There’s been an OpenStreetMap presence on Twitter and the Fediverse/Mastodon for years. And in the last few months, the @OpenStreetMap account on Mastodon/Fediverse has gotten much more engagement on Mastodon compared to Twitter.

The OSMF has had a formal policy committment to use open communication channels for 3+ years, but it’s important to also use closed platforms if it helps reach people. So where are the people?

As part of my work for the OSM Communications WG, I maintain some OSM social media channels. For several months, Mastodon engagenment has been much higher than Twitter. Here’s some raw data and examples.

(Here I show the number of retweets/boosts (🔁) and stars/likes (⭐) posts get on Mastodon (🐘) and Twitter (🐦))

The important OSMF post about recent Maxar imagery unavailability got about the same, ( 🐘 4🔁 3⭐ vs 🐦 5🔁 7⭐, but Mastodonians like OSMF internal posts about the 2023 Screen to Screen. 🐘 9🔁 5⭐ vs 🐦 1🔁 1⭐, or the post about the OSMF SSRE’s first year, got 4 times as many boosts/retweets 🐘 23🔁 17⭐) vs 🐦 4🔁 8⭐.

State of the Map is also a popular topic, with Mastodon toots out-performing Twitter tweets. From general “Have you been to SotM?” posts (🐘 12🔁 11⭐ vs 🐦 3🔁 6⭐) to requests for new host bids reach more people on Mastodon (🐘 16🔁 12⭐ vs 🐦 7🔁 23⭐

This analysis is just the tip of the iceburg. Compare the OpenStreetMap mastodon account to the OSM Twitter account to see more examples. Don’t forget: The “number of followers” on Twitter is 10 times higher than the on Mastodon (84K vs 6K), and yet Mastodon is reaching more people, and driving more communications.

Others in OSM have seen this. Pieter Vander Vennet showed how WeeklyOSM was increasingly linking to Mastodon, rather than Twitter. Geomob podcast episode № 171 described the “amazing” difference in engagement they got on Mastodon versus Twitter.

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HOV lanes

According to wiki, hov=lane is

“Deprecated and nonstandard. If seen on a way, this value should be removed; instead, hov:lanes=* is the preferred tagging for HOV access restrictions per lane.”

This makes sense as with this value, it’s not clear which lanes require HOV. There were ~8k road segments with the value, all in the US. I’ve systematically replaced them with the more specific hov:lanes, here’s a history graph: https://taghistory.raifer.tech/?#***/hov/lane. Some of the ways already had hov:lanes, so I removed hov=lane; the majority had a comment in note:lanes like “left lane is hov” (probably from an import), so I used it to set the lanes; and for the rest, I checked the images (Bing/Mapbox/Mapillary) to set the correct lanes. All the changes were done manually (often in bulk).

One more complicated case was in Alexandria, VA where two streets have their right lanes designated to HOV during certain times. Mapillary allowed me to update those correctly with a tag like hov:lanes:forward:conditional = ||designated @ (Mo-Fr 16:00-18:00): osm.org/changeset/137988567.

Contraflow HOV lanes near Boston

The last 80 segments are the most complicated yet. They are for a part of I-93 south of Boston, MA: https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/1wXB. The complication comes from this: note:lanes = during rush hours, 5 lanes (left one hov) in peak direction and 3 in off-peak direction. This is confirmed by Southeast Expressway HOV lane, whereas Boston I-93 HOV Lane has an image of it.

I’ve mapped the permanent barriers between the directions in osm.org/changeset/138024161.

I see two ways of mapping the HOV lane:

As a separate way along the interstate

but in the opposite direction. Even though it’s one lane of the already mapped road (in the opposite direction), there is always a physical separation (present when the lane is open), so it makes sense to map it separately; also there is no interaction of these two directions. Tagging is simpler with this approach:

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I started taking on mapping commissions and I want to do those with a different user account. JOSM doesn’t have built-in support for multiple user accounts, so I created a script for it that lets me switch without pain. It works on a typical Linux setup or other *NIXes such as macOS, not on Windows.

It modifies JOSM’s preferences.xml file to change your credentials, and then launches JOSM. You create one copy of this script for each OSM user account, and run those instead of launching JOSM the normal way.

I created two files with this script in a directory in my PATH and made them executable: once as ~/.local/bin/josm and once as ~/.local/bin/josm_commissioned. For Linux desktops: If you want, you can also create .desktop files in ~/.local/share/applications so you can run these scripts easily from your main menu or launcher. Feel free to share those in the comments!

Find the OAuth key and secret in JOSM’s preferences XML file, and fill them in in the script. Especially for macOS, you may need to change the JOSM_PREFS and JOSM_EXECUTABLE paths.

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1. Please do not use iD if you can. Use jOSM. iD sucks at arranging member order, and can cause a lot of havoc (e.g. node discrepancy)
2. Please always add the tag public_transport:version=2 for routes. That way others can verify your work more easily.
3. If you find there are other map features needing change, do those changes first. Keep your final change set clean with the bus route relation(s) being the only constituent(s).

I spent the last week with my band in Nice in France playing in an Irish pub, but since we only played late in the evenings, that left plenty of time for some mapping.

The general impression of the quality of mapping in Nice from my Irish (i.e. living and mapping in Ireland) perspective is that the basic mapping is very well done: buildings, house numbers (probably an import), building heights even (most probably a data import), bilingual street names, ebike locations, some street lights, some bins, most businesses. I can only speak for Vieux Nice (i.e. the Old Town) here, because that’s where we spent most of our time.

We used OSMAnd for navigating on foot to find the tram stops, pub, hotel etc which worked fairly well. It wasn’t always the most direct route, but it always got us there.

I used OSMAnd for mapping mostly, but it wasn’t ideal, because I didn’t qualify for the live updates in the short time I was there, so it was a bit tricky to remember what I had already mapped, as to not create duplicates. I had to use it in combination with EveryDoor which at least showed what I had mapped, even though I couldn’t use it to map more of these specific things, because there are no presets in EveryDoor. I also created gpx tracks to know which of the little streets I had already walked and where I had already mapped guard stones.

Urine deflectors

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I honored the invitation to help train some volunteers during the Lion Mappers Nsukka campus launch on the 6th of May, 2023. I taught them to map using the I.D Editor on HOT Tasking Manager, MapRoulette, and Mapillary mobile app. It was fun to meet them all. I made new friends. I went out to lunch with National Coordinator, Mr. Victor, and other coordinators () who came to assist with the training. One notable thing I gained is that I understood mapping more as I trained them, which confirms the saying that you learn from teaching. I also gained more confidence in public speaking. Thank you Unique Mappers Network for the opportunity.

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In my quest to know more about mapping, I took some courses on the Youth Mappers platform. It was worth it. Although I already know how to do some of the things taught, but it helped finetune my mapping skill. I look forward to taking other courses, especially on how to validate a task.

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There must be another name for these. There has to be a tag for them. They’re so common!

But I see in highway=trailhead that a “trail register” is something you might want to tag exists at a trailhead. Yep. How? It doesn’t mention that.

Trying to dig about and find what others have decided on their own. I found some
tourism=information
information=route_marker
name=Trail Register
in New York. In another cluster of two are some
tourism=information
information=board
name=Trail Register
I’ve seen some in the Wind River Range in Wyoming that were built into the information board. I guess it could be an information board with a register. It’s not a route marker. In fact, the one I’m staring at at the moment is at the parking which is somewhat offset from the actual start of the trail. Look, it’s a ridge. There’s room here and the trail is over there. Deal.

In Connecticut, I’ve found a single
tourism=information
information=route_marker
trail_register=yes
so there’s some more support for calling it a route marker. It’s not! It sorta can be. But it’s not!

I’ve found a
tourism=information
information=trail_register
in southern California similarly in Iceland
information=trail_register
man_made=cairn
name=Arnarfellsbrekka
and, I mean, what? I guess maybe a named cairn could have a register. Certainly cairns and peak registers go together. Those are usually a little less official than the registers at trailheads.

I have to admit, this simpler one seems best. I see why people are attracted to putting this down as tourism=information since the comments people leave are often the best source for information about the trail conditions you are about to experience. I may have accidentally weighted my search for this tag, though. Not all of it, but the later of it.

So one can do user defined values for information=, one does not have to choose from the small selection in the wiki. I’m going with…

tourism=information
information=trail_register

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Background

For a long time, I’ve used the OpenStreetMap as my main driver for online maps. Whenever I’m hiking, the route or big parts of it are planned according to OpenStreetMap, walking from viewpoint to viewpoint.

A few years ago, I made some tiny contributions to the maps in Leiden where I live(d). As The Netherlands is mapped rather accurately and there are a lot of active people in this country, it only stayed at a few minor contributions.

That changed when I moved to Bonaire a couple of months ago. Bonaire is a small island in the Caribbean. In the past ten years, the population doubled and a lot has changed.

Contributing

Some of the contributions so far include:

• Adding hiking trails;
• Adding streets, street names & amenities;
• Adding development projects;
• Resolving open map notes. A lot of map notes have been added over the past few years mentioning that certain amenities are no longer there, or a request to add them. I’ve resolved now almost all of these notes (and of course an RSS subscription is notifying me of any new ones that may arise).

Adding trails is a lot of fun since it’s just enjoying a walk with your phone set to record a track, and thereafter importing the GPX file etc. Adding street names and amenities is a bigger challenge since you need to constantly be writing these things down in your phone.

Challenges

There are several things that make mapping sometimes a bit of a challenge. The available satellite images/aerial photos from Bonaire are either cloudy or outdated (or both). Even with a detailed GPX track and notes from my phone, it’s in some cases difficult to add stuff at the right place if the satellites images are too old or too vague.

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I added 52 fuel filling stations which is 11.5% increase over earlier count of 451 across Andhra Pradesh. I spent about 10 hours logging the points of interest (POI) and another 10 hours updating them. Here is my backstory or how-to-do guide. I have been an OSM mapper from 2015, having learnt basics from PlaneMad and received mentoring from Heinz Vieth. I have been mapping occasionally about my neighborhood and places that I visit. I also installed Osmand on my smartphone and explored its navigation and trip and POI recording features. In my recent trip to my native state, I tried to record road side fuel filling stations as I drove on the roads as a passenger in car or bus. I used josm to update the OSM.

POI recording

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I have been contributing to OpenStreetMap (OSM) since September 2022 under the umbrella of the Uniquemappers network and some of the ways I have contributed are: I have spent over 130 hours mapping on the HOT tasking manager and I have a total of 4,267 buildings, 105 km of roads mapped, and 16 km of waterways mapped, so I have a total of 1613 edits. I have Validated 28 tasks by reviewing and verifying the accuracy of existing data on the map. I Actively participate in my Mapathon center at the University of Nigeria Enugu campus, where I am the team lead and I have trained over 20 mappers. I have a good knowledge of the JOSM and ArcGIS in mapping. I have headed the organizing of mapping Projects where my team participates in mapping projects focused on specific regions, themes, or events.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
– Margaret Mead

During the 2-days youth empowerment training at the university Nigeria Enugu campus in January 2023, I trained the LionMappers team Enugu campus on how to contribute to HOT manager using the I.D Editor. It is exciting to be a part of a team of young volunteers who actively contribute to society through mapping.

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The Land Transport Authority (LTA) Quick Response (QR)-code Parking System was created to tackle indiscriminate parking of shared bicycles. It is mandated and regulated by the Singapore government on bicycle sharing operators.

Since it’s initial rollout, it has been expanded to “device-sharing services”.

QR-code

The QR-codes themselves are static, and take on the form “XXX-YYYY” Where “X” is an acronym of the general area, while “Y” is a hexadecimal value.

“X” value	Location
BIS	?
HOG	Hougang
SKG	Sengkang

Locations

These QR-codes can typically be found under HDB void decks and near bus stops.

Those near bus stops are typically not covered (covered=no) and are either on grass pavers (surface=grass_paver) or cement (surface=cement).

Types of Locations

The parking locations can be broken down in to 2 forms:

1. Existing bicycle parking infrastructure. These are typically bicycle_parking=two_tier or bicycle_parking=wall_loops.
2. Standalone. A yellow box with a bicycle logo in the center, and a QR code at the bottom-right corner.

Known Locations

To my knowledge, neither the parking spots nor the associated QR-codes are available for download by the general public. However, locations may be discoverable via the bicycle sharing operators’ apps.

I’ve begun uploading these locations to OpenStreetMap through surveying. Currently focusing around the Hougang/Sengkang area.

Mapping

All bicycle rental dropoff points are marked as a standalone node. Based on some trial-and-error, these are my recommended tags:

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HOT Tasking Manager users with projects using Maxar Imagery - what to do next?

Maxar imagery has been down for all Tasking Manager projects for one week now (and for OSM, iD and JOSM in general). If your projects are set to Maxar imagery they are very unlikely to make any progress unless you switch to an alternative imagery source as soon as you get a chance.

This short guide outlines the steps you can take to switch your Tasking Manager project(s) to alternative imagery sources.

The best alternative imagery is completely dependent upon the location of your project(s):

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I want to share my experience using the CAD Tools plugin for drawing ways with smooth bends in JOSM. I want to emphasize that I don’t claim that this mapping method is the right or useful one. Most mappers tend to show object contours with as few points as possible. I see the advantages of this approach as it makes data easier to edit, especially in mobile and browser-based OpenStreetMap editors.

On the other hand, smooth line bends work well for the shape of most objects we map. Roads, being one of the main features on maps, are always represented by smooth lines best described by Bézier curves. Coastal lines of various water bodies almost always have smooth bends.

My considerations are as follows: the closer the data represents the true shape of an object, the more accurate the data is. Ultimately, my main motivation is that smooth lines are very aesthetically pleasing.

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Continuing last week’s trip from Duluth, MN to Ashland, WI with a loop around Bayfield County.

Now that I’m on the lake shore, I started seeing a bunch of bikes around, even where there isn’t much bike infrastructure.

Ashland, WI

Around 1900, Ashland was the third-largest Great Lakes port after Chicago and Buffalo. In recent years they have reclaimed the waterfront ore dock and brownfields for parks. A paved trail connects beaches to downtown and the Wal-Mart.

When I arrived in Ashland, I locked the bike at the library. Semi-recently (after the 2015 StreetView), the city got Lake Superior-themed bike racks along Main Street. There could be more of these. The local high school is making these and Lake Superior-themed trash cans.

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An Impulse Buy

I recently bought a GoPro MAX on sale for $400, with the intent of collecting footage for Mapillary. However, I have yet to get the desktop app working on Ubuntu 22, and haven’t been able to authenticate using their CLI tool, so I haven’t uploaded anything.

Mounting the GoPro on my car

I’m using a magnetic mount to attach the gopro to the roof of my car. I was a bit nervous driving at highway speeds, but so far it’s held up going around 50 mph. The magnet is quite strong and takes some force to remove.

Processing the video locally

As a workaround, I’m just analyzing the footage locally using the mapillary_tools utility to locally process the footage into geotagged images and JOSM to view them.

This has the added advantage of preserving my privacy, since I’m a bit concerned about giving my geotagged video to Meta. This way I only upload a limited amount of data relevant to what I’m surveying.

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In the course of working with GNIS data from the US Geological Survey, I’ve sometimes been frustrated with the limited range of expression in OSM tags for natural features. For example, we have a lot of tags that can be applied to a Bench as a place for a people to sit, but nothing specific to identify a Bench as a geographic landform other than tagging the edges as natural=cliff or natural=earth_bank.

There have been some good efforts to improve geological tagging, such as the Proposal for additional volcanic features and the Categories of Sea Areas, which give us broader vocabularies for some features. Strangely, the seamark:sea_area:category=* tag set is more expressive for undersea features than the OSM tags we have for features on land!

So, I decided to put together a Glossary of landforms for OSM, based on a similar glossary on Wikipedia. In the process, I’ve found that OSM does have a broad set of tags for geographic features, although many of them have limited or no documentation.

I also think that there is an opportunity to expand the values of the geological=* tag to include more types of geological features. If the main tag for a features is natural=* or something similar, that can identify the general shape of the landform and be the main tag used by renderers. The addition of a geological=* tag can add more specificity to the feature and identify the nature and structure of the landform. For example, the famous Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro is not just a mountain, but a Bornhardt. So, we might consider adding a geological=bornhardt tag to the feature.

If you have an interest in mapping natural features, check it out:

Glossary of landforms

It’s certainly a work in progress and there are some prospective tags on the list that aren’t currently in use, but I hope it might be useful. If anyone has input, I’d be very happy to have some additional contributions to the effort!

Discontinued

Recently, I applied for the mentorship program and after about 2 weeks of the starting date, I am part of a group that I see as a community of practice to share our common knowledge and improve the OSM Community.

For this program that goes until october 2023, I’m proposing to create a Guideline document to map water areas (amphibious cultures home), water bodies and flood zones as swamps, based on the use case of the Sinú River Low Basin in Córdoba Department, Caribbean region of Colombia.

I hope this Guidelines could help us to improve the mapping task instructions for this area.

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