News 2024 - Week 10

WeeklyOSM

The latest news about OpenStreetMap in a weekly format. Published every Sunday.

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OSM-Community in Metro Manila [] | © OSM community in Metro Manila | map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Mapping

  • Anne-Karoline Distel has written a blog about rag trees mapping (place_of_worship=sacred_tree) in OpenStreetMap.
  • Robhubi asked, in a blog post, whether the wiki page for the key name needs to be restructured.
  • SK53 described the mapping of chapels in crematorium buildings in a very detailed blog post.
  • Codesurfer has requested comments on their proposal social_facility=equine_assisted_centre.
  • Voting on the elevator dimensions proposal is open until Monday 25 March.

Community

  • [1] GOwin blogged about an AlayData event of the OSM community in Metro Manila to celebrate Open Data Day. Last but not least, the trivia at the end of the article is interesting 😉
  • Rebecca Firth, Executive Director of HOT, spoke about how her team uses open maps to help change women’s lives for the better.
  • Doué-en-Anjou (in the south of Maine-et-Loire, France) now has a small OSM community! It organises itself using the Communecter social network.
  • Craftmapper Negreheb first searched OSM and then the internet for second-hand shops in his neighbourhood. To record those missing from OSM, he cycled around local shops and mapped them.
  • Deus Figendi called for more use of Panoramax. Paul explained Panoramax in a nutshell: ‘Street pictures à la Kartaview/Mapillary, but technically like Mastodon’. Christian Quest explained it in detail in a video from SotM Europe 2023.
  • The YouthMappers UFRJ Chapter (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) has received an award from the YouthMappers project, for promoting women’s participation in its membership and activities.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

  • Members of the OpenStreetMap Foundation Board and several of the OSMF Working Groups are launching a membership campaign with the goal of growing and diversifying membership in all regions of the world.
  • Engelbert Modo has put together a few good arguments for why you should become a member of the OSMF and help shape the composition of the Board and the focus of its work. His appeal is particularly aimed at mappers in regions that currently only have a very small proportion of members.
  • Each of the OpenStreetMap Foundation board members shared a few sentences about where they want to contribute in 2024.

Local chapter news

  • Rebecca Nyinawumuntu Jeannette, from OSM Rwanda/ecomappers, blogged about their monthly mapathon events.

Events

  • Raquel Dezidério Souto blogged about her participation as a special speaker at the Open Data Day UFBA 2024 (Brazil). The keynote video and PDF file are publicly available in Portuguese and English.

Maps

  • Matt Whilden has developed TIGERMap, a webmap to help facilitate reviewing the TIGER import of roadways in the United States on OpenStreetMap.
  • Martin Brake, an expert in road engineering, rail engineering, tunnel construction and much more, has published a map based on OSM, which helps visualise the development of transport networks over time (rail, motorway, underground, suburban railway) in Germany, London, and Barcelona.

OSM in action

  • The German Amateur Radio Club (DARC) is offering an introduction to amateur radio with the help of a learning platform. In addition to a detailed course map , the DARC has also created a training sponsor map based on OSM. To keep the data up to date, a registration form can be accessed via a link on the map.
  • governorkeagan spotted his first ‘mapinthewild’ that uses OpenStreetMap.

Software

  • Ian Wagner, from Stadia Maps, gave a talk on using the open-source routing engine Valhalla. The talk systematically covered aspects of Valhalla’s flexibility through reference documentation and live demos using QGIS and the JSON API.
  • Mapstories allows you to tell stories using maps. It uses OpenStreetMap, or the Mapbox library, as a base map and is available in DE, EN, ES, and FR.
  • Tobias Zwick announced his plan to develop an iOS version of StreetComplete, using Kotlin Multiplatform and JetBrain’s Compose for the UI. Part of the development is being funded by the Prototype Fund, a German public interest tech grant program. For the remainder, he asked for help from the community, noting the numerous contributions up to this point that have made this endeavour feasible in the first place.

Programming

  • 2hu4u wrote a tutorial on how to add wireless connectivity to enhance his previously documented very cheap and ultra portable street level imagery setup.
  • Kamil Monicz has tested the performance of his OpenStreetMap NextGen (osm-ng) for the first time. The main task was to evaluate static and unauthenticated queries, which showed osm-ng to be much faster than osm-ruby, with the fastest execution time of 0.00314 seconds. mmd’s diary comment outlines some of the shortcomings in the testing methodology.

Releases

  • Tobias Zwick has released StreetComplete v57, which now includes an overlay with which all those small map features such as benches, bicycle parking, roadside trees, ATMs, and other street furniture in general can be mapped. Another highlight of v57 is the building overlay, which mappers can use to view and edit building types in their vicinity.
  • The OrganicMaps March 2024 update has been released. You can now export all of your bookmarks with a single click for backup; maps are updates to 28 February, and there is a track colour editor for iOS.
  • Sarah Hoffmann announced the release of Nominatim version 4.4.0 and Photon version 0.5.0. This release comes with bug fixes and performance improvements and a new, experimental feature for exporting a Nominatim database to SQLite.
  • Version 0.7.0 of OpenStop, the app to collect information (about accessibility) at public transport stops, has been released. Aside from many other improvements it’s now possible to translate the app into any language using Weblate. The development team have also created a video briefly introducing the app.

Did you know …

  • … there is a modified version of StreetComplete called SCEE? It is aimed at experienced OSM contributors who desire more advanced editing capabilities in StreetComplete and is available on F-Droid.

OSM in the media

  • Outsite featured an article on how to contribute (pp. 40–43) to OSM using mobile apps. Outsite is a Danish magazine aimed at hikers and other outdoor people.

Note:
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This weeklyOSM was produced by MatthiasMatthias, Michael Montani, SeverinGeo, Strubbl, TheSwavu, YoViajo, barefootstache, derFred, rtnf, westnordost.
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