This is a repost from my blog because there’s been a fair amount of interest from OSM people on what I wrote.

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If you want to serve vector tiles, there are a few server options that have developed, each with different strengths and weaknesses.

node-mapnik based

Language: nodejs
Layer definitions: Mapnik layer definitions in XML, typically preprocessed from YAML
Vector tile formats: Mapbox Vector Tiles
Data source support: PostGIS

Kartotherian, tessera, and other servers based on tilelive all rely on Node bindings to Mapnik to produce vector tiles. They all work with Mapnik layer definitions. This is a reasonably well understood language and consists primarily of a SQL statement for each layer. This is reasonably flexable and it’s possible to do proper code review, git conflict resolution, and other processes you need with an open style.

Some servers can turn the Mapbox Vector Tiles into GeoJSON, but not all do. There are other minor differences, but they all have the same major advantages and disadvantages.

The biggest problem with these options is that you have to either use the exact same versions of everything as the Mapbox developers while hoping their changes work with your code, or lock down your versions to a set of known good versions and periodically update when you need new features, retesting all your code. Neither of these is practical for an open-source style which wants to involve others.

If you don’t do this, you’ll find parts of your server failing with different combinations of Mapnik and node-mapnik.

Tilezen tileserver

Language: Python
Layer definitions: SQL in jinja2 templates, YAML
Vector tile formats: Mapbox Vector Tiles, TopoJSON, and GeoJSON
Data source support: PostGIS

Tilezen tileserver was written by Mapzen to replace their TileStache-based vector tile generation. Having been written by developers who wrote previous vector tile servers, it combines ideas and functionality other options don’t have.

… See full entry

Dear all,

Today, v2.44.1 of the openstreetmap-carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on openstreetmap.org) has been released. Also, v2.44.0 was released last month without an email, so this email includes changes in both.

v2.44.0 has been rolled out to the openstreetmap.org servers, but v2.44.1 has not yet.

Major changes are

• Rendering of restricted access roads and paths significantly changed
• Changed to use Noto fonts for all languages

Other changes in both versions include

• A code of conduct adopted, based on the Go code of conduct
• Adjustments to city wall rendering
• Revised low zoom place rendering
• Render both house name and number if address has both

Thanks to all the contributors for this release, in particular Lukas Sommer, Hsiao-Ting Yu and vholten for work in debugging complex font issues with the Noto CJK fonts.

For a full list of commits from both releases, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v2.43.0…v2.44.1

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

Dear all,

Today, v2.43.0 of the openstreetmap-carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on openstreetmap.org) has been released. It has not yet been rolled out to the openstreetmap.org servers.

Changes include

• Adjust alotments pattern
• Whitespace cleanups of code
• Adjust colours of dog parks and construction sites
• Increase font size of addresses
• Fix combination of long names and oneway arrows

Thanks to all the contributors for this release, including Ircama and measad, both new contributors.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v2.42.0…v2.43.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues.

I’ve been experimenting with generating my own vector tiles and client-side rendering with Tangram in order to figure out how to best write a style in its language.

Tangram is a GL-based renderer written by Mapzen and normally used with their Tilezen vector tiles, but I’m interested in being able to make my own vector tiles with different cartographic choices.

Having a diverse selection of vector tile schemas is important, as is avoiding a situation where only large players in the market can get involved like right now.

For a toolchain I used osm2pgsql with ClearTables and Mapnik via Kosmtik to write vector tiles. With the demo I’m serving pre-rendered vector tiles from disk, but Kosmtik is useful in development with it’s xray functionality. I input the style into Tangram Play, a web-based editor that automatically reloads the map when you change the style.

The cartography and vector tile definitions are loosely based on OSM Clear, a demo style I wrote. I didn’t want to learn the language while designing new cartography at the same time. Being a learning exercise I don’t consider the style complete or free of bugs.

The demo page is on my server at http://tangram-clear-demo.faramir.paulnorman.ca/ with the style and vector tile code at https://github.com/ClearTables/tangram-clear-demo.

I’m not sure what direction I’m going to take next as I don’t have any particular style goals right now, or collaborators.

Cross-post from https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/dev/2016-August/029448.html

Today, v2.41.0 of the openstreetmap-carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on openstreetmap.org) has been released.

Changes include

• More consistent fonts for POI labels
• Less saturated stadiums
• Rendering obelisks and dog parks
• An updated list of font packages
• Cleaning up the font list
• Rewriting the road colours script for easier changes
• Various bug fixes

Thanks to all the contributors, including jdhoek, a new contributor.

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v2.40.0…v2.41.0

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues.

This is a repost from my blog

Periodically people make the claim of over 2 million active users for OpenStreetMap, but what this mean? This is the total number of accounts, including those who never edited, those who left long ago, spammers, and actual active contributors.

The closest metric to a standard is active users over the last 30 days. Although we can’t get that number, we can look at the changeset dump and analyze it with ChangesetMD and some SQL.

The SQL is fairly simple.

SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT user_id) AS active_users, date::date FROM osm_changeset JOIN generate_series('2007-01-01'::timestamp, '2015-12-31'::timestamp, '1 day') AS d(date) ON (created_at <= d.date AND created_at > d.date - '30 days'::interval) GROUP BY date ORDER BY date ASC;

OpenStreetMap was around before 2007, but the way data was stored was different so changeset dumps aren’t reliable that far back.

Taking the resulting file and a bit of gnuplot magic gives us a graph.

… See full entry

In preparation for the 2015 OSMF board election I am gathering basic info and question responses by candidate, to help people be better informed about their choices.

I’ve added annotations in italics where I felt they would be useful.

Yantisa Akhadi

• OSM User Iyan
• Manifesto

Questions

Where do you currently participate in the OSMF?

I want to contribute in the Engineering Working Group, unfortunately the meeting time is equal with 00.30am my time. I hope in the future there will be meeting time to cater peoples from different timezones.

Which contributions to OSM should I consider for my decision beyond your data edits at OSM?

her than edits, which is still not much, I was more interested in writing and introduce people about OSM. I have given talks in multiple local, national, international levels to introduce OSM as well as its application in disaster management. There have been multiple blogpost written in our OSM-ID website to tell the story about the event. I am also actively participated in OSM-ID Facebook group, since this much more popular channel compared to OSM-ID mailing list.

Do you use OSM at work for business purposes?

Yes, I currently work as Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team Project Manager for Indonesia. Here in Indonesia, we are focusing on how we can use OSM in data preparedness for disaster. In the past 4 years, our team have trained more than 2,400 peoples on data collection using OSM, QGIS and InaSAFE in various phases of disaster as well as economic development.

Conflicts of Interest

… See full entry

In preparation for the 2015 OSMF board election I am gathering basic info and question responses by candidate, to help people be better informed about their choices.

I’ve added annotations in italics where I felt they would be useful.

Douglas Ssebaggala

• Location: Uganda
• OSM User Douglo
• Manifesto reproduced below

First edit was 4 years ago, and have not looked back ever since, getting involved in other activities beyond mapping, with these upcoming OSMF Board elections, i have great anticipation to show how global the OSM project is: one of the ways that the global reach can be reflected is to have an intercontinental representation on the OSMF Board. Some of the gaps that (i think) need to be covered is how the OSMF relates to the community of users, being part of the awesome board members, and well wishers will greatly improve on how best this relationship can be communicated, and strengthened.

Questions

Where do you currently participate in the OSMF?

I have participated in the Local Chapters Working Group, and would be willing to have more frequent involvement in this WG.

Which contributions to OSM should I consider for my decision beyond your data edits at OSM?

• History of edits
• Potlatch Manual - made back in the old days
• OSM Events and Activities in Uganda
• Activating the Ugandan mailing list
• Contributed on other OSM mailing lists (OSM-Talk).
• Most of all, would like to see OSM grow both as a data/map database and as well as a community.

Do you use OSM at work for business purposes?

Yes. To date, mapping coordinator for Uganda, with a mix of voluntary work under a local non-profit Organisation Fruits of Thought

Conflicts of Interest

No, there would be no conflict of interest, most of the work i do is for the advancement and betterment of OSM, which would most likely be inline with the OSMF

Who should the OSMF serve?

Has not responded.

Role of the board

Has not responded.

Communication with the community

Has not responded.

… See full entry

In preparation for the 2015 OSMF board election I am gathering basic info and question responses by candidate, to help people be better informed about their choices.

I’ve added annotations in italics where I felt they would be useful.

Martijn van Exel

• OSM User mvexel
• Manifesto reproduced below

Bringing almost a decade of grassroots OSM experience and 4 years of US Chapter board experience to the table. Read my OSM diary to learn more about me. Please get in touch with me if you have questions, or to let me know what you want from the OSMF board. I work for Telenav on OSM

Questions

Where do you currently participate in the OSMF?

Board member of OSM US 2011-2015. Started User:Mvexel/Welcome_Working_Group (now dormant). Participated in LWG and CWG, but not particularly actively.

Note: OSM US work is not part of OSMF

Which contributions to OSM should I consider for my decision beyond your data edits at OSM?

Some highlights: * Mapping since 2007 (see my profile). * (Co-)Organizer of many events small and large: SOTM ‘09, SOTM US ‘12, ‘13, ‘14, ‘15. Local events in Amsterdam and Salt Lake City since 2008. * Started local groups in Amsterdam and Salt Lake City. * Blogging about OSM, first on my own blog and now on my OSM diary. * Author of MapRoulette (together with emacsen) and many other smaller tools. See my Github page. * Active participant in OSM mailing lists and IRC channels.activites * Did a whole lot of talks and workshops on OSM since 2010. * Find me on Twitter, LinkedIn. * Spending part of my time at Telenav creating and releasing useful data and tools for mappers. * Taught OSM to Geography students.

Do you use OSM at work for business purposes?

… See full entry

In preparation for the 2015 OSMF board election I am gathering basic info and question responses by candidate, to help people be better informed about their choices.

I’ve added annotations in italics where I felt they would be useful.

Gonzalo Perez

• Location: Argentina
• OSM User Zalitoar
• Manifesto quoted below

I wish to serve in a broader sense to the project. The projects and activities that we have done in South America in the last year boosted the growth of the communities in this part of the world, a strategy which I consider necessary and possible in other regions.

Questions

Gonzalo has not responded to any questions, and his manifesto is too short to fill in answers from.

This post was an accidental duplicate, and is deleted.

In preparation for the 2015 OSMF board election I am gathering basic info and question responses by candidate, to help people be better informed about their choices.

I’ve added annotations in italics where I felt they would be useful.

Wille Marcel

• Location: Brazil
• OSM User wille
• Manifesto

Questions

Where do you currently participate in the OSMF?

I have contributed to the Communication Working Group.

Which contributions to OSM should I consider for my decision beyond your data edits at OSM?

Beyond edits, my main contributions are: * Talks about OSM in conferences in Brazil. See on [osm.org/user/wille/diary my diary]. * Organize local meetings. See on [osm.org/user/wille/diary my diary]. * I am one of the managers of [http://twitter.com/openstreetmapbr @OpenStreetMapBR] twitter account and I have done some efforts to put OSM on the media in Brazil. * I am developing a software to detect harmful changesets, it’s divided in two parts: [https://github.com/willemarcel/osmcha osmcha] (python library) and [https://github.com/willemarcel/osmcha-django osmcha-django] (web interface). In the next weeks I’ll commit some features and officially release it. * Contributed to translation of some softwares, like iD editor. * I’ve done some more contributions to OSM related software, see on my [https://github.com/willemarcel/ github]

Do you use OSM at work for business purposes?

I am a GIS and web developer. Sometimes I use data or tiles of OSM on my work, but it is not the main part of my work.

Conflicts of Interest

I don’t see risk of conflicts of interest with my job.

Who should the OSMF serve?

I think OSMF must not control OSM, but it must do all the possible to make OSM bigger. I think my main priorities will be to support local communities in places like Latin America, Africa and Asia, where we don’t have a community as big as in Europe or United States.

Role of the board

Has not responded.

Communication with the community

… See full entry

In preparation for the 2015 OSMF board election I am gathering basic info and question responses by candidate, to help people be better informed about their choices.

I’ve added annotations in italics where I felt they would be useful.

Ryan Peterson

• Location: USA
• OSM User SP!KE
• Manifesto

Questions

Where do you currently participate in the OSMF?

I’m happy to participate or help recruit relevantly-skilled participants.

Which contributions to OSM should I consider for my decision beyond your data edits at OSM?

From my Candidate Introduction, “I’ve been an active member of OSM since 2011 contributing in a variety of ways including: editing data locally, editing data remotely for humanitarian efforts, training new users, funding numerous events and efforts, speaking and attending many OSM conferences around the world amongst others described in the Candidate Introduction.

Do you use OSM at work for business purposes?

Yes, my passion for OSM has led me to create roles where I do OSM related activities at work. Candidate Introduction has detail.

Conflicts of Interest

Yes, but in the unlikely event there is a COI, I’ll recuse myself from the related discussions.

Ryan works for Apple

Who should the OSMF serve?

The electorate/OSMF members, and secondarily, but extremely importantly, the OSM contributors, of any contribution type.

Role of the board

:I agree with the role as defined in the OSM Mission Statement.

Communication with the community

I subscribe and regularly read many mailing lists, the diaries, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook groups, I communicate regularly with OSM contributors.

Community involvement in OSMF

… See full entry

In preparation for the 2015 OSMF board election I am gathering basic info and question responses by candidate, to help people be better informed about their choices.

I’ve added annotations in italics where I felt they would be useful.

Joseph Reeves * Location: UK * OSM User IknowJoseph * Manifesto

Questions

Where do you currently participate in the OSMF?

I admit that I have not contributed to any OSMF Working Groups. I greatly appreciate the work they do, however, and would only work to encourage participation in them. I am happy to join any WG that I can be an asset in. I have done work to promote OSM outside of more formalised methods and would continue to encourage others to do the same

Which contributions to OSM should I consider for my decision beyond your data edits at OSM?

Do you use OSM at work for business purposes?

First of all, please don’t judge my, or anyone else’s, suitability to serve on the Board by their map edits! I’d argue that a previous preoccupation with mapping skills has been to the detriment of the OSMF and has contributed to a cultural problem that is inhibiting diversity and community involvement. In my opinion crucial Board skills involve communication, planning and organisational skills. Most relevant to my OSMF Board application, I have served on the HOT Board. I have been a long term contributor to HOT as a Member and have participated in a number of Working Groups and activities, including three trips to Indonesia. An example of my writing is available on the HOT Blog. I have spoken about OSM at numerous events including an Oxford University seminar series that can be watched online here, and TechCamp Sarajevo 2014.

Conflicts of Interest

… See full entry

In preparation for the 2015 OSMF board election I am gathering basic info and question responses by candidate, to help people be better informed about their choices.

I’ve added annotations in italics where I felt they would be useful.

Mikel Maron

• Location: USA
• OSM User mikelmaron
• Manifesto

Questions

Where do you currently participate in the OSMF?

In the past, I have served on almost every working group, except Operations. Currently, I am on the SotM WG, and anticipate joining the LCWG again. Most every working group needs more help, and I will promote and recruit heavily for more participation from OSMF members and the broader community

Which contributions to OSM should I consider for my decision beyond your data edits at OSM?

• I mapped Brighton, UK
• Facilitated mapping in places from the West Bank, to Nigeria, to Swaziland
• I co-founded Map Kibera
• I co-founded Huanitarian OpenStreetMap Team
• I’m on https://github.com/mikelmaron. I’ve contributed to OSM website, got the first version of OSM on Garmin and the iPhone, worked on the OSM Tasking Manager. Most recently, I’ve been working on analysis and metrics of OSM.
• I’ve written numerous tutorials, spoke at tons of conferences, and represented OSM projects in venues from community meetings in slums, to international political gatherings. Important point … editing and programming are critical contributions to OSM, but there are other skills we need on the Board.

Do you use OSM at work for business purposes?

I work at Mapbox on the data team. My focus is on leveraging work here for the widest possible benefit to OSM. I’ve previously worked at the State Department, as a Presidential Innovation Fellow, on MapGive. Prior to that, I consulted on OSM related projects through GroundTruth Initiative.

Conflicts of Interest

… See full entry

In preparation for the 2015 OSMF board election I am gathering basic info and question responses by candidate, to help people be better informed about their choices.

I’ve added annotations in italics where I felt they would be useful.

Guido Stein

• Location: USA
• OSM User gsteinmon
• Manifesto quoted below

As someone new to the community I hope that I can share my prespective as a newer member in your efforts to grow the community as well as in your efforts to have better outreach with newer members. I have years of experience running and founding local community groups as well as technical experience with geospatial technologies. I am stepping up for your consideration in order to help where I can with the community growth and development.

Questions

Where do you currently participate in the OSMF?

I am still very new to this community and have not started working on any working group, but plan to join some working groups within the next couple of months.

Which contributions to OSM should I consider for my decision beyond your data edits at OSM?

As a newer member I have contributed by helping to grow the Boston GeoSpatial community and supporting local mapping events with the OSM Boston Meetup Group. I use my own community group, AvidGeo, to help build awareness and attendance of OSM Mapping parties locally. I will be working with the 2017 FOSS4G Conference to also help bring attention to the OSM community.

Do you use OSM at work for business purposes?

I am a GIS Analyst and use OSM data as a base layer in some of my work, but my work does no currently include any OSM editing activities.

Conflicts of Interest

No, I do not have an conflicts of interest. I work for Applied Geographics, Inc. and am the founder/lead organizer of AvidGeo. I am also on the organizing committee of the 2017 FOSS4G. None of these positions have a fiscal or other overlap with the duties of the OSM board.

Who should the OSMF serve?

Has not responded.

Role of the board

… See full entry

In preparation for the 2015 OSMF board election I am gathering basic info and question responses by candidate, to help people be better informed about their choices.

I’ve added annotations in italics where I felt they would be useful.

Peter Barth

• Location: Germany
• OSM User Peda
• Manifesto

Questions

Where do you currently participate in the OSMF?

I joined the Data Working Group about half a year ago, and have been helping to resolve disputes between mappers since.

Which contributions to OSM should I consider for my decision beyond your data edits at OSM?

Besides my work as a mapper and Data Working Group member, I have: * created and contributed to Open Source software related to OpenStreetMap, especially related to 3D rendering * mentored students doing OSM work during Google Summer of Code projects and theses * cooperated with government, industry and charity organizations on a local level * given speeches at various conferences, and contributed content to WeeklyOSM and the German Wochennotiz * introduced new users to OpenStreetMap through events, talks, and tutoring.

I believe this gives me a broad perspective on various aspects of the OSM project an community, and I hope to contribute my experience as part of the OSM board.

Do you use OSM at work for business purposes?

No. While I try to promote OSM at my university through bachelor and master theses, I actually have no work related affiliation to OSM.

Conflicts of Interest

No. See above.

Who should the OSMF serve?

Serving the needs of map users is an integral part of the usefulness of our project, but to me, the OSM community consists of mappers and software developers. And these groups are who I’d try to represent.

Role of the board

… See full entry

In preparation for the 2015 OSMF board election I am gathering basic info and question responses by candidate, to help people be better informed about their choices.

I’ve added annotations in italics where I felt they would be useful.

Ilya Zverev

• Location: Russia
• OSM User Zverik
• Manifesto

Questions

Where do you currently participate in the OSMF?

First, most work is done outside OSMF, even by OSMF members. People write blogs by themselves, explain legal issues without being on LWG, and code without EWG help. There are 5 groups currently active: OWG and DWG, because they have the only power there is in this community: access to servers and a banhammer. And LWG, LCWG and SotMWG, which do organizational stuff few people have knowledge or experience or time to do.

I am not currently on any working groups, though formerly I’ve been on EWG (promoting API changes) and on the Membership WG, which didn’t set off. Which does not mean, obviously, that I’m not doing any work WGs do: for instance, I do communications work in the Russian community, editing a news blog and hosting a weekly OSM podcast. During my involvement in OSM, I tried most things WGs do: explained licensing, wrote code, admined servers, tried to reason with vandals, organized conferences, considered opening a russian local chapter.

Why I don’t sign up to any of the groups? Some, I don’t feel qualified enough (e.g. LWG or LCWG), others are too taxing (I envy these steel-nerved heroes at DWG) or require 24h commitment (OWG, we can’t thank you enough). And some working groups don’t seem useful: why join CWG or EWG, when all the help you need is in IRC channels and blogs?

… See full entry

The OSMF is having a board election, with voting opening this weekend. The questions to candidates are arranged by question, but I wanted to see the responses of each candidate together, so I rearranged them, and sorted the questions into an order I think makes some sense.

Because this is going to end up being long with 11 candidates, I’m splitting into multiple diary posts. I’ll link them all together after publishing, but I can’t do that yet.

Candidates

• Ilya Zverev
• Peter Barth
• Guido Stein
• Mikel Maron
• Joseph Reeves
• Ryan Peterson
• Wille Marcel
• Gonzalo Perez
• Martijn van Exel
• Douglas Ssebaggala
• Yantisa Akhadi

Guido, Ryan, Gonzalo, and Douglas have not responded to most of the questions.

Mikel and Joseph have not responded to some of the questions.

Questions

The questions are reproduced below.

Where do you currently participate in the OSMF?

Most OSMF participation and work is done through working groups. What working groups are you on, and if you’re currently not participating in any, why not?

Which contributions to OSM should I consider for my decision beyond your data edits at OSM?

Please give me a short list of your contributions to OSM (both editing and programming). Do you have edit via multiple OSM accounts which are not listed at Foundation/AGM15/Election_to_Board? Which OSM related software and websites do/did you develope? Please give me a short list and/or a link to your Github profile.

Do you use OSM at work for business purposes?

Do you use OSM at work for business purposes? Do you earn money by developing OSM-related software/websites? Do you earn money by editing at OSM (aka paid mapping)?

Conflicts of Interest

Do you work for a company or are involved with organizations that are working with OSM in some form? If yes how do you plan to handle situations where the interests of this company/organization and the interests of those you would represent on the board diverge?

Who should the OSMF serve?

… See full entry

This is a repost from my blog

I often refer to OpenStreetMap Carto as the largest most complex open multi-contributor map style, but what does that mean?

Broken down, it means

• It’s the largest open stylesheet. If you measure in code size, features rendered, or complexity, nothing else is close;

• It’s the largest multi-contributor map style that doesn’t have a company dictating what is worked on. This means we get merge conflicts. They got so bad we changed the technology we use to define layers to make them solvable; and

• It’s the largest style using OpenStreetMap data. Some proprietary styles like OpenCycleMap, MapQuest Open, and Mapbox Streets are complex, but none of them render the range of features we do.

This complexity didn’t come about out of nowhere. It’s been building since contributions shot up in October 2014. This is when we introduced YAML layer definitions, making the style much easier to edit and streamlined the feature merge process.

… See full entry