The OpenStreetMap Foundation had quite recently launched a worldwide membership campaign with the objective of growing and diversifying OSMF membership in regions where there are very low or no OSMF members. And I am proud to say that I was/am part of this campaign. I should say that it is also my very first time volunteering for the OpenStreetMap Foundation and the experience has been & continues to be very enriching to say the least. In late January, I had responded to a call for volunteers & campaigners to help grow OSMF membership on Slack & since then, I’ve been part of a very diverse, talented & committed group of campaigners & volunteers.

On the first few virtual meet-ups via Google meet, I had promptly signed up for the visual comms/mapmakers role as I believed I could use whatever little designing skills & experiences I had to aid in creating & designing comms material for the campaign. In doing so, I had been thrown into a mix of incredible volunteers from around the world. Our work as visual comms/mapmakers volunteers had revolved around creating posters, pubmats, infographics, maps, etc. and these materials feature a lot about the OpenStreetMap Foundation, testimonials, how to join, membership types, why join, etc. However, generating these materials wasn’t an easy feat as the process often involved planning, a lot of discussions, facilitating, reviewing, and amending the materials as per suggestions/recommendations from the OSMF Board.

I believe that this volunteering opportunity has helped me grow in ways I wouldn’t have imagined because in the short period of only two months, I have learnt a lot about community, having being part of a group with shared or common interest but also acknowledging the different ideas, strengths & capabilities that each one of us had & brought to the table allowed us to effectively work together to bring about the outputs we were tasked to deliver.

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A recent discussion on the osm-gb IRC channel was about how to map chapels within crematorium buildings.

I thought it was worth summarising some of that discussion. These notes pertain to crematoria in England and Wales. I have attended a funeral at that in Geneva, but that was twenty years ago.

One of the difficulties is that most visits to a crematorium are likely to be to attend a funeral service. This is not conducive to any kind of sophisticated micromanaging, but does allow a decent amount of basic observation. In addition I’m not aware of well-developed tagging standards for various features, as may become apparent by looking at some of my examples

In general

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Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

Connecticut

Delaware

Florida

Georgia

Hawaii

Idaho

Illinois

Indiana

Iowa

Kansas

Kentucky

Louisiana

Maine

Maryland

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Mississippi

Missouri

Montana

Nebraska

Nevada

New Hampshire

New Jersey

New Mexico

New York

North Carolina

North Dakota

Ohio

Oklahoma

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

South Dakota

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Washington

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

Hello Community,

Recently, I embarked on a quest to explore second-hand stores and made an intriguing discovery—not only about the variety of hidden treasures but also about the limitations of the existing data in OpenStreetMap.

At the beginning of my search i obviously used OSM to look for second hand shops. I used https://openstreetbrowser.org/ and created a custom category with the code

query: 13: nwr[shop=second_hand]

and discovered that there are just few second-hand stores mapped in my area. I was sure that this is not possible and so i searched the internet to create my own list while cross-referencing various websites, blogs and platforms.

To optimize my exploration, I looked to create an efficient route—the classic Traveling Salesman Problem. There are various tools and APIs that can be utilized for this purpose. After some deliberation, I opted for Routexl, which best suited my needs as its possible to use it for free if you don’t have more than 20 points.

Armed with the list and the route, I got out with my bicycle on two separate days to visit most of the second-hand stores and map them. But my journey didn’t end there. I checked again with the OpenStreetBrowser and and shared it the first time within a local community. The community then showed me another second-hand store specializing in computers—an aspect I had not previously considered, as my focus was on clothing stores.

Now there are two already mapped stores where its not clear if they are still in operation. More research and exploration is required to keep everything recent.

It was interesting to discover how these store did not get mapped previously or did not get any attention even after they got added to OSM. It was a nice experience to find something that might be needed locally.

Lets fill the map with new discoveries!

Open street mapping training was started at. 09:00, it was located at Kacyiru in Gift house where headquarter of OpenStreetMap Rwanda located. it was started by Jeannette as coordinator of Eco mappers, she starts with welcoming all newcomers (the trainee of the day) with good greeting and asked them to feel at home. as continuing she asked Jack to explain for us what OpenStreetMapping mean? what Eco mapper do? he told us where Eco mapper comes from, their vision and missions etc. jeanette continue as the newcomer to present itself and then she shows us her team one by one in his/her name and what he/she responsible for in Eco mappers group. continuing with receiving speakers, our special guest etc. also, we taking tea break together, then we follow another speaker. as we continuing to be celebrating women day, we play game together, and then we start to study how can we contribute to mapping process, Liliane helper us and another ecomappers member then we start to map, where the first mapper of the day mapped 170 buildings, he is a boy, finally, we took photos and sharing food together.

Hello my name is Lucas Shepard Brewer and I go to Jesuit Highschool. I loved mapping in turkey today!!! I do mapping everyday!!!! WHEN I SLEEO WHEN I EAT WHEN I RUN EVERYWHERE!!!!

In 2 March 2024, various OSM contributors and community members/leaders gathered together for the Local Chapters and Communities Congress! It was my pleasure to share a short update about HOT where I work as an Online Community Engagement Lead.

My slide presentation is here. Recordings are now uploaded in Youtube :)

Just a point to make that I shared about the HOT and its community, and not the HOT as an org. HOT Annual reports are available here.

How to get involved in HOT?

There are three general ways to get involved with HOT:

1. mapping in your own time,
2. participate in a HOT Working Group/s, and
3. contribute to tech.

So how do we engage with the community / contributors at HOT?

Since lots of different community members and leaders were there in the Congress, I took the opportunity to share and highlight how we foster a collaborative and inclusive space in HOT and channels

… See full entry

After FOSDEM I was hooked again to contributing to OSM. I started slowly by using StreetComplete and did more than 700 suggestions and edits for a months. Now I am looking into using the editor to be able to add missing spots, especially pubs and toilets.

If there any any other Englis speaking enthusiasts in Prague, I am always open for doing a map walk combined with a pub visit.

Found by Harrison Grossman and Caitlyn Faulkner

Yesterday morning, our OSM community in Metro Manila, conducted an AlayData event for the quarter. We gathered to celebrate Open Data Day, focusing on open geopsatial data from OpenStreetMap, and give ourselves opportunities to socialize and get to know other contributors, sharing stories and experiences, and a chance for hands-on learning with new tools.

Among the things that our community learned from a “getting to know you” survey we did last quarter, is the high interest in other aspects of the OSM movement: like field mapping, photo-mapping, and getting familiar with other tools available from the OSM ecoysystem, and to more casual opportunities to contribute other than arm-chair mapping.

The volunteer group was sub-divided into three teams of their choice:

• Galúgad - folks also on foot, using FieldPapers, for a no-tech mapping approach. In Filipino, “Galúgad” means travelling to explore, or search for something.
• Tahák - folks on foot, using StreetComplete_EE (SCEE). “Tahák” in Filipino means to pass through a new or unusual path.
• Padyák - folks on HPVs (in our case, just bikes), to collect ground-level photos, to support or augment map editing. “Padyák” in Filipino means to stomp, and by extension, to pedal or push with your foot.

Initial results

Here’s the latest heatmap of recent edits made in the area:

… See full entry

I have created a web-based tool to easily and intuitively obtain the access token needed to make most requests to the OpenStreetMap api.

It is hosted courtesy of Interactive Maps.

The tool walks you through the process of obtaining such a token. It is useful for those writing server-side software that communicates with the api.

I created this tool because there is no other simpler way to authorise server applications. Current ways require running code locally.

It is available here: https://tools.interactivemaps.xyz/token

In case you might have not yet noticed, my current project on OSM is to cover the entire remainder of Vancouver Island with woodland data. I started with my home area of the Comox Valley and am radiating out from there in all directions, eventually finishing up with the area around Cape Scott. Every patch of forest I find in aerial imagery, no matter how expansive, even if the trees are small, will be added.

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✔ YouthMappers UFRJ receives the Women’s Participation Award!

✔ YouthMappers UFRJ recebe o Women’s Participation Award!

✔ Our participation in the Open Data Day YouthMappers at UFBA 2024

✔ Nossa participação no Open Data Day 2024 do YouthMappers at UFBA

✔ Web map do mapeamento colaborativo para redução de riscos e desastes (RRD)

✔ Web map of colaborative mapping for the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

✔ Mapear POI no OpenStreetMap e exibir dinamicamente com uMap

✔ Mapping POI in OpenStreetMap and displaying dynamically with uMap

✔ Resultados do GIS DAY 2023!

✔ V Olimpíada Brasileira de Cartografia incluiu o OpenStreetMap como parte de sua etapa prática

✔ V Brazilian Cartographic Olympiad included OpenStreetMap as part of its practical stage

✔ Geocodificação com OpenStreetMap

✔ Mapeamento humanitário e OpenStreetMap

✔ Nossa participação no State of the Map Brasil 2023

✔ Atualização dos dados populacionais dos municípios brasileiros no OpenStreetMap

✽✽ Women’s participation is recognized

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Leia em Português

The international project YouthMappers awarded the YouthMappers UFRJ Chapter (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) for promoting women’s participation in its activities and organization, corresponding to more than 50% of its membership.

The YouthMappers UFRJ Chapter is an initiative of open collaborative mapping, that results of a partnership between the Virtual Institute for Sustainable Development - IVIDES.org and the Laboratory of Cartography - GeoCart-UFRJ, chaired by Dr. Raquel Dezidério Souto.

On this International Women’s Day, we dedicate this award to all girls and women, hoping that they can achieve their goals!

… See full entry

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Our participation in the Open Data Day YouthMappers at UFBA 2024

Nossa participação no Open Data Day 2024 do YouthMappers at UFBA

Web map do mapeamento colaborativo para redução de riscos e desastes (RRD)

Web map of colaborative mapping for the Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

Mapear POI no OpenStreetMap e exibir dinamicamente com uMap

Mapping POI in OpenStreetMap and displaying dynamically with uMap

Resultados do GIS DAY 2023!

V Olimpíada Brasileira de Cartografia incluiu o OpenStreetMap como parte de sua etapa prática

V Brazilian Cartographic Olympiad included OpenStreetMap as part of its practical stage

Geocodificação com OpenStreetMap

Mapeamento humanitário e OpenStreetMap

Nossa participação no State of the Map Brasil 2023

Atualização dos dados populacionais dos municípios brasileiros no OpenStreetMap

An event to strengthen alliances between mappers from Brazil and Africa

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Read in Portuguese

Between March 2nd and 5th, 2024, the event OPEN DATA DAY - Communities mapping communities: Brazil-Africa connection was held in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil), with the participation of Brazilians and Africans, who presented special keynotes and case studies on collaborative mapping, on the themes of sustainable development, gender equity, adequate housing, humanitarian mapping, disaster risk reduction and urban planning.

The YouthMappers at UFBA, producer of the event, also held mapathons, or mapping marathons, in the format of hybrid workshops, where participants mapped collaboratively on-line, using the editor iD for OpenStreetMap.

The YouthMappers UFRJ participated of the event, with the special keynote Collaborative mapping for disaster risk reduction - Case study: Municipality of Maricá (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), given by its president, Dr. Raquel Dezidério Souto (IVIDES.org).

WATCH the RECORED VIDEO (in Portuguese and English), clicking here.

READ The PDF PRESENTATION FILE (in Portuguese and English), available here.

KNOW about this case study of collaborative mapping here.

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Introduction

I am writing this tutorial because adding wireless connectivity to the cheapest hobbyist RTK module (Ardusimple simpleRTK2B) is very useful but not trivial for those inexperienced with electronics, and Ardusimple closed down their forums for… some reason. Hopefully this is something anyone can follow to make RTK more accessible to the general hobbyist mapper.

This entry is building on from my previous diary entry “Affordable, High Quality 360 Street Level Imagery using GoPro Fusion and Ardusimple”, I have now been using the rig for a couple years and it is holding up very nicely.

A quick summary is that I used the simpleRTK2B with my phone and GoPro Fusion 360 to make a very cheap and ultra portable street level imagery rig, for Mapillary or Kartaview. It can be used handheld or mounted to a car or bicycle.

The last survey I went on, whilst mostly fine, did bring up some issues regarding the reliability of the USB OTG data connection. This has always been a weak point of the rig in other ways because;

• the USB connection would drain my phone’s battery and make it difficult to charge the phone simultaneously whilst surveying, unless using wireless charger
• the phone always needed to be in close proximity to the simpleRTK2B
• too easy to accidentally disconnect
• The OTG adapter is wobbly in the type-c port

As my Android app of choice “SW Maps” permits a bluetooth connection for the NTRIP corrections, it was the obvious way to go.

Bluetooth module choice

Ardusimple sells the Bluetooth XBEE module for the simpleRTK2B for €34 which is quite expensive. I know you’re reading this Ardusimple! Third party Bluetooth XBEE modules are somewhat cheaper (around $20 AUD), however I had a generic bluetooth UART module laying around so I decided to just solder it in. Similar ones are quite cheap to buy new, for example the arduino HC-06 module goes for around $10 AUD.

Connecting it up

… See full entry

Added sidewalks south of Center Avenue between Hazelwood and Hiland, north of ORB/PA-65. Connected sidewalk to previous additions from Ben Avon.

I plan to extend coverage north of Center Avenue within Emsworth, and south of ORB/PA-65.

Added some parking lots here and there where most obvious, and cleaned up the area around Camp Horne Road & ORB intersection. This area could likely use some more work.

Realigned buildings here and there based on updated aerial photography. Might make another pass because there are quite a few that seem to be several meters out of alignment. I’ll have to check the original data these were derived from, but at least so far it seems that the PEMA imagery is the most accurate and precise available. I’ve cross-checked several notable points against the Allegheny County GIS viewer to confirm alignment to the best of my ability for now.

(All images via WikimediaCommons)

So, I went on a little outing with a friend to look at some historic/ folkloristic sites that I hadn’t been to before. One of them was an old monastic site where there is still a working church with a holy well (place_of_worship=holy_well) and high cross (historic=high_cross) nearby. When we went to the holy well/ high cross site, I was delighted to see that the site also had a rag tree which hadn’t been recorded on the government’s Historic Environment Viewer. Now, there could be several reasons for that which I won’t go into, but it reminded me that rag trees were something I had wanted to map, but of course, there was no tagging scheme.

I had mapped some previously using just natural=tree with various other tags, but I thought I needed a tagging scheme that was applicable to other countries and cultures as well.

… See full entry

Today marks a milestone in the development of OpenStreetMap NextGen. After months of rigorous development, I conducted the 1^st OpenStreetMap NextGen performance benchmark, a crucial step towards realizing the vision of a more robust, efficient, and user-friendly OpenStreetMap.

The focus of today’s benchmark was on evaluating static and unauthenticated requests. Since this core functionality is unlikely to change significantly during future development, it’s the perfect time to test it.

Future benchmarks will focus on timing authenticated requests as well as API 0.6.

What was measured

The benchmark analyzed request processing speed, excluding network and client latency. Both osm-ruby and osm-ng support the X-Runtime response header, which tracks how long it takes to process a request and generate a response.

Here’s a general breakdown of a typical static request processing:

… See full entry