Category Archives: OSMF

Posts about organisation of the OpenStreetMap Foundation. Working groups, the board, and other entities, and how we structure our organisation

Meet Grant Slater, the OpenStreetMap Foundation’s new Senior Site Reliability Engineer

Thanks to the support of corporate donors, the OpenStreetMap Foundation has been able to hire its first employee, who is starting on 1 May 2022. Grant Slater and Guillaume Rischard, the Foundation’s chairman, sat down for a virtual chat.

Hi! Tell us about you?

Hi! I’m Grant Slater, and I’m the new Senior Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) working for the OpenStreetMap Foundation. I’m originally from South Africa, and now live in London (UK) with my wife Ingrida and our son Richard.

What do you do in OSM? Where do you like to map?

I’ve been mapping since 2006, mostly in the Southern Africa and in the United Kingdom. I have a strong interest in mapping the rail network of South Africa; holidays “back home” often involve booking railway trips across the country, with a GPS in hand.

My latest toy is an RTK GPS base station and rover. I’ll soon be mapping my neighbourhood with centimetre-level accuracy.

For the last 15 years, I’ve been part of the volunteer OpenStreetMap Operations Team who install and maintain the servers and infrastructure which runs the OpenStreetMap.org website and many other related services.

What are your plans for the new SRE job?

My main objective will be helping improve the reliability and security of the project’s technology and infrastructure.

One of my goals will be to improve the project’s long-term stability as we grow. OWG can’t work without volunteers, and I will be improving the Operation Team’s bus factor by also improving our processes, documentation, and by smoothing the path to onboarding new team members.

I will be helping to drive forward modernising the project’s infrastructure by reducing complexity, paying-down technical debt, and reducing our need to maintain undifferentiated heavy lifting, by tactically using Cloud and SaaS services, where suitable.

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

With time, I would like to see OpenStreetMap introduce new tools and services to improve our mappers’ access to opted-in passively collected data to improve the mappers’ ability to map and detect change.

Gamification! OpenStreetMap should always remain a fun and gratifying experience for all. We’re building an invaluable and unique dataset with far-reaching consequences for which we should be incredibly proud. Happy Mapping!

I would like to hear your feedback and suggestions, please email me osmfuture@firefishy.com

Grant gave a talk at State of the Map US (2013) – OSM Core Architecture and DevOps and is hoping to give an updated talk at State of the Map 2022 in Florence, Italy 19–21 August 2022.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Firefishy
https://twitter.com/firefishy1
https://github.com/firefishy

Self-introduction of the new iD developer contracted by OSMF

The OpenStreetMap Foundation board welcomes Martin Raifer, whom we contracted to work on the maintenance and development of iD, the default editor at openstreetmap.org. Below you will find his self-introduction. Martin will continue working for 20% of his time for HeiGIT (Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology) and he will have regular meetings with the OpenStreetMap community regarding iD. We would like to remind that any iD-related disputes will be dealt by the OSMF Software dispute resolution panel.

Hello, my name is Martin Raifer, on OSM I use the username tyr_asd. I’m happy to announce that starting with November 2021, I will take over the maintenance and continue the development of the iD editor (OSM’s default mapping web-application) as a freelancer and will be paid for that by the OSMF. I’m feeling humbled that the OSMF entrusted me with this important task!

my goals for iD

To put it simply: I want iD to be the best possible mapping tool! It should optimally fulfill its prominent, important and also delicate role of being the OSM’s default map editor.

iD should remain an intuitive tool which everyone can use, from beginners performing their first edits to the most experienced of mappers. Since many users will continue to have their first point of contact with mapping using the iD editor, there is the need for a strong focus on good usability and user experience design. At the same time, I find it also important to not neglect the needs of more advanced users who like to work efficiently and sometimes need more specialized ways to manipulate OSM data.

In many ways, iD already does a quite good job of affording people to edit the map. Of course there are always things to improve, stuff to optimize and features to change.

my background

I’m an active OSM mapper since 2009, and have been contributing to the OSM software ecosystem in various ways. Some of you might know overpass-turbo – the web front end I created for the Overpass API – or some of my other OSM-related projects. Professionally, I have worked with OSM data first at an urban bike mobility startup, then as a freelancer for a project of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, and became a research associate at Heidelberg University/HeiGIT (more about that below) where I helped organizing the State of the Map conference in Heidelberg in 2019.

In the past, I already contributed occasionally to the development of several OSM’s core software: for example the osm website, the editor-layer-index and the iD editor. For iD I helped with beta-testing in the early days, added presets, submitted bug fixes and implemented a few small features like the support for WMS backgroundlayers.

my affiliation with HeiGIT

I will continue to work for the HeiGIT (Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology at Heidelberg University) alongside my work on the iD editor to a small extent of one day per week. At HeiGIT, I will continue to collaborate on mostly OSM-related research activities, with a strong focus on data quality. In addition, I will also support some teaching activities such as lectures at Heidelberg University.

The main chunk of my time will of course go into the development of the iD editor! I will do my best to cleanly separate my activities at HeiGIT from my work for the OSMF. Should at any point in time a conflict of interest occur, I will directly report it to the OSMF and HeiGIT to resolve.

my next steps

Initially, I will prioritize fixing of bugs, publishing of updates and documenting of the status quo such that decisions about future changes can be made in an informed way. Working through the accumulated reported issues on GitHub will probably take a while.

After that I would like to focus on step-by-step improvements of the iD editor. This could include stuff like enhanced support for road lanetagging, lifecycle prefixes, openinghours, or productivity tools like a building or wayimproving mode.

I am open to feedback from the whole OSM community, so get in touch on iD’s issue tracker on github or through some of the many OSM communication channels (I will try to follow as many of them as possible). Of course code contributions from you are also very welcome!


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The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project, is financially supported by membership fees and donations, and organises the annual, international State of the Map conference. It has no full-time employees and it is supporting the OpenStreetMap project through the work of our volunteer Working Groups. Join the OpenStreetMap Foundation for just £15 a year or for free if you are an active OpenStreetMap contributor.

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You’re invited to the 2021 Local Chapters and Communities Congress

The LCCWG is excited to invite OpenStreetMap local chapters and community organisers and leaders to the 2021 Local Chapters and Communities Congress!

Local Chapters & Communities Congress poster – please share widely!

The LCCC 2021 is a virtual event where leaders and members of various OSM communities, whether they are officially recognized Local Chapters of the OSM Foundation or just a regular user group of OSM mappers, come together to share stories and learn from each other.

Last year, 35 community leaders came together from more than 20 different countries and the LCCWG is asking you to spread the word far and wide so that even more communities come to exchange knowledge and build networks this year!

The LCCC takes place online on 06 November from 1200 – 1500 UTC and you can find more details on the OSM wiki, here.

Report by the OSMF microgrants committee on the trial run of microgrants

In 2020 the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) board funded 12 OpenStreetMap projects proposed by community members, groups and organisations. All the project proposals (funded or not) are visible on the OSM wiki and some of the 12 selected proposals were presented on the OSM blog. The program was overseen by the microgrants committee, whose composition was determined by the OSMF board. Initially, the program was set to fund 10 projects with a budget of up to 5000 Euros per project and for a maximum of 50.000 Euros. The policy framework can be read here.

Report by the OSMF Microgrants Committee

The trial run of the OSMF microgrants program has now ended. You can

Project reports by grantees

Almost all projects have sent their final reports and you can read them on the OSM wiki. The respective project proposal is linked towards the top of each page.

  1. Proposal: A Free Video Tutorial for Beginners about Mapping Pacific Islands using OSM and QGIS
  2. Report: HIV facilities mapping in the Philippines on OpenStreetMap
  3. Report: Leaflets to promote OSM – see https://osmuk.org/leaflets/
  4. Report: Map Maintenance with StreetComplete
  5. Report: Mapping Uganda’s New Cities
  6. Report: Mapping Villages and Settlements in Kosovo
  7. Report: Road Completion project
  8. Report: OSM Ireland Buildings
  9. Report: OpenStreetMap Calendar
  10. Report: Tactile maps for blind or visually impaired children
  11. Proposal: Teaching and learning OSM in Albania through LibreTech School 
  12. Report: Water and Sanitation mapping in Nairobi’s informal settlements

More details

You can see the microgrants timeline here and find more details in the Microgrants Committee’s minutes until June 2020 and in the OSMF board minutes.

Future

The final report by the Microgrants Committee was sent recently, so at the time of writing there is no evaluation published by the board or a decision taken on whether there will be a second microgrants round.


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The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project, is financially supported by membership fees and donations, and organises the annual, international State of the Map conference. It has no full-time employees and it is supporting the OpenStreetMap project through the work of our volunteer Working Groups. Join the OpenStreetMap Foundation for just £15 a year or for free if you are an active OpenStreetMap contributor.

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Looking for moderators for OSM lists!

In December, the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF) Board asked for help to instate a moderator team for the OSMF-talk and talk mailing lists. This task was passed to the Local Chapters and Communities Working Group (LCCWG) who subsequently set up a moderation subcommittee to lead this work.

Over the last 9 months, the subcommittee has led efforts to revise the Etiquette Guidelines and Process for Moderation but it will be the role of the Moderation team to put this guidance into practice and continue to define moderation practices in OSM spaces.

Volunteers are needed from all corners of the global OpenStreetMap community to participate in this Moderation Team to lead efforts to keep the lists safe, welcoming, and inclusive. The moderators will help to steer conversations on topic and encourage effective and respectful communication on the OSMF-talk and talk mailing lists.

Interested? Please complete this form and a member of the subcommittee will be in touch. The goal is to have a team in place by the OSMF election season (aiming for the end of October), so don’t delay!

OSMF election 2021- How to become a board candidate

OpenStreetMap Foundation members will vote to elect a new board in December.

Who can become a board candidate

Any natural person may be elected to become a board member, provided that:

  • they have been a normal OSM Foundation member [1] (not an associate member [2]) during the full 180 days before the General Meeting (start date of normal membership before 14 June 2021), and
  • are willing to act as a board member, and
  • are permitted by law to do so.
[1] Normal members provide their full residential address and can vote on all issues. Their residential address may be disclosed to other members.
[2] Associate members provide just their country of residence - which may also be disclosed to other members - and can vote - but not on all issues. Additionally, they cannot be board candidates.

If you want to find out the type of your OpenStreetMap Foundation membership (normal or associate), please check the most recent approval/renewal membership email or email the volunteers of the Membership Working Group at membership@osmfoundation.org

Available seats in this election

The 2021 board election will have at least 4 board seats available: of M. Maron, A. R. McCann, A. Mustard and G. Rischard. The terms of T. Knerr, JM Liotier and E. A. Villar will continue.

Currently there are seven seats on the foundation board. Board members are volunteers.

What the board is/is not, rules and responsibilities and why run

Please read the links on the OSM wiki.

A lot of the foundation’s work is done by the volunteers of our working groups, and if you want to help the foundation, you can also look at joining those.

How to nominate yourself

Update: The self-nomination window has now closed. Thank you to everyone who put their name forward!

Self-nominations of board candidates will open on 16 October 2021 and you will be able to nominate yourself on this OpenStreetMap wiki page: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM21/Election_to_Board#Candidates

You can create an account on the OSM wiki here and you will be able to add your name to the table that will be added on that date by editing the page here (please wait until 16 October 2021 to do so).

Resources about the 2021 board election and Annual General Meeting

The main two pages that will have the information about the 2021 board election and Annual General Meeting are:

OSM wiki: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM21/Election_to_Board and

OSMF website: https://www.osmfoundation.org/Annual_General_Meetings/2021

How you can help

A few of the current and past board members have mentioned that the thought of being a candidate did not cross their mind until it was suggested to them. So, you might want to think if you’d like to run for the board or to suggest being a candidate to others.


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The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project, is financially supported by membership fees and donations, and organises the annual, international State of the Map conference. It has no full-time employees and it is supporting the OpenStreetMap project through the work of our volunteer Working Groups.

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Join the OSMF Engineering Working Group to support the OSM developer ecosystem

To support the development of open source software around OpenStreetMap, the OSM Foundation has recently launched the Engineering Working Group (EWG). The group intends to support open source software projects with direct funding, mentorship programs, and by offering a platform for coordination.

Why this working group?

OpenStreetMap relies on a vast ecosystem of open source software. This includes the tools used by mappers to understand and contribute data, the software powering our database servers and website, the libraries and frameworks used by developers to build consumer-facing applications around OSM data, and many of these applications themselves.

The development teams creating these software products are generally independent entities, separate from the OpenStreetMap Foundation (OSMF). This is by design: The OSM community values do-ocracy and decentralization, so the OSMF does not manage software projects. However, that does not mean there is no room for the OSMF to support this vital ecosystem!

What we do

The Engineering Working Group (EWG) is charged with

  • Handling software development paid for by the OSMF, including the distribution of grants. This will involve putting out calls for proposals on tasks of interest, and accepting proposals on other tasks.
  • Offering a platform for coordination of software development efforts across the OSM ecosystem. We want to encourage standardization and shared efforts between projects by bringing together developers with similar interests. This work also includes responding to emails and directing people at other people or appropriate resources.
  • Managing OSM’s participation in software mentorship programs such as Google Summer of Code, which help grow the OSM developer community.

For handling paid development, “tasks” include development of new features, maintenance of code, documentation, and other tasks that improve the developer experience. When we are ready to start providing grants, we will encourage applications from skilled individuals who aren’t professional developers, professional contractors or companies, as well as those who are.

The OSMF has previously supported software projects through microgrants as well as separately with funding for Nominatim, osm2pgsql, Potlatch 2 and iD. With EWG, this kind of support will be placed on a more solid foundation.

In our first round we will look for projects that don’t need much management and focus the bulk of our efforts on core software. Like with all work paid for by the OSMF, the principles of the Hiring Framework will apply.

Whom we seek

As a group that is just getting started, we’re eagerly looking for additional working group members.

We would particularly welcome people knowledgeable about technology used in key OSM systems, such as the rails port, Ruby on Rails in general, and the cgimap implementation of the main OSM API, as well as those who can help with knowledge domains, such as user interface design, which are not well covered by the existing members.

However, you do not need to know any particular technology to participate! So if you have experience with the OSM software ecosystem, developing software, or managing software development, consider joining us!


Do you want to translate this and other blog posts in another language..? Please send an email to communication@osmfoundation.org with subject: Helping with translations in [language]

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project, is financially supported by membership fees and donations, and organises the annual, international State of the Map conference. It has no full-time employees and it is supporting the OpenStreetMap project through the work of our volunteer Working Groups.

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Projects of the Czech OSM community

The following post was put together by several members of Czech OSM community, and the main contributor was Mikoláš Štrajt. OpenStreetMap Česká republika z.s. is one of the OSM Foundation Local Chapters.

OpenStreetMap Česká republika z.s. association was founded in 2018 with a primary aim to have a stable entity for ownership of already existing website of the local community on domains openstreetmap.cz and osmap.cz. Since 2020 the association acts as a local chapter of OpenStreetMap Foundation in the Czech Republic.

Screenshot of https://openstreetmap.cz/ Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

In the long term, we, as a Czech community, engage in the following mapping projects:

  • similarly to Slovakia, we are mapping a widespread network of tourist routes,
  • (not only) to its supervision we run a database of photos Fody, with a primary focus on tourist objects like guideposts, info boards, and maps,
  • we import some data from Český úřad zeměměřický a katastrální (Czech national mapping agency):
    • automatically, address points (operated by poloha.net project),
    • semi-automatically, buildings (from the RÚIAN database) and fields and meadows (from the LPIS database) using the JOSM plugin called Tracer,
  • we are updating post boxes according to open data by Česká pošta (Czech Post) and we report any discrepancy found,
  • as needed, we sometimes do collective edits. Recently, we have been for example improving the tags about recycling containers or controlling if we do not have telephone booths, which were cancelled the other day, hanging in the map.

Besides that, we

  • translate the WeeklyOSM into Czech,
  • organise the State of the Map CZ+SK conference (as part of wider OpenAlt conference or standalone action), and we are publishing video recordings of the speeches,
  • quarterly, call for a personal meeting of mappers – so-called “quarterly beer”,
  • organise mapathons,
  • clean up after vandals operating in the area of the Czech Republic, communicate with the newbies, state offices, and commercial subjects.

Members of our community operate their own projects, e.g.:

MTB map – a map for mountain bike riders,
tourist maps for Garmin, other Garmin maps,
maps of the Czech Republic for applications based on the mapsforge library,
POI importer used to easily import various datasets into OSM,
– Osmose backend for CZ,PL,DE,FI,DK,AT,
Taginfo for the Czech Republic,
OsmHiCheck – QA applications for hiking routes,
Archive of extracts of OSM data for the Czech Republic with very old versions,
– Monthly generated map tiles for the Czech Republic starting 04.2006.

Talk-cz mailing list serves as the primary communication channel, which is supported by a jabber chat connected to a Matrix channel and our own section under the openstreetmap.org forum.



Do you want to translate this and other blog posts in another language..? Please send an email to communication@osmfoundation.org with subject: Helping with translations in [language]

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project, is financially supported by membership fees and donations, and organises the annual, international State of the Map conference. It has no full-time employees and it is supporting the OpenStreetMap project through the work of our volunteer Working Groups.

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Apply to maintain and develop iD

iD is the editor through which 80% of OpenStreetMap users contribute to the common edifice. The OpenStreetMap Foundation is committed to its support and seeks to staff iD development.

iD development is a funded position with the OpenStreetMap Foundation, with remuneration at market rates according to skills and commitments.

Please submit your application to board@osmfoundation.org. Include CV, cover letter, and/or examples of work as attachments. Also please indicate your preferences of full-time or part-time, work location, contractor status, and anything else we should consider.

What we are looking for

iD development involves a wide range of roles that may be held by one single polyvalent person – or by more than one, with skills and motivations that complement each other.

The overarching concern will remain addressing and balancing the needs of a diverse range of stakeholders, including:

  • iD mappers and OpenStreetMap community members from around the world
  • Corporate and non-profit players in the OpenStreetMap space
  • Downstream forks and instances of iD
  • Peer projects that rely on components of iD, or that iD relies on

Project management responsibilities will put an emphasis on communications:

  • Foster a welcoming, professional, online public space
  • Maintain and communicate a project roadmap based on input from stakeholders
  • Gather feedback and build consensus around major changes
  • Host regular online audio/video meetings to give updates, receive feedback, and hold discussion
  • Leverage the community to reach out and mobilize beyond the development team’s immediate circle

Of course, the basics of open source software project management shall also be fulfilled:

  • Provide support for existing functionality
  • Design solutions to enable new functionality
  • Review and assist with pull requests from contributors of all skill levels
  • Publish periodic updates with detailed release notes
  • Ensure that a third party can build an independent instance as completely as possible

Some domain-specific knowledge will play an important part in understanding user needs:

  • Some familiarity with the modern field of geospatial technology
  • An understanding of the OpenStreetMap data model, including tags
  • The culture of OpenStreetMap, and the free software and volunteered open data world in general

iD is a web application widely used in a varietiy of technological and social contexts – hence the following areas to which its design must pay careful attention:

  • Usability: ensure that tasks are intuitive to accomplish
  • Accessibility: accommodate a wide range of users’ abilities
  • Localization: adapt the app across language, region, and culture
  • Cross-platform: support all major systems and browsers
  • Tablet support: handle touch and stylus interactions as well as mouse and keyboard
  • Privacy: limit web tracking to the minimum required for operation and keep the Privacy Policy up-to-date
  • Performance: optimize operations for compatibility with the older hardware available to the economically disadvantaged

Development technologies:

  • HTML / CSS
  • JavaScript
  • Node.js
  • Node Package Manager (npm)
  • Data-Driven Documents (D3.js)
  • Git
  • GitHub

Quality control:

  • Code readability
  • Unit testing
  • Continuous integration
  • Debugging
  • Clear documentation, both for users and other developers

Activities of Local OSM Chapter in Slovakia

The following post was written by Freemap Slovakia, one of the OSM Foundation Local Chapters.

OpenStreetMap is represented in Slovakia by Freemap Slovakia (NGO Freemap) which was founded in 2009 and became recognized as Local OSM Chapter in 2021.

We have 13 regular and 4 registered members. Apart from the organized members, there are several hundred active mappers in Slovakia.

Over the time, we contributed to OSM in many ways and we continue to do so.

Community

General OSM discussion forum related to Slovakia

We maintain osm_sk google group, available to everyone, where all OSM contributors  that deal with Slovakia in OSM are welcome to ask questions and discuss ideas.

Mapping Parties

Once, or twice a year we organize mapping parties, one of which serves as a meeting for our NGO. The parties are always held at different places in Slovakia.

Outdoor photograph of Freemap SK members, holding large "Freemap.sk" and "OpenStreetMap" banners.

Facebook

Our community page can be found here.

Data Imports

Buildings and Addresses

In an effort that has been going for several years we continuously perform supervised bulk import of buildings and addresses from the Cadastre of Real Estate of Slovakia. For this purpose we built a JOSM plugin that allows users to visually inspect batch-imported data and upload it subsequently into the OSM database.

Marked Hiking Trails

Slovakia is a mountainous country and has one of the most elaborate systems of marked hiking trails in the world with more than 100 years of history (shared with Czech Republic).

We cooperate with the Klub Slovenských Turistov (Association of Slovak Tourists) which maintains the physical trails and markings, to make sure all changes are captured in OSM as soon as possible.

Photograph of a guidepost.

Cycling Infrastructure

Slovakia enjoys steady growth of cycling infrastructure, both in physical means (e.g. dedicated cycling paths) and in terms of trail marking. We make sure the latest changes in the “physical world of Slovak cycling” are captured in the OSM database.

Photograph of a guidepost.

Rivers and streams

Rivers and streams are hard to be properly mapped by “survey”, therefore we imported most of the waterways from the Cadastre of Slovakia, open data sources of Slovak Cartography Office of Slovak Republic, INSPIRE dataset and recently from more precise Aerial Laser Scans of Terrain performed by the Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre Authority of the Slovak Republic.

Software & Hardware

Freemap.sk Web Portal

We develop and maintain web portal freemap.sk that provides a number of features:

Source code of the portal, backend servers and many utility repositories are Open source.

Screenshot of the freemap.sk website.

Custom Map Styles and Renderers

Due to the specific appearance of the hiking trail marking in Slovakia, we developed several custom map styles which we also render and provide publicly as tiles.

Legacy Hiking Style

This raster map style was used for many years until we developed a more recent, hi-res “outdoor style”. Some people still consider this legacy style a pinnacle in terms of balance between colours, information and general aesthetics, and therefore the style is still available in the portal.

Recent Outdoor Style

A new hi-res raster map style has been in development since 2019, with a more “busy” appearance, as it displays hiking, cycling, cross-country skiing and horse riding marked trails all at once.

On more detailed zoom levels, we blend terrain profile into the map using data from the Aerial Laser Scans of Terrain.

The source code of the map style and renderer is freely available.

Photo Gallery

We empower users of freemap.sk to upload and view photos. Our photo gallery contains almost 300 000 photos, including more than 10 000 photos of hiking and cycling guideposts.

Rendering Maps and Hosting Tiles

We render our own map styles and expose the map tiles for public use. This way, anyone can easily use our raster map tiles in their websites, or smartphone apps.

We also provide offline vector maps for the Android smartphone app Locus and other devices:

Garmin Exports

Twice a week we export the freemap-style map into a format suitable for Garmin devices.

Other

Printed maps

We create custom vector maps for large prints on information boards. Freemap.sk users can also easily export their own raster maps in print quality through the Export Map feature.

Photo of an information board, which shows a map, photos and text.

OSM License Compliance

Maps generated from the OSM data are frequently used by various NGOs in Slovakia on information boards and printed maps. When we encounter OSM-based maps missing appropriate attribution, we communicate with creators of those maps to make sure the text is included. In almost all cases such the situation is caused by lack of knowledge and not by malicious intent and the problem is usually resolved by adding a sticker to the board containing the attribution text.

Awards

The Openstreetmap Foundation Greatness in mapping award was granted to our member Martin Ždila in 2016.

Funding

Our largest expenses are for hosting the freemap.sk portal and the map rendering servers. These costs are covered with income from annual fees paid by our members, by donations, and via the Slovak government-run 2% income tax donation schema.

Vision for Upcoming Years

In the near future we will be busy with the following:

  • we believe that as a community, we succeeded in creating the best outdoor map of Central Europe, with an unmatched level of detail, precision, and frequency of updates. We plan to continue in this effort
  • grow the OSM community in Slovakia and make the existing tools more accessible for non-English speaking mappers.
  • as mostly technology-centric group of people, we realize the need for recruiting new members, who could help us put a more human face on our effort through social media, or by organizing mapping-propagating events for lay people 
  • continue importing data into the OSM database from datasets published by various Slovak government agencies. This also includes cleanup of data that was previously imported from less precise datasets.
  • work on further development of the freemap.sk web portal, the outdoor map style and a custom routing service, most likely based on GrapHopper
  • try to raise more funds, which would allow us to grow the area covered by our map even further

More Resources and Links

  • WikiProjekt Slovensko on wiki.openstreetmap.org (in Slovak)
  • oma.sk – partner portal build on top of OSM data and Freemap.sk maps
  • nabezky.sk – partner portal for cross-contry skiing using Freemap.sk maps

If you would like to contact us

Write us via osm_sk google group, or through Facebook page, or send us an email to freemap@freemap.sk



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The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project, is financially supported by membership fees and donations, and organises the annual, international State of the Map conference. It has no full-time employees and it is supporting the OpenStreetMap project through the work of our volunteer Working Groups.

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