Monthly Archives: June 2013

Weekly OSM Summary #71

June 3rd, 2013 – June 17th, 2013
A summary of all the things happening in the OpenStreetMap world.

  • The videos of the State of the Map US conference are online now. Also Code for America wrote a blog post about the conference.
  • You can find more or less all videos of the German FOSSGIS & OSM conference 2013 here and the entire schedule here.
  • The new OSM editor ID has been translated into more than 30 languages now. Also the new version 1.1. of the editor is available for testing purposes.
  • Any .geojson file in a GitHub repository will now be automatically rendered on an OSM map. Wondering how you can create a geoJSON file? Read this quick how to.
  • Alexander Avtanski developed a tool that processes GPS tracks and creates a video from the collected data. See an example at his OSM user page.
  • A new website creates polygons in different formats out of OSM relations. You can try it out here.
  • An OSM Data Report 2013, created by MapBox.
  • Sarah wrote a reminder about the Nominatim usage policy.
  • A blog post about the HOT OSM data model.
  • A new website which renders OSM data which has 3D tags, you can try it out here.
  • A new version of the well-known OSM rendering software Mapnik has been published.

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

Extending the OpenStreetMap Infrastructure Funding Drive

There’s been an amazing response to the OpenStreetMap infrastructure funding drive launched last month. Given the incredible enthusiasm for strengthening OpenStreetMap’s core infrastructure, we’ve decided to extend the funding drive so we can do even more and do it right.

We’re now asking for an additional £32,500 / $50,000 that will allow the OSM Operations Working Group to make hardware purchases and build out our server set-up. This increase in capacity will open the doors to even more growth of our lively community, and ensure that map editing will always be available.

You can help us now by donating online or contact us.

Where Your Donation Goes

Phase 1: Cost £40,000 / $60,000 (Achieved!)

  • An additional master database server to improve reliability and performance.
  • A new central file server for greater capacity.

Phase 2: Cost £32,500 / $50,000 (Help us fund this!)

  • Routing servers (more details on this to come)
  • Tile cache servers in NA for faster loading tiles.
  • Off-site backup improvements so that, in the event of a disaster, OSM will be back up quicker.
  • Additional database read-only servers for greater speed and responsiveness.

Your contributions will directly improve the single most important piece of infrastructure for OpenStreetMap. Thanks for your support and for helping OpenStreetMap continue to grow and become faster, more reliable, and more powerful.
You can donate now at donate.openstreetmap.org or by contacting us.

Weekly OSM Summary #70

May 20th, 2013 – June 3rd, 2013
A summary of all the things happening in the OpenStreetMap world.

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

Funding Drive reaches 70% – thank you MapBox!

Thanks to MapBox who have pledged a $20,000 donation towards our fund raising drive.

mapbox-logo
MapBox provide tools for designing and hosting stylish maps using OpenStreetMap data. They’re bringing our maps to an impressive range of customers and end users. Meanwhile MapBox developers have driven progress in several important open source development efforts within the OSM ecosysem including of course the recently launched iD editor. They’re also big supporters of OpenStreetMap.US and the SOTM US conference. If you’re attending this (in just a few days now) you can thank them in person for this donation pledge.

Ever played one of those games where completing a task brings up an “Achievement Unlocked” message? Well, MapBox’s donation pledge is contingent on the fund raising goal being reached. So our task is to raise the remaining 30% and unlock the funds for OpenStreetMap’s new hardware.

donate.openstreetmap.org

For any questions around larger contributions, please contact the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

Why do we need this new database server? Simply because the growth in OpenStreetMap contributions is outpacing what our existing machines can handle – it’s a good problem to have. The new machines will handle our explosive growth for at least the next 12 months, giving our hard-working, dedicated operations volunteers time to plan for continued growth in the future.

You can read more on the MapBox blog