OSMonth: Day 16

  • Brought the mapnik db map layer on the front page up. It automagically renders data if it’s not there or if it’s too old.
  • done some more organising of the various upcoming parties, see previous post for one bit
  • deploying Nick Burch’s applet fixes… done. Also added a little ant task to sign the jars.
  • edited down the geospatial vision podcast (see next post). Might be able to get some audio out of talking to people at the pub at the oxford meetup too, not sure yet.
  • good IRC meet about the OSM international conference organised by andy robinson, lots of little jobs to fulfill!

JOSM goes Applet

Hi,

Practically nobody knowed it, but JOSM had a possibility built in to be launched as an applet. This was implemented many month ago. Now I finally got myseld into fixing the last problems (including a bit of server hacking) and made a demonstration setup.

You can either use the standard login or create your own at http://www.openstreetmap.de. Note, that this is currently a test server and so your entered data, including your account, is thrown away after some time (unless we decide otherwise). On the good news, feel free to browse around, it will not disturb the main server in any way (hopefully).

I also setup a Testserver API of the upcoming Version 0.4 (the Ruby on Rails thingie Steve is coding on). It runs in development mode, so a) data may be resetted frequently and b) it is not a clever target for doing benchmarks.

JOSM-Applet: http://www.openstreetmap.de/josm
Testserver: http://www.openstreetmap.de:3000/api
Testserver API (0.4): http://www.openstreetmap.de:3000/api

Try it out! It won’t bite you.

Ciao, Imi.

OSM on a mobile

richard sent me this pic a while ago:

It’s from someones mobile at the xmas 2006 OSM meetup. It’s an osmarendered image put in to some magic app on a nokia mobile… If anyone remembers more info please add it to the comments. Anyway, a sign of things to come?

Map licensing, a view from the inside

An interesting post on the view from inside on licensing data.

If this data was owned collectively (that is to say, was not owned at all) and such basic factual documents were not seen as money making opportunities we would have so many advantages. Instead, we have a situation where hundreds of hours are being wasted simply because of outdated business models sadly adopted by our government. On top of this, such restrictions are stifling innovation. Google Maps may be able to afford to licence the OS data but the average bedroom developer cannot and so there is a less than optimal level of development in this area.

OSMonth Day 15

  • Done lots of organising for the 3 upcoming parties and the conf over the past week.
  • Figured out why the gpx import keeps stalling – someone keeps uploading mpegs which the importer thought were xml files in a strange charset, then crashing when it couldn’t parse it – fixed
  • Brought back the wiki machine… seems the VM just isn’t up to it any more, will need to think how to proceed

State of the Map dates confirmed!

Thanks to the generous support from the School of Environment and Development at the University of Manchester we have dates and location confirmed for the first OSM conference!

  • 14th and 15th July 2007
  • Manchester university (map)

This means if you want to go to guadec then you can straight afterwards. We have a wiki page for organising things, please help by hacking it, adding transport ideas etc for people considering coming.