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Steve Chilton's Diary

Recent diary entries

Buildings addressed

Posted by Steve Chilton on 22 January 2011 in English.

Have recently been doing a bunch of Bing tracing and then walking the area for address details, in a variety of locations.
Over Christmas I did the village I was staying in, Devauden:
osm.org/?lat=51.68666&lon=-2.74789&zoom=17&layers=M
The un-labelled ones are house names rather than numbers. Will get addr:housename to render shortly, but need to get that tag into the default.style file first so DB can import it.
Then plenty of extra detail in my local Borough, Enfield:
osm.org/?lat=51.66583&lon=-0.08842&zoom=17&layers=M
Progress is shown by this snapshot of a couple of weeks ago, which shows the black for OS_OpenData tracing and red for Bing tracing:
http://www.stevechilton.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/osm/buildingsBing.png
Finally I worked in Chigwell recently for a day and managed to survey one small estate whilst I was there - my least favourite surveying type, with all the little ginnals, and weird numbering systems on the larger blocks of flats:
osm.org/?lat=51.60734&lon=0.08745&zoom=17&layers=M

Whilst down at inlaws at weekend I had a chance to spend half a day mapping the residential parts of Monmouth, which I did. Chose to avoid the main part of town as it was chocko with people because of a regatta on the river. Someone else will have to add that detail in, else I will go back and do it on another visit.
osm.org/?lat=51.80921&lon=-2.71576&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF
Areas mapped shown by the landuse=residential fill (from OS_OpenData_StreetView)
Also added some other path/gates detail near Devauden on a walk around the farmland there.

Mapping around the World

Posted by Steve Chilton on 15 May 2010 in English.

Well a couple of different places, one of which is out of UK.
Family trip to Barcelona resulted in some new detail (mostly POIs) being added to the area around Placa Catalunya.
osm.org/?lat=41.38907&lon=2.16769&zoom=17&layers=B000FTF
Then there was the NE part of Witham, Essex, on a mapping day there with Ed Loach.
osm.org/?lat=51.81171&lon=0.642&zoom=15&layers=B000FTF
Last weekend it was Goring and it's near neighbour Woodcote
osm.org/?lat=51.52199&lon=-1.13559&zoom=17&layers=B000FTF
And finally I got Walking Papers to accept my scans from the recent Holborn pub meet and I added the edits to the two cake slices that I had done, mostly on the crisis camp day.
osm.org/?lat=51.52255&lon=-0.11828&zoom=17&layers=B000FTF
Happy mapping.

Hello Harlow

Posted by Steve Chilton on 15 April 2010 in English.

Scratched an itch that has been bothering me for ages. Tried using OS_OpenData_StreetView as source for naming Y! traced streets in Harlow, Essex. This is nearest place to me that has been in serious need of map love, and I have previously gibbed at going there mapping (or organising a map party there), mostly because it is none too inspiring. Apart from the fact that not all the streets are named in StreetView it worked reasonably. Using Potlatch (as you do) meant that the names were actually obscured by the OSM detail, so I ended up having 2 browsers open, one to edit and one to see street names (using http://os.openstreetmap.org/). Whilst there I noted some largish wooded areas on OS. If the Yahoo imagery also showed the woods I traced from there, as I feel it is better source, then took name from OS, all tagged with source= or source:name= OS_OpenData_StreetView. Harlow now looks a lot better. Someone needs to go and do the fine-tuning, adding names of smaller roads, adding POIs etc, but a useful test of viability of OS as source when somewhere is already partially mapped. Have had a look at using it also to map the Thames in Berkshire where it needs waterway=riverbank tagging to give reasonable shape as the river is both wide and variable there.

More on Warwick University campus

Posted by Steve Chilton on 7 February 2010 in English.

Had an Admission Day visit with my son to Warwick University yesterday. Third son and felt like one to many Uni visits - all one big blur eventually. So missed the parents bit in the afternoon (Why Chemistry is fun!) and added some more detail to the mapping of the extensive campus. Concentrated on the halls area around Scarman road and the access to the Sports and other Uni facilities N of Kirby Corner Road. With aid of GPS added in loads of service roads and paths, plus the bicycle_parking that I came across. Didn't add buildings. Someone else will have to go back and do that - not quite sure how main campus buildings have been added. Did add an estimated version of the lake, by proximity to paths and other features, and interpolation. Need to go and add barrier=lift_gate to the mapnik rendering as there are many of them controlling access to parts of the campus. Good to do, and good exercise on a chilly afternoon.

Recent mappings

Posted by Steve Chilton on 31 October 2009 in English.

Roundup of some recent mapping efforts:

11/10/09 Gravesend mapping Party - most of Gravesend covered so moved out and cycle-mapped Istead Rise and New Barn. My kind of mapping.
osm.org/?lat=51.40473&lon=0.3491&zoom=16&layers=B000FTF

16/10/09 Last London mapping evening - did a sector near Faringdon Station. Crazy property numbering systems in some of these roads. Not particularly enjoyable.
osm.org/?lat=51.520159&lon=-0.106817&zoom=18&layers=B000FTF

24/10/09 Loughton - cycled out to watch cross country race and micro-mapped the venue. Many unofficial paths plus part of London Loop. A good walk.
osm.org/?lat=51.63575&lon=0.07128&zoom=16&layers=B000FTF

Plus loads more NPE digitising of the middle Severn.
http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/?view=water&lon=-2.72528&lat=52.50362&zoom=10&overlays=long_rivers,waterways_river,waterways_stream,waterways_drain,waterways_canal,waterways_riverbank,waterways_other

Ashley Heath needs map love

Posted by Steve Chilton on 14 September 2009 in English.

I was bigging up OSM at the Society of Cartographers conference last week. Today I got an email from a delegate saying "yeh, you say that - but my village has no detail at all". Indeed, Ashley Heath (nr Market Drayton) had just the cross roads. So just now I have added all the roads that are clearly visible on the NPE layer (tagged as highway=road), and a couple of footpaths (highway=path). I will shortly end the person a Walking Papers geo-rectified printout and ask them to collaborate by adding in the newer roads and adding road names etc, (which I will edit happily). Is anyone local able to verify stuff on the ground - the roads need classifying for instance. Most are probably residential/unclassified, but might be tracks, etc. I see that user:pepperm added the local pub this very day. Perhaps you could contact me (have sent a personal msg too). It would be good to show the power of the crowd in this kind of scenario.

STEVE

Today I had to go to Ridlins to an athletics meet so incorporated some street naming in the Broadwater estate in Stevenage afterwards, followed by a return trip through minor roads round Datchworth and Digswell to collect more minor road names. Have to go to another match there next Sunday so hope to do the rest of Broadwater, plus another minor road back through the delightful Hertfordshire country lanes. Had to stop in one village whilst some ducks sauntered across the road. Someone will need at least one more pass to collect all the little foot/cycle ways and ginnels between these estate roads. Yesterday whizzed out to Flamstead End to finish off the street naming either side of Hammondstreet Road. Once again wondered at the derivation of Dig Dag Hill. No joy on web. Anyone reading this know where it comes from?

Location: Oak Tree Farm, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, England, EN10 7QN, United Kingdom

Enfield in (... a pun)

Posted by Steve Chilton on 21 March 2009 in English.

Lovely sunny spring day so I decided to get the bike out and give it a once over and a run out - in readiness for some serious mapping party action soon. A bit of oil and air and away we go. Don't feel fit for a long ride so I decided to do all the little nonames stuff in my immediate area (cul-de-sacs off roads, split roads at junctions, etc) in one hit, as they had all been ignored for too long. Out for an hour and a half and cleared them all up. Amazingly I found 4 roads completely unknown to me, two of which were within 400m of my home (of many years). Reckon that with this trip and a bit of work on the "Keep Right" tool - which I have only just discovered, and is great for correcting un-connected ways, etc - I will have eliminated most errors in the immediate vicinity. Really must have another pass and complete the POIs sometime.

Location: Crews Hill, Greater London, England, EN2 9BN, United Kingdom