Last week, I haven't edited "that much". For some reason, I can't use the computer (at that time), and it meant that some of my traces won't be uploaded to OSM.

Fortunately, I was given a chance to watch a dirt bike race (a race for motorcycles in a temporary or a permanent dirt track)in the Saint Francis Subdivision area, which I've mapped, more or less. One thing that I have noticed is that I am now in the mood to add more housenumbers, and some buildings. Sadly, my place doesn't have good aerial imagery, and I may consider taking some aerial images through a remote controlled helicopter (RC helicopter), since you don't know the approximate limits of certain buildings. Especially if some of those buildings are connected to other buildings. It sucks when you don't know where one building ends and another building begins (or something like that).

Anyway, I just realized that our map needs more work. Especially if that map could be more acurate than a travel map or a local map. The last update of the latter map was in 1992, and a lot of things have changed since then. Unityville only existed since the early 2000's (primarily as a resettlement area), and Brion Subdivision was under development at that time. I haven't been to most places that were on the map, since it is either too dangerous, too far, or there's too little time. (Or the assigned driver's too busy fixing some appliances or vehicles, or I'm just too lazy). Either way, this frustrates my goals of having at least 30-45% of San Pablo City's streets on OSM.

… See full entry

It has been almost a month since I made my last diary entry. Since that time, I'm now looking for more "shortcuts" to my neighborhood. One route is considered a bit safe, since you only get to ride on a small vehicle that traverses along some supposedly abandoned railways, then walk an estimated 200 meters to the gate of Nefortville, then you walk towards your destination (which can be either your home, or the place where you used to study, which is not far from my neighborhood). Another route that I've discovered is from Mareflor/Marleflor street to Parkview street in nearby Mariño Subdivision. I only used the latter route once, because I thought that the said route would lead me to the train tracks. However, some stretches of the path are either dangerous or treacherous. Especially in the part close to the banks of the Malinao River. I nearly slipped while approaching the river through some muddy steps. Thanfully, I didn't slipped, and half of my body and the GPS nearly got wet (the GPS still works as of now).

Just last week, I discovered another footway near my neighborhood, and it led me to some footways in nearby San Lucas 1. While mapping, some local saw me and asked "Why are you doing here?" I told her that I was mapping the place, and mark places where to go and not to go (including her house, which is now marked as a no-go [a.k.a. access=private] area,), and to find out if that footway goes to some place. She told me that no footways to the other side existed a long time ago. To end the "conversation", I said thanks and apologized for causing this kind of trouble. I do hope that this won't happen again. Other than that, it's just discovering new footways, adding some housenumbers and POIs.

And last Saturday, my father and I rode on a motorcycle and it was raining. We then decided to take a shortcut back to our neighborhood. Along the way, he discovered a flat tire at the back, which was fixed an hour later. Flat tire or not, the track is now in OSM.

… See full entry

Since I got "lost" last June, I decided not to map some places without some sort of supervision. However, I think that now is the time to "get lost" for a bit since I'm not getting that much exercise that I needed (and the information that OSM needs - in my opinion)

The first time that I traced without any supervision was last August 14, when I managed to trace a road named "Daang Kalabaw", and a nearby residential area in Los Baños (here). On that day, I mapped some alleys and footways as well . The problem is that there are some motorcycles parked on those alleys (safety is no problem this time). Is it safe to add motorcycle=yes on a footway just because a motorcycle is parked and/or is found moving along the footway?

My other plans to map spontaneously (at that time) were temporarily interrupted, as I had to join my father and his friend in buying some car parts for their common friend. However, this did not stop me from making a few more edits in the Banaue, Quezon City area with the help of my GT-31. Sadly, there are too many car parts shops to add (and not enough time to take notes in the area, as I was busy chatting with my father's friend).

The good news, is that I have managed to check for new developments along the President Sergio Osmeña Highway (a. k. a. the South Luzon Expressway, South Superhighway, etc.) between Alabang and Makati (some construction sites have turned into commercial and retail areas, a bit of landuse was added, plus some toilets, and the "SKYWAY" project has already reached the Intercity Subdivision entrance, though signs of construction were seen virtually at the northern end of the Alabang Viaduct), and I've managed to add some more details between the EDSA-Magallanes interchange and Banaue, Quezon City (like oneway restrictions and a surveillance camera).

… See full entry

Since probably last month, I started mapping in Los Baños, Laguna, because I had to do some pre-college work (I'll be studying in the second semester). Luckily, there was time for a bit of mapping - between eight and nine in the morning and four to five in the afternoon. Little did I know (before) that Google Maps has a good coverage of the area, thanks to the MapMaker contributors. Still, that didn't stop me from mapping most of Umali Subdivision, Barangay Batong Malake (tagged as a village), and some nearby places, including the University of the Philippines - Los Baños (UPLB) campus.

From my honest opinion, Google Maps doesn't have at least 50 to 90% of the footways that I've mapped. Not only that, I am now in the process of adding nearby dormitories (with the currently “unrenderable” amenity=dormitory tag), phone boxes (or phone booths) and convenience stores. And since OSM is way behind the big G inside the UPLB campus, I've decided to add buildings, parking lots, driveways, footways, and of course, the streets. I may add some trees of historical value, but one of them is a bit controversial since intercourse happens there (and I won't go into detail, thank you). Other than that, it's just trace, trace, trace and edit, edit, edit.

Also, when I first checked the GeoFabrik Map Compare tool, the Demarses and Santa Fe subdivision streets were not displayed on the MapMaker portion (and OSM got it first). Now both maps are on "equal terms" except for Rhaminad Street within Santa Fe (which Google doesn’t have as of now). I believe it's more or less the same scenario in the places that I've been for the last 30 days or so, except for an area between the railway tracks and Bangkal Road, where I added at least two roads and a few footways and tracks.

… See full entry

Tomorrow is Philiipine Independence Day, and there is no better way to celebrate it than to drive along the city's streets (and in some cases, alleys). I will be using a borrowed motorcycle to make those traces and hopefully, add a few more roads. I may pass through the place where the GPS device nearly got screwed, which may vindicate some of my failed mapping attempts.

I had uploaded some tracks which I have stored for some time (one was not uploaded for two months). Since I had some trouble with my computer recently, I decided to upoad a load of them, starting today. I also made some edits in Paete, but the GPS trace is too messy. I have also started to make minor edits in downtown Los Baños (and another university other than the University of the Philippines Los Baños - located just 5-10 minutes from the downtown area) and expected to make edits in my home city, and two nearby towns.

Other than that, I am planning to map out other areas and add some housenumbers farther from my neighborhod. This will be challenging, as some occupants decide to obscure the view of housenumbers currently assigned by the barangays (or hide the housenumber plates). Also, at least one comanion in my mapping is afraid of dogs (and that really hampers my mapping plans) and at this moment, it is raining hard.

Other than that, is there a way to tag a temporary concert venue? From what I know, it is mostly abandoned on "ordinary days". The location can be found below. (The reason is that there is an upcoming concert and some people who are kinda new to the area may want to know where the concert is being held. I also think that the said place is also the place where a very popular band had its final concert.)

For now, just hope that I can go to many places not only for its primary purpose (there are many, I believe) but also to add more essential information and points of interests for OpenStreetMap.

I'm now in the process of fixing Manila & Makati City boundaries node by node, splitting them, adding relation:boundary so that they can look "re-connected". It is a very, very, very complicated kind of work for me here. Should be finished in a couple of hours.

Status (as of 4:55 PM [PHT], March 24, 2009)

admin_level=8:
Manila - not yet complete
Makati - not yet complete

admin_level=9:
Intramuros - compete
Ermita - complete
Malate - complete
---
Urdaneta - complete
San Lorenzo - complete
Bel-Air - complete
San Antonio - complete
Pio del Pilar - to be fixed
Palanan - to be fixed
San Isisdro - to be fixed
Bangkal - to be fixed
Magallanes - to be fixed

Status (as of 7:55 PM [PHT], March 24, 2009)

admin_level=8:
Manila - to be completed tomorrow (southern portions done)
Makati - complete

admin_level=9:
Intramuros - compete
Ermita - complete
Malate - complete
Port Area and other areas - to be done within the week
---
Urdaneta - complete
San Lorenzo - complete
Bel-Air - complete
San Antonio - complete
Pio del Pilar - complete
Palanan - complete
San Isisdro - complete
Bangkal - complete
Magallanes - complete
Dasmariñas - complete
Forbes Park - complete
Poblacion - complete
Comembo - complete
Pembo - complete
Rizal - complete
other Makati barangays - to follow-up within the week

for reference: click on "map" below

I have a question for you: how do I render a portion of Marcos Paulino Avenue? (123456) (this might be silly and confusing, but this road is very unique in San Pablo City. Also, the term "the avenue in question" refers to Marcos Paulino Avenue.)

[scenario begins]The stretch of the said avenue from Hermanos Belen to Francisco Balagtas Boulevard is oneway (southbound/southeastbound) from five in the morning to nine in the evening. Motorists from Jose Rizal Avenue can access the entire stretch of the avenue in question, A Regidor Street, and Miguel Leonor Street, but cannot access Hermanos Belen and Jose Burgos Streets. Motorists coming from Hermanos Belen can pass through the stretch of the avenue in question bound for Rizal Avenue or pass through the stretch bound for Regidor, and other streets (but cannot access Hermanos Belen, since it is a oneway street). Motorists from Jose Burgos street can pass through the stretch of the avenue in question bound for Rizal Avenue (but cannot access Hermanos Belen, since it is a oneway street) or pass through the stretch bound for Regidor, and other streets.

… See full entry

I asked my cousin to take a ride on his scooter (a kind of motorcycle) and map some roads within San Pablo City (but it is a bit far from the City Proper or the Poblacion). On the way, I noticed that my GPS was stuck (or hung, depending on your use). And the bad par is that it was raining when I noticed it. So we went along our way, almost drenched and the GPS not working. The model that I'm using at this moment is a GT-31, made by Locosys. To summarize it, my father fixed it. I need to know how to make sure it doesn't get stuck, and if it does/did, how can I fix it?

Thanks for your help. (And thank you to my cousin for letting me ride today).

After over 6 months of editing without a GPS in my home city (and editing a good portion of Metro Manila during that time), I finally tested out the GT-31 GPS device, and the tracks were accurate. It was fun taking the tracks but I had a lot of difficulty in setting up the device a few days ago (even a few hours ago, I don't know how to operate this. Tomorrow morning, I'll go for a jog along Sampaloc Lake, which is cose to my place. You can find the trace made by the GPS here.

After at least six months of contributing a lot of nodes, ways and relations (and removing some), I realized that mapping takes time, trial and error, experience and checking out the Wiki section every once in a while.

I infrequently travel to Metro Manila, which brings in contributions for OpenStreetMap. Recently, I had a mapping expedition from the SM Mall of Asia complex (the location for this post) to Parkway Village and back last January 18. According to one of my previous posts, I placed the location of the new GMA Network Studios somewhere here. Back then, I was looking for the location of the new building, and some of the news related to it didn't show too much info regarding its location (examples: skip to "Raising the Bar" at the bottom part of the article; read the entire column).

Until I passed by that area on that fateful day, I wasn’t aware that it was just northeast of the GMA Network Center building. But on the way back, I felt that the new building is just waiting there in its spot. After approaching the GMA/Kamuning MRT Station, there it was. It took me a while to sketch it and other points of interests along the way (Aurora and Tuazon tunnels for example).

… See full entry

The problem that was the "sinking" of portions of Metro Manila is/was solved. Apparently, that problem only surfaced in osmarender, and not in Mapnik. Again, thank you for your help in solving that problem.

While trying to improve Metro Manila, I saw spots while fixing the Pasig River (somewhere in the Quezon Bridge portion, If I can recall it). Apparently, I clicked on one green node, which was attached to a way. That's where the problem started. After logging out, I saw my edits, and some areas from Makati and Mandaluyong to Quiapo were "underwater".

I logged in again at 8 PM (PHT), and there were ways that were stacked, with the same rendering.

===The Example===
---Layer 1: layer=-1, natural=water, waterway=river/riverbank---
---Layer 2: layer=-1, natural=water, waterway=river/riverbank---
---Layer 3: layer=-1, natural=water, waterway=river/riverbank---
---No more---
===End of Example===

I deleted the 2 layers, but I could delete the entire "river" in the process. In some places, it has four layers. I urgently need help on how to fix it.

Also, I'd like to aplologize to the Pinoy OSM community for screwing up the crucial ways and/nodes that made the Pasig river possible.

Update (Jan 1, 2009): So far, it is/was fixed by user:remzamora many hours ago, but the rendering between the Malacañang Palace and somewhere between the districts of Santa Ana and Pandacan are kinda way off. But that is for another diary entry.

Again, thank you rem for fixing it.

Update (Jan 3, 2009): thanks, rem for correcting me; it was dkt or D Tucny who fixed it. thanks alot.

Since I don't know how to format external links, I decided to post it on my Multiply site. Read it at http://ianlopez1115.multiply.com/journal/item/52/Mapping_Manila_and_beyond_OSM_style and please, do place your comments on this diary entry, not on the said URL.

Hours (if not days) ago, the GMA Network, Inc. announced the opening/launch of their 2 new studios in a building that they built since 2006 and was completed days/weeks/months back. The trouble is that it is near the GMA Network Center (the tall building with the GMA Network logo in it - the one with a rainbowish colored heart [I'm not sure] - placed at the extreme upper portion of the said building), and I haven't been there for over 5 years. My best bet is that it is just just a short stroll from one side of Samar Avenue to another.

Still, it didn't stop me from adding ways and some nodes in Pasig City (Between C5 & Marikina River), the area east of the Wack-Wack Golf & Country Club, the Makati CBD, and certain areas in Metro Manila.

I'm too tired to continue. Maybe next time, I'll elaborate on why I'm not doing my work in San Pablo City.

Since my last post, I added city and town boundaries in the Metro Manila area, which will possibly profit OSM users in the Metro Manila area and possibly tourists and visitors. Also, I fixed nodes and waypoints and added new ones (an example of this is the Silver City Automall and the "nearby streets" [south of Eagle Drive]). I got the info for the boundaries from personal knowledge, previous travels to some of the areas, and Yahoo! imagery helped me a lot to accomplish it. I didn't use maps under copyright and I wrote down notes where the borders are.

Also, I decided to concentrate my mapping energies in the Metro Manila area just to help improve its coverage. San Pablo City, on the other hand, will have to be contented with the current coverage until I get a good GPS device. Still, I hope that many Filipinos will discover OpenStreetMap and use it freely, since it doesn't have that much copyright restrictions that other physical and interactive maps have (at least most of them).

If I made certain problems here, send me a message (but not through the comments section). I'd like to participate in a mapping party in the Mega Manila area, if not my own hometown.

I had no GPS with me when I ran last Sunday yet I finished 50 37/60 minutes in the 5K event. Still, I wasn't discouraged from adding more nodes and found some points of interests along the way (and finished at 50 minutes & 38 seconds).

For the longest time, the "monstrosity" (sorry for that term, way ahead of the oncoming criticism) called "that Recreational Center" (I can't just say its name, possibly tantamount to promotion), just got untagged. To be specific about it, I just removed the place=city tag on it so that the "visitors" don't have to see it yet again.

Also, I just improved some spots in Metro Manila (read: Makati City, eastern Mandaluyong City, Camp Aguinaldo, the Scout Area, somewhere in Novaliches & CAMANAVA & "downtown" Manila) and added some postal codes (ZIP Codes for others) on certain streets in one place or another.

That's enough for now. I gotta go, since I have a field trip tomorrow. hoppefully, a break from doing "OSM fieldwork".

I needed to find a better opportunity to get a GPS device (or whatever they call it), through GPStogo.

I also found an opportunity to map more areas of San Pablo City, through the upcoming Milo Marathon, (to be held on Sunday, August 24, 2008 to be specific about it).

The problem is that time and money are the enemy. And I am competing in the 5K competition, due to my young age.

I think that THIS is a good opportunity to expand the reach of OSM to the City of Seven Lakes. I have added some streetnames and improved the coverage in the poblacion (downtown) area and in areas near my home. Also, have you seen a "kinda big" improvement in Bicol (Connecting the Maharlika Highway from Lopez, Quezon to possibly Libmanan, Camarines Sur via Tagkawayan, Quezon)? I did that. And there are too much FIXME tags almost all over Laguna.

GPStogo could be very promising for a person like me. Since it gives a big opportunity to every OSM contributor in the developing countries, including the Philippines.

But since I can't wait, maybe I need a basic GPS device that can help in my contribs.

Since I don't have much time, I have to end this.

First of all, i don't hvae any GPS device, because i only earn an amount of possibly 2-3 US Dollars a day. I only depend on my own local knowledge. Second of all, there are some streets that aren't aligned, and sometimes are out of place.

And I can't coordinate with the local authorities related to "mapping out" areas of San Pablo City due to my "busy schedule". (Note: What i'm talking about is the San Pablo City in the Philippines and its coverage is quite messy.)

Hopefully, you have a GPS device and try to drive in the streets of San Pablo City and nearby areas (and possibly a good portion of the CALABARZON area) I appreciate your help.

Ian Lopez is out to help improve the world, by adding (and improving) places, streets & areas to the OpenStreetMap.

It's quite difficult to re-do the changes over here. Besides, Some info within 3 km was quite inaccurate 15-20 days ago.

As a local, I'd like to improve the roads of San Pablo City, and in certain cases, nearby roads.

Try to improve this area, if you can. Local knowledge is required for this "special job".