The OpenStreetMap Foundation is excited to announce that, like last year, the full travel and accommodations costs for 15 mappers to attend State of the Map 2010, will be provided.

We are looking for people from places where costs would prohibit attendance, especially developing countries and places that are “interesting” geopolitically. The scholarships will provide an opportunity for these leaders of nascent OSM communities to network, learn, and find the inspirations and support to take OSM to the next level.

Read more about this on the Scholarship page.

TownGuide will render PDF maps with street & POI indexes
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/TownGuide

About Image of the Week
These are Featured images, which have been identified as the best
examples of OpenStreetMap mapping, or as useful illustrations 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

Here are some of the OpenStreetMap contributors, last summer at State
of the Map, in Amsterdam. There were something like 130,000
registered users of OSM at that time, and 250 attended SotM if I
remember correctly.

Look at those shiny happy faces. Like cherubs, every one of ’em.

And how we’ve grown, since then, the OpenStreetMap community. Today
will be the day. The 250,000th contributor will register for an
account at http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/new I feel comfortable
predicting this because OSM gets hundreds of new registrations a day,
and we’re only 45 short of the Big Quarter-Mill. Sometime before
midnight UTC, number 250,000 will register. It might have happened
already.

There is a prize for 250,000

You get the right to a copy of the OSM data set under the OSM data
license. Congratulations, number 250,000. That’s the same prize we
all get. The prize we make by hand and give to each other. Collect
your prize at http://planet.openstreetmap.org/

http://www.openstreetmap.org/stats/data_stats.html
Mon Apr 19 00:00:07 +0100 2010
Number of users
249955

Sure. It’s an arbitrary milestone. Not every registrant contributes
a lot of data. One more contributor might not make much of a
difference. Let’s look at all of us in aggregate. And let’s look at
the next 250,000 to register. How can we, the old-timers, make things
easier on the next group of newbies? We need to make it easier on
them you know. The easier we make it for them, the easier it will be
for us. Otherwise we’re doomed to a spiral of answering the same old
questions at an ever increasing rate.

Go document something for a newcomer to OSM. Write a tutorial. Post
some examples. Help out on the newbies list or #osm. Free some code.
Benchmark osm2pgsql. Squash some bugs on trac. Do it for number
250,000. Do it for the next 250,000.

And take another look at the group photo above. They’re all smiling.
You know what they’re thinking?

OpenStreetMap.
it’s fun. It’s free. I’m helping.

Welcome to OSM, number 250,000. See you at SotM 2010?
http://stateofthemap.org/

SotM 2009 group photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgilbir/
Licensed ccby http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en_CA

There are some fun comments on the techcrunch article about OSM, see the previous post to this blog for the link.

For the record the person posting as me in that comment thread is a fuck nut, and it’s not me.

For the record we are not changing the license to close it off so I can be a millionaire, as has been discussed ad nauseum on the wiki and mailing lists. In fact I stepped down from the working group.

For the record nobody from CM spoke to techcrunch (I have to limit this to the best of my knowledge, but at the very least it was nobody in management). And when we do we say over and over again what the relationship is.

I would love to think I controlled openstreetmap let alone controlled CloudMade controlling openstreetmap. But if anything my role has been to start things and try things and then get out of the way for better people to run them. If I didn’t, the project would never have been successful. It’s also pretty insulting to my fellow OSMF board members to paint them as my pets.

Says techcrunch over here: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/17/cloudmades-openstreetmap-surges-on-wikipedia…

The opening sentence is obviously a mistake. CloudMade doesn’t own OpenStreetMap any more than I own Saturn and it’s moons.

Let me take you back to school. Think of all of the wonderful things
about being in school; the fun, the friends, the joy of learning. Now
think of the joy of putting your old school on the map.

The project of the week this week is to put the schools that you
attended on the map. Grade school, high school, post-secondary
schools, put them all on the map. Draw in the building outlines if
they are available, and perhaps the school yard, sport pitches and
play grounds.

Perhaps you aren’t sure that your old school still exists. Was that
building rezoned for a toxic waste dump or condos? Use this project
of the week as an excuse to get in touch with a friend from school who
still lives nearby. Call and ask if it is still a school and if the
name has changed.

Find more details about this Project of the Week.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Project_of_the_week/2010/Apr_18

This is your Project of the Week. Make suggestions.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Project_of_the_week/Proposals

New to OpenStreetMap? Join the mailing list for new OSM mappers.
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/newbies

It’s fun. It’s free. You can help.

Classroom photo by Corey Leopold http://www.flickr.com/photos/cleopold73/
is CCBYSA, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Check out http://getupandrally.com/

“Rally Up is a new kind of social network for your Real Friends – the people that actually should know your location (spouse, family, close friends, etc.)

Rally Up combines private microblogging with location, allowing users to share text, photos and direct message each other.

Rally Up allows you to check in to the places you go. Every time you check in, your real friends are notified.”

Think foursquare with privacy and heaps of OSM

Paths between the flower beds and trees in the Promenade Gardens of
Georgetown Guyana.

About Image of the Week
These are Featured images, which have been identified as the best
examples of OpenStreetMap mapping, or as useful illustrations 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

We can take for granted the infrastructure that runs our computers.
the infrastructure that allows us to map, to listen to amplified
music, to refrigerate food. This week we take a look at the power
lines that distribute electricity. Map the high tension lines and
supporting towers as available from aerial imagery.

Find more details about this Project of the Week.
( http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Project_of_the_week/2010/Apr_11 )

This is your Project of the Week. Make suggestions.
( http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Project_of_the_week/Proposals )

New to OpenStreetMap? Join the mailing list for new OSM mappers.
( http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/newbies )

It’s fun. It’s free. You can help.

Credits
Power pylon photo is by “TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³”
( http://www.flickr.com/photos/gi/ ) and is licensed cc-by-sa
( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ )