell you that it’s actually a database; a flexible editable repository of free geospatial data. But above all OpenStreetMap is a community. A massive community in which people like you and me come together collaborate and help build this thing… and now there’s a million of us!

A massive community is what makes OpenStreetMap work. We need many people to sign up, and we need those people in every neighbourhood, in every corner of the globe, to chip in a little bit using our editing tools. In this way we have grown and progressed spectacularly throughout 2012. This wonderful video illustrates what a great year of map editing activity we had.

Who will join the OpenStreetMap community in 2013?

Songs about maps

Play

What is the best song for your music player while you survey data for OpenStreetMap? Can you keep yourself entertained and inspired with a great playlist while you survey, or is the music too distracting? Are there songs that remind you of mapping? In past, some have suggested specific songs as anthems for mappers.

The following songs each have the words open, street, and map in them, though not in the string we prefer.

  • Map of Tasmania – Amanda Palmer
  • Soldier – Destiny’s Child
  • Movies – Lil’ Boosie
  • Home to Me – Jimmy Robbins
  • My Crew – Jean Grae

Are there more songs with the words Open, Street, and Map in them?  Which songs or music would you suggest as a mapping anthem, or to inspire and motivate your surveys? Use the comments below to discuss. I’ll add some CanCon suggestions tomorrow.

New aerial imagery – South Africa

A small sample of the South Africa aerial imagery provided by CD:NGI, the mapping agency of the government of South Africa.

OpenStreetMap contributors in South Africa have negotiated with the South African government to arrange the donation of some aerial imagery to be used in creating and editing data for OpenStreetMap. Chief Directorate: National Geo-Spacial Information, or CD:NGI, part of the South African Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, have provided aerial imagery and OSM contributor Grant Slater, has prepared it for use in our editors. There is 3TB of imagery and covers all of South Africa.

Thanks as always to the many people who helped make this happen: the fine folks at CD:NGI, the OSM contributors who carried the data between continents, and the mappers who continue to make OSM data better, more up to date and accurate every day.

You can find more information about this aerial imagery in the thread on the talk-ZA mailing list.

Do you want to donate aerial imagery or other data to OpenStreetMap? Contact the OSM Foundation Communication Working Group for more details. communication@osmfoundation.org

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organization, formed in the UK to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data and to providing geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project. You can support OpenStreetMap by donating to the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

Weekly OSM Summary #59

December 16th, 2012 – December 30th, 2012

A summary of all the things happening in the OpenStreetMap (OSM) world.

  • The call for venues for the next State of the Map (SotM) 2013 is open. You can submit your proposal here.
  • The OSM project has a new server in France for Tile Content Delivery Network (CDN).
  • Data imports to OSM have been discussed on the OSM US mailing list. A different thread involved a discussion about what the trademark policy should look like.
  • A first alpha version of the new OSM data editor iD is available online.
  • To all OSM developers: Is your OSM source code ready for 64bit Node-IDs?
  • Ronald Olbricht created a minutely up-to-date housenumber map based on his overpass API. You can use it to see where e.g. house numbers or other address related information is still missing.
  • Almost all street lights of trunk roads and motorways within London (UK) have finally been mapped in OSM. You can see the results at the ITO highway lighting map.
  • A nice example of OSM data utilization: The Hobbit Filming Locations Map.
  • Chris Herwig wrote a blog post about the troubles he had with geoportals during the creation of the Mapbox Satellite layer.
  • Jochen Topf wrote a final report about the Multilingual Maps Project.
  • The OSMFight game, which you can play between two OSM contributors, has two new rounds.
  • A new version of MapOSMatic is online. With MapOSMatic you can create maps of cities based on OSM data.
  • The BeWelcome project uses OSM maps for their website now. BeWelcome is a culture crossing network that lets you share a place to sleep, meet up and help others on their way. It is a non-profit organization run by volunteers.
  • Kort is a new open source mobile game app that helps improving OSM data. So far it is in a test phase, but you can read and see some more details in the OSM wiki.
  • Thomas Rupprecht created a new Firemap which shows all mapped OSM fire stations on an interactive online map. You can find the demo page here and source code on github.

Did we miss something? You can contact us via weekly.osm@googlemail.com

Authors: Pascal & Dennis – (thx @ “Wochennotiz”)