Good to see a jump in 2014 after what looked like a worrying flattening off in 2013.

Do you by any chance have breakdown by region? I’d be interested to see the number of active contributors in reasonably well mapped regions (e.g. the UK).

There is a page on the wiki for it here: osm.wiki/SotM_2014_session%3A_ScoutSigns%3A_automatic_road_sign_collection_during_navigation_and_analysis_via_JOSM

But don’t forget that it’s only beta code at the moment so hasn’t been officially released :-)

It looks like you can turn from the DF-290 (travelling east) onto the yellow road. Also you should be able to turn from the yellow road back on to the DF-290 travelling east. Currently this is not possible with Ivaldo’s design. Obviously some one should check this with a survey :-)

Not sure what you mean as it’s all in English for me. What browser/OS are you using?

And I agree that you shouldn’t split streets at arbitrary points just to get the name to render in a specific location. There are more than just the default renderer and what works for one, won’t work for another. We should focus on quality map data.

You can get over having to learn the wiki syntax by installing the VisualEditor extension. The advantage of using the wiki talk pages is that it’s easy to find at a later date. The disadvantage is that your comment may go unnoticed for ages. Hence some sort of platform that links to the wiki but works similar to a mail list/forum could be good.

Wiki discussion pages can look good and be easier to use: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension_talk:VisualEditor

I’m thinking aloud here, but what if we had a communication portal on the main OSM website that included:

1. Topic (title)
2. Primary theme (e.g. Skybox for Good)
3. Tags (e.g. Legal)
4. Associated wiki page (optional)

The tags allow me to follow a discussion about the primary theme as it expands (I missed a Skybox for Good email the other day as I was watching “talk” and it got posted to “legal” mailing list).

The optional link to associated wiki page could either simply insert a link to the discussion on the wiki discussion page (enhancing future discover-ability) or put the entire discussion on the wiki (but using the front end developed for OSM.org)

Close most mailing lists. Mailing lists suck.

The longer I think about this, the better the idea becomes. We have a large contributor base but only a few people get involved in any communication. Although we should recognise that many mappers are happy to just edit and not talk, we should be able to grow our talking community a bit more. Right now it’s confusing and we have entrenched members with loud voices. Comms needs a rethink.

Taking tagging as an example: we shouldn’t have a formal process, but we do need some place where people can say “hey, I want to tag this, but I don’t have knowledge from around the world - what do you think about the tag v=k?”. A “Tags lacking a proposal” category is a bad thing.

Anyone want to work together in developing a communications strategy? If we work it under the CWG we could ask for funding if some development is needed. First step would be to look at what the ideal situation would be.

Rob

Looks good. Very colourful (perhaps that should be colorful given that it’s America)!

Have you considered using the P2 merge tool (the one used in the UK for cycle path data)?

Simon,

The board were not blind to the financials for SotM 2013. As Brian has pointed out there was 5 sources of information sent to the board including one (and arguably the most important) direct to you. I seem to recall that Brian even took you personally through this.

Furthermore all our planning with the exception of a couple of f2f meetings where we worked on the programme were in the open. Any board member could have joined any one of our teleconferences, requested to see any of our minutes or asked to be added to the team@stateofthemap.org email address. Only Henk did this. Yes I am disappointed that Henk did not communicate back to you during your board meetings (or did he??) but you were equally passive with regard to SotM 2013. Even more worryingly is that no lessons seem to have been learnt.

Rob

This is a very neat little solution to a problem. Thanks to all those involved with the fix :-)

Hi Michael,

It’s great that you want to get involved, your help would be hugely appreciated. In addition to the link Richard provided you may also want to check out the wiki: osm.wiki/Develop osm.wiki/Bugs

Also if you’re short on ideas I’m sure we can come up with lots :-)

Best, Rob

If following escada’s suggestion you may also want to check out the follow up post which deals with converting closed ways (polygons) to points so that you can then produce a simple map with consistent data. All very easy - I know because I wrote the blog post and my computer skills are limited to basic use (no programming):

http://www.mappa-mercia.org/2014/09/extracting-centroids-from-openstreetmap.html

Sounds great. Is it possible to download data prior to going out surveying (that is, an offline data mode)? I’ve tweeted this at https://twitter.com/mappamercia/status/518770161021886464

Hi,

These sort of ideas come up every now and then. It’s worth remembering that there is no OpenStreetMap Headquarters. The whole project is volunteer run with no paid employees (this is quite different to wikipedia for example).

It also worth considering the statement on the wiki:

Welcome to OpenStreetMap, the project that creates and distributes free geographic data for the world. We started it because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways.

We want to create and distribute free data so that others can use it in creative ways. There is therefore a balance that needs to be struck between providing enough features on openstreetmap.org to encourage more people to edit data, and providing too much that we stifle innovation and use of OpenStreetMap data on third party websites.

Regards, Rob

p.s. A lot of work has gone in to the default renderer these last few months. Colours are now more subtle and the style is generally more “consistent”. You can make more suggestions at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto

@osmthis is just another way off creating a note. It could represent a mappable fact.

I think one issue with notes is that people don’t realise they can move the marker to a specific location. The interface could be improved to allow people to draw lines/shapes. Something similar to http://geojson.io would be good.

Good idea. My gut instinct is that it’s perhaps a bit long (especially as it breaks down in to a whole load of links). Might end up putting some folks off!!

@mvexel: Thanks. That’s what I had initially assumed but then I was confused as to why some roads go so far and then have gaps (especially true of the image of Mountain View). I wasn’t contributing to OSM in 2007 so hadn’t realised it started like this. I guess that was the best you could do without satellite imagery until someone actually got there on the ground to check that the roads did link up.

Nice! Is the 2007 data complete or does it exclude the ODBL non-comliant data?

Click on “Make yourself an atlas” and then search for a starting area. You will then probably want to shrink the print area by dragging the triangle/arrow in the bottom right corner. You can then zoom in the map using the + symbol in the top left of the map. Keep adjusting the map zoom and the page print area until you are happy - you should be able to zoom in all the way.

Rob

Welcome. There are lots of tools to help you find local mappers (based on where they edit). My favourite is http://resultmaps.neis-one.org/oooc

You can then follow this up by entering a user name you find in to http://hdyc.neis-one.org/