Monthly Archives: December 2015

OpenStreetMappy Christmas

OpenStreetMappy Christmas to all the map contributors and users!

Russian user te_mark recently noticed that the OpenStreetMap node with id number 1, was quite nearby, so he went to go take a look at it, and posted a photo of what he found:

It’s a christmas tree! (or at least a fairly christmassy-looking tree. A tree with needles, as the leaf_type=needleleaved tag accurately records!)

Take a look at node number 1 for yourself.  Now we have to point out that, although it has id number 1, this is not the first ever node in the OpenStreetMap database. It just ended up with this id number after some database re-arrangements of these low-numbered ids. OpenStreetMap has 3.1 billion nodes in the database, and of course this number is rising all the time as more and more data is contributed. Nodes can represent all kinds of things. Often they’re just mid-points along a way, but yes… nodes can represent trees. We have nearly 6 million of those on OpenStreetMap.

So whichever leaf_type you get in your part of the world, we hope you have an OpenStreetMappy Christmas!

Welcome new board

At the weekend we held our 2015 Annual General Meeting, and foundation members voted to elect four new board members. Congratulations to…

They join Kate Chapman, Frederik Ramm, and Paul Norman on the foundation board. Thanks to all eleven candidates who took part in the election, and thanks to the members for asking questions, debating the issues, and casting your votes.

For more voting details including passing of a special resolution, see the public meeting minutes and transcript.

As well as finalising the election, the Annual General Meeting included presentation of the chairperson’s report from Kate Chapman, and the treasurer’s report from Frederik Ramm.

The election campaigning/discussion included great ideas about future directions of OpenStreetMap and the foundation. Let’s bring some of these ideas to life in the coming year! Don’t forget, one of the key ideas all candidates agreed upon, was encouraging more involvement from the OpenStreetMap community in the work of the fundation e.g. via working groups. So now’s a great time to get involved!

MapMyDay

Today is MapMyDay, a campaign raising awareness of barriers encountered. These include people with wheelchairs, walking aids and pushchairs. 
The campaign uses http://wheelmap.org/ app and website to add accessibility information into OpenStreetMap.

mapmyday

Barriers affect many people: Elderly, children, families as well as those with disabilities. Stopping them from being able to access places taken for granted by most people.  By mapping these barriers, the ‘MapMyDay’ campaign is starting a worldwide movement to call attention to these, with the intention of removing them.
Download the app from mapmyday.org.  As you go about your day make a  difference by recording if the places you visit are ‘fully’, ‘partially’  or ‘not wheelchair accessible’.

Here comes State of the Map 2016

State of the Map 2016 is on. We have fixed a location. Here come the facts.

The conference will be held on September 23 – 25, 2016 in the heart of Europe, Brussels, at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB ‐ Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Elsene, Brussels). The Vrije Universiteit Brussel is the offshoot of the French-speaking Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), founded in 1834 by a Brussels lawyer with Flemish origins, Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen. He wanted to establish a university independent from state and church and where academic freedom would reign.

Following years of tradition we held a logo competition for SotM 2016. We were delighted by the response and eventually settled on the eye-catching design below. Thanks to Veronica Semeco, who designed the winning logo, and Tatiana van Campenhout, who prepared the logo and website for launch.

sotm2016

State of the Map provides a fantastic opportunity to meet the diverse OpenStreetMap community and to celebrate your achievements and look forward into the future. As an organising team we are delighted to be able to bring data contributors, data users and software developers together again and we look forward to meeting you all in Brussels.

The SotM 2016 website has launched. There you will find more information about registration, call for proposals, the programme, social events and accommodations soon. Please also take the time to sign up to our email newsletter or follow us on twitter.