Author Archives: Richard Weait

Image of the Week: OSM data on a train

From Simon Clayson’s Flickr stream, we learn:

Great Western Trains have some seats with airline style LCD
“entertainment” screens. More interesting than paying £1.50 to watch
an episode of Friends is the “You are exactly here” screen which is
free. And it uses Open Street Map! Good work Volo TV.

Simon also tells us that the maps are attributed. He says, There’s
a big notice as you arrive on the page that thanks the “Contributors
of OpenStreetMap”

Photo of OSM map on VOLO:TV by Simon Clayson.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/claypole/
The photo is licensed cc-nc-nd
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en

OSM HeatMaps in the browser w/ OpenLayers

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=917EeJowMhs?wmode=transparent]

Felipe Barriga Richards writes on his blog:

After been working sometime with OpenLayers I figure out
how to make heatmaps generated in the user browser. Now I’m using
OpenStreetMap for both map and data.

Another wonderful tool building upon the wonderful tool that is
OpenLayers. http://openlayers.org/

I can’t wait until Felipe releases his code so I can try this myself.

See the rest of Felipe’s article and more demonstration videos at:
http://blog.felipebarriga.cl/programacion/openstreetmap-heatmap-using-openlay…

Icons for data browser pages

Media_httpkarrannettm_wjcrj

Dan Karran http://twitter.com/dankarran notes an improvement in OSM.

I posted a while back about some tinkering I’d been doing
with the OpenStreetMap data browser pages, adding icons to nodes and
ways when they’re shown in a list. I’m happy to see that TomH has now
pushed those changes live.

Nice one, Dan!

See more of what Dan had to say in his post
http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/dankarran/diary/10695

OpenStreetBugs

Media_httpimgurcom0al_ghnba

There are bugs everywhere. There are even some errors in OpenStreetMap
data. OpenStreetBugs is a site that allow folks to quickly report a
problem with or question about specific OSM data.
http://openstreetbugs.schokokeks.org/ Have a look at OpenStreetBugs
near you and help clear some of the existing bugs by helping the
reporter with a tagging problem, or visiting the site for a quick
survey and re-tagging.

State of the Map 2010 – Concert contest

The upcoming State of the Map conference, 2010 edition is going to be
loaded with great presentations, awesome workshops and more Mappy
Goodness than you can shake a stick at. But it will also be a lot of
fun. Some of the fun will be the ad-hoc enjoyment of a thoughtful
cartography conversation among peers. Some of the fun will be
learning about and enjoying the culture and hospitality of our hosts
in Girona, Spain. And some of the fun will be singing songs about
maps at the top of our lungs.

The SotM 2010 organizing committee sends us the following contest challenge:

Do you remember the 2008 Limerick Limerick contest?

And the 2009 Amsterdam Haikus?

Then you should be asking yourself “What kind of poetry will we have
to master this SotM10?”. Unfortunately for you, this year there won’t
be a poetry contest.

This time we’ll be doing something different. As the State of the Map
2010 venue is actually a concert hall, we’ll host the first official
OpenStreetMap Concert Contest.

The rules are simple:

* Make a song, or change the lyrics of an existing song. The song
must be about OSM, maps, GPS, GIS software, or cartography.
* You may assemble a band to play the song together (or play solo).
* You may use the concert hall A/V facilities (amplifiers, audio
inputs, video playback, etc). Please do talk with the SotM10
organising committee if you plan to.
* You will be required to play the song during SotM10.

Get the full details and sign up for a spot on stage:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/State_Of_The_Map_2010/Concert_Contest

Concert photo by Foxtongue http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxtongue/ is
licensed CCBY http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Image of the Week: Rebooting European Air Travel

Media_httpimgurcomxyz_fujlt

A frame from itoWorld’s visualisation of flights after the volcano video.

See the entire video:
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/11205494 w=500&h=283]

This is a Featured image, which means that it has been identified as
one of the best examples of OpenStreetMap mapping, or that it provides
a useful illustration of the OpenStreetMap project.

If you know another image of similar quality, you can nominate it on
Featured image proposals.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Featured_image_proposals

Project of the week, 09 May 2010 – “So far away from me”

Sometimes mapping is a matter of pride. We map our hometown because we
want to share our pride in our home. We want to help our neighbors
with the best map possible.

Sometimes mapping is a matter of history. We map the places we lived,
or went to school, because mapping those places makes them real.

Sometimes mapping is a matter of courtesy. We map the nice local
restaurant or family business because they deserve to be on the map
and people running small businesses don’t always have time for
mapping.

This Project of the Week is about mapping as adventure. We’re going to
learn about, and map, Karachi, Pakistan.
Karachi, Pakistan

Project of the Week, 09 May 2010

Mapping Karachi seems like an adventure to those who live so far away.
The aerial imagery from Yahoo! is good, and the existing map of
Karachi has some empty spots. So it is possible to make great
improvements even when what we can map from the air is limited.

Find out more about mapping Karachi, here
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Project_of_the_week/2010/May_09

Binocular photo by eflon
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eflon/
licensed ccby http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en_CA

New and returning sponsors for State of the Map

The State of the Map team have been busy this year. They face the
task of meeting or exceeding the expectations set by the event in
Amsterdam last year, armed only with their undying enthusiasm and
large pots of coffee. We’ll be able to thank those volunteer
organizers in person in Girona, as long as you have your ticket.

Get your State of the Map 2010 ticket now.
http://stateofthemap.org/register-now/

It is wonderful to see the growing list of sponsors who show their
enthusiasm for OpenStreetMap by making a financial contribution to
State of the Map. You’ll see that this list already includes some of
our familiar friends from previous years. And you’ll see that there
are some new sponsors too. welcome back, returning sponsors! Be sure
to thank all of the sponsors when you see them in Girona, and consider
their goods and services as well.

Media_httpimgurcomf7v_kaxci

You’ll remember from last year:

Logiball http://www.logiball.de/
uBlox http://www.ublox.com/
Nestoria http://www.nestoria.com/
Tagzania http://www.tagzania.com/

And new this year are:

Ericsson http://labs.ericsson.com/
Ministerio de Fomento http://www.ign.es/
Cenatic http://www.cenatic.es/
1Spatial http://www.1spatial.com/

Thank you, sponsors. Thank you SotM organizers.

Image of the Week: OSM data on GPS

Media_httpwikiopenstr_kwbki

Survey points and topology, one of many map styles available for
Garmin GPS receivers. More great details, en français, here:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Petrovsk/FR:My_Garmin_map_styles

This is a Featured image, which means that it has been identified as
one of the best examples of OpenStreetMap mapping, or that it provides
a useful illustration of the OpenStreetMap project.

If you know another image of similar quality, you can nominate it on
Featured image proposals.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Featured_image_proposals

Project of the Week: 02 May 2010 – “What’s in a Name?”

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.” –Juliet

What is in the name tagss of OpenStreetMap? In most cases, the name
tag holds the default name of an object. Very often this is the text
from the sign attached to the object. We even have name:?? to
describe names in different languages so that we can create maps for
many users in many places.

The big name fixup

But there are names that are in error in OpenStreetMap. And some of
them are fairly easy to clear up, if you know that they are a problem.
Consider some of the longest name fields in OSM. From the examples
below we can see that some of the longest names in OSM include
needless duplication.

Learn how you can find errant long names and how you can fix them from
the OpenStreetMap wiki.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Project_of_the_week/2010/May_02