A project I worked on, the Toronto Public Washroom Import recently finished up and I thought it would be interesting to do a quick lessons learned:

Top three things that went well:

• Having help from other people makes things much easier — I am grateful to RockTeam for helping with the changesets and for Jarek_Piórkowski and a couple members of the Civic Tech Toronto community for their input on the import plan.
• Doing a couple “test” imports and recording an instruction video significantly improved the written import plan and instructions. It’s also very helpful to have mapped a couple of the relevant features via survey as well.
• For the script that converted the City data to OSM tags, setting and validating assumptions about the City data using Pandera helped give me a lot of confidence that the output wouldn’t be affected by upstream changes to the City data.

Top three things I would change if I did it again:

• Increased the time assumption for how long it would take to complete all the changesets. I had originally expected it would take two weeks at most, but it took closer to three (even with two people doing changesets).
• For the initial data profiling, I might try using e.g. Tableau public, since it would be a little faster and easier than e.g. using .value_counts(dropna=False) in pandas.
• Have the data transformation script estimate how many washrooms should be conflated vs. net new in each changeset - this would provide a simple comparable metric to ensure that the conflation plugin was configured correctly for each changeset.

Top three resources that were helpful:

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On Saturday, September 14, 2024, Pakistan hosted its first-ever mapathon, a collaborative event aimed at contributing to the OpenStreetMap (OSM) community. The mapathon took place in Islamabad, Karachi, and online, bringing together a diverse group of participants.

In Islamabad, mappers gathered at the “Calmkaj” workspace, while in Karachi, they convened at the Habib University computer center. The day began with opening remarks by Mr. Shaji from COP, followed by an introduction to maps by Ms. Zainab Makti, a lecturer at Habib University.

I then provided an overview of OpenStreetMap, covering its purpose, community, global impact, and applications. Given the presence of many new mappers, I conducted a hands-on training session on editing and participating in Maproulette challenges. Training materials were also shared through WhatsApp and other social media groups prior to the event.

With over 60 participants in total (20 onsite in Islamabad, 30 in Karachi, and 16 online), the mapping session was a productive and engaging experience. I closely monitored edits and provided assistance to new mappers, ensuring the quality of contributions. To maintain enthusiasm and encourage participation, we announced prizes for the top Maproulette scorers.

Throughout the day, we enjoyed a lunch break provided by the COP team and participated in a fun quiz based on the training session. The event concluded with the distribution of prizes to the top three Maproulette performers.

The mapathon was a resounding success, attracting 30 new members to the Pakistani OSM community. Participants expressed interest in working on various mapping projects, including pharmacies and health centers in Peshawar and Islamabad, banks and their branch codes, water sources and union councils, and mangroves.

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Mexico

State of the Map 2024, Nairobi-Kenya: An Unforgettable Experience!

Wow! SotM 2024 in Nairobi, Kenya!!! I couldn’t contain my excitement when I received an email confirming that I’d been granted a full scholarship to attend the event. It was my first time attending the global State of the Map conference, and the thrill of meeting so many people from diverse backgrounds and regions was overwhelming. I even screamed when I read the news—why not? I was about to meet in person people I had only ever interacted with online, and the feeling was indescribable.

The first thing I did was reach out to my fellow OSMers, who I consider family, to confirm who else was attending. The joy from those who affirmed they’d be there was palpable. We kept in touch, discussing our preparations for the big day. Butterflies fluttered in our stomachs as excitement built. We knew exactly when everyone would arrive in Kenya.

Arrival in Nairobi

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I spent 11 nights backpacking in Glacier National Park this summer (on two separate trips), and noticed that existing mapping of the campsites is minimal. Each site generally consists of several tent sites, a food preparation area with bear-proof storage (a pole for hanging or a bear box), a toilet, and usually a fresh water supply. Usually there is a schematic map of the campsite posted, like this one shown below.

While I was there, I took a number of photos of camp site maps (I have not been able to find them online from the National Park Service), and did quick GPS surveys of a few sites with my Garmin watch.

I have made a first attempt at adding a full backcountry camp site map for Hole in the Wall Camp in this changeset. My approach was:

• Place the camp itself at the main trail junction, usually where the camp map is posted, tagged as tourism=camp_site. This is the way camps are tagged in OSM now (locations are rather approximate).
• Map the paths between parts of the camp, tagged with highway=path
• Add each official tent site as a node tagged with tourism=camp_pitch
• Add the toilet with amenity=toilets. In the case of Hole in the Wall, tagged with toilets:disposal=chemical, but in most cases it will be toilets:disposal=pitlatrine.
• Tagged the food preparation area with amenity=bearproof_storage, bearproof_storage=hang. This one is not very standard, I followed an example from this forum post.

A few notes and limitations:

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Holy

It is definitely good knowing how to use field tools to map on specific projects.

There comes experience 😊 regardless of previous teaching on how to use these tools like ODK, Vespucci, Mapsme and others; in the field you definitely have to use your own discretion to relate and adjust to what is given to maintain your nobility at work.

I became interested in the issue of localizing the map of Ukraine into English and decided to raise it in several forum discussions (first, second, third) to delve into the nuances and find optimal approaches to filling out the name:en tag for objects in Ukraine.

My goal was to understand how to correctly fill in the name:en tag and determine whether it should contain a translation or transliteration. While this may seem like a technical issue, it actually has deep cultural and historical roots, and the answer is not immediately obvious. However, through the discussion, I believe I found a solution and would like to share it in this diary.

Endonyms and exonyms: what are they?

First and foremost, it is important to understand the difference between endonyms and exonyms.

Endonym refers to the name of a geographical object in the language of the people who live in that area. For instance, for the residents of Ukraine, the name of the capital Kyiv is an endonym. Endonyms always reflect the authentic name used by the local population.

Exonym refers to the name for the same geographical object used by people or countries outside that area. Examples of Ukrainian exonyms include Viden for Wien, Niu-York for New York, and Florentsia for Firenze. The Spanish name for the city Lviv is Leópolis, and the German name is Lemberg. Historically, such names were formed quite chaotically, influenced by various linguistic traditions or political processes.

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Last week we released Rapid v2.4, the most advanced web-based editor for OpenStreetMap. This release wraps up several months of work, includes numerous bugfixes, and a few notable features:

🈺 Improved Text Localization

Now Rapid can again be localized into different languages. The Rapid Editor project on Transifex allows anyone from the community to translate Rapid.

📷 Improved Handling of Street-level Imagery and Detections

We squashed a bunch of bugs and made many improvements to how Rapid handles street-level imagery, such as Mapillary. Now users can select a detected feature or traffic sign to learn more about it, and Rapid will highlight the imagery that shows that detection, both on the map and in the viewer. This will be especially useful for mapping pedestrian features, such as traffic signs, crosswalks, bike racks, and more.

👩‍💻 Use Rapid

👉 Bookmark Rapid and make it your editor of choice:

• https://rapideditor.org/rapid#map=2.00/0.0/0.0&background=Bing

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Introduction:

Over the past year, I have been working as a backend developer on the Field Mapping and Tasking Manager (FMTM) project for the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). My role has involved system design, feature development, and bug fixing, all aimed at enhancing the efficiency and usability of field mapping for humanitarian purposes. One of my key contributions has been developing and refining the FMTM Splitter —an algorithm designed to streamline field mapping by dividing map Areas of Interest (AOI) into manageable tasks for mappers.

In this post, I will discuss the workings of the FMTM Splitter, the challenges we’ve overcome, and how OpenStreetMap (OSM) data plays a vital role in making this tool effective for humanitarian efforts.

The FMTM Splitter: Two Key Algorithms

The FMTM Splitter is crucial for breaking down large AOIs into smaller, manageable tasks for field mappers. The goal is to ensure that mappers can efficiently collect and update information without having to cross major obstacles like highways or rivers. This makes the mapping process not only faster but also safer and more convenient for field mappers.

We developed two main algorithms for splitting AOIs:

SplitBySquare:

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dear diorey

Didn’t do anything today sadly apart from a few streetcomplete stars

16th of September, 23:27, Poland

Well, let me share my experiences at “State of the Map 2024” in Nairobi at the University of Nairobi which I must say was like the coolest place ever for a bunch of map nerds like us to meet. As far as I can tell, it’s the place where all the folks behind OpenStreetMap, get together from all corners of the world to share their experiences, get excited about the mission of making this world more navigable with the help of our maps. It was very much like attending a large family reunion with an attempt at small talk that quickly degenerated into everyone’s passion for Open geospatial data.

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Since the beginning of June, I have been working on researching and locating the holy wells of County Kilkenny. I have more or less identified about 213 of them which are described in sources going back at least 90 years (Schools’ Collection etc). In some cases, it is very difficult to locate them, because their location was only given as “in such and such a townland in that person’s field”, and it is very difficult to find out who owned a field 90 years ago.

In addition to that, I have more recently started an oral history project collecting people’s memories and stories about holy wells, patterns (which is a type of originally religious festival in Ireland where people do or did things in a certain pattern around a sacred site usually on the patron saint’s feast day) and other related things. I’m uploading them to Wikimedia and add transcripts, if you’re interested: Category:Oral history about holy wells in County Kilkenny.

What has that to do with mapping, you may ask. Well, apart from locating these holy wells and holy well sites which are protected monuments (and sometimes still water sources), I’m getting local place names from my interviewees as well. Names of roads, cross roads, field names etc which are also not recorded on any map yet, but are frequently still used by locals or were used in the past, so recording them now will help locate things referred to in older sources. Some of these, like Bóthar Chiaráin (Kieran’s Road after St Kieran) potentially go back 1300 years or so.

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YouthMappers Pre-Event at American Spaces.

The State of the Map (SotM) 2024 in Nairobi started with the most exciting YouthMappers pre-event at American Spaces. It was clear that the conference was going to be full of inspiration and action. Our host Laura was there to welcome YouthMappers early birds from different parts of the world gathered in the venue gearing up for the day’s activities just to prepare for the conference.

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dear dioRey

hi today i basically just solved random notes and added some more farmland in the area i found not much to say

15th of September 2024, 12:12 AM, Poland

STATE OF MAP 2024, Nairobi Kenya -First Time in Africa🌍

You know that classic email that starts with “Congratulations! We are pleased to offer you…”? Well, on July 1st, I got one of those from Hot Open Summit, awarding me a scholarship to attend State of the Map Global in Nairobi! Thanks Hot Open Summit! Let’s stay connected, we’ve got Manila SOTM 2025 coming up! 🫡🫡🙏🤩

First thing I did? Downloading offline maps of Nairobi with OSMAnd and Maps.me , I had to get those OSM maps in my hand, ready to go. I was feeling chill, knowing I was all set for my trip to Nairobi.

From Dar es Salaam to Nairobi, the journey kicked off with 7 of us heading there in one bus. We had a fun group Hawa next to me, Innocent chilling at the far end, Anastazia, Amour, Kombe, and Benedict. I couldn’t wait to get there, and OSMAnd was the trip MVP, keeping us informed like a road-trip soundtrack “Are we there yet?”

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This year, I had the incredible privilege of attending the State of the Map 2024 conference, hosted in Nairobi, Kenya. Over the course of three unforgettable days, I participated in insightful opening talks, lightning sessions, and deep discussions on critical mapping issues, all while meeting and learning from experts from across the globe. Nairobi proved to be a truly resourceful city for this conference. A country with diverse geography, Kenya is home to national parks, game reserves, and an airport conveniently located within the city, making it a unique blend of urban life and nature. The infrastructure was excellent, and it provided a comfortable environment for participants to learn, connect, and exchange ideas. The team behind the conference’s organization deserves a huge thank you for ensuring everything went smoothly. Their efforts made this an enriching experience for all.

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DEar Diorey

hi today i basically just did like a few streetcomplete quests changed some stuff on vespucci and rn im just selecting some random part of poland and just editing that in josm thats basically all UPDATE found a piece of land with insane amounts of farmland but its gettin late so ima map it tmrw

13th of September 2024, 9:20 PM, Poland

tl;dr I created Maxspeed freshness tool where you can see if maxspeed tag exists, and if it does - how old it is!

Why this tool

This tool emerged from a need within the local community. In Serbia, we have more street-level cameras and volunteers capturing road data than ever before! We even have people actively editing data based on those captures (which are not necessarily same people😀). Good problems to have! The big question is: Where should we capture images next?

We needed a comprehensive view of highways missing maxspeed tags so that people could go there. Additionally, we noticed some major motorways had outdated information—some maxspeed tags hadn’t been updated in over a decade. Everything gets old, even maxspeed tags.

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