28/03/2017-03/04/2017

The OSM April fools of 2017

The map editor is now also available in a variant for companies with optimized look and feel.

weeklyOSM was first to report how OSMF managed to sell our OSM-Data to Google 😉

OSM uses WGS84 as a geodetic reference system, which is not coupled to the motion of the earth plates. In order to compensate for the differences between the most recent reference systems, such as the ETRS89 introduced/implemented in Europe, the coordinates in the OSM database are now being corrected. New versions are not created. This was reported on the official OSMF blog.

Mapping

In an answer to a beginner’s question on the German forum, user Galbinus shows very succinctly, how to create a new roundabout using iD. User Polyglot shows how to get the job done using JOSM.

very succinctly, how to create a new roundabout using iD. User Polyglot shows how to get the job done using JOSM. A blog post by Marc Gemis on how to add data about immovable heritage structures in Belgium to crowdsourced projects such as OSM (HistOSM and Historic Places) and Wikidata.

Multiple German mappers criticize (automatic translation) the app StreetComplete for creating too many changesets. The app aims to add missing tags, but creates one changeset for each changed tag (2 new tags on one object = 2 changesets). Their author is already in touch with the community. See also the bug report on GitHub.

(automatic translation) the app StreetComplete for creating too many changesets. The app aims to add missing tags, but creates one changeset for each changed tag (2 new tags on one object = 2 changesets). Their author is already in touch with the community. See also the bug report on GitHub. John Whelan asks how to deal with landuse=residential within landuse=residential areas that are probably an artefact of the often very rural but nevertheless flatly populated areas, for example in Africa and are reinforced by certain HOT tasks.

within areas that are probably an artefact of the often very rural but nevertheless flatly populated areas, for example in Africa and are reinforced by certain HOT tasks. Grant Slater’s experiments continue with highly accurate GPS measurements based on the OpenSource tool RTKLIB and he inquires if there are other mappers who experiment with Real-time Kinematic (RTK) or offer or need an RTCM stream (GPS correction signals).

Community

Imports

Approximately 9.8 million building footprints are made available by Microsoft under ODbL licence. On the Talk-US mailing list, there was a discussion on whether this data could be imported into OSM.

Christoph Hormann discovered a very questionable MapRoulette challenge for the location correction of islands in polar regions, which degrades data quality. In his user blog (numerous comments) he asks whether such challenges should be treated as mechanical edits.

Events

The State of the Map Asia 2017 is looking for a logo.

The SotM Working Group starts early to search for venues for the State of the Map 2018.

Humanitarian OSM

A letter from Mocoa, Colombia: – Thank you for the collaboration, 48 hours later we have the first results on the map for the work of humanitarian teams on the ground. Now we need your help to sustain our humanitarian mapping unit (UMH) that raises post disaster data on the ground through donations.

Benjamin Herfort from the University of Heidelberg has published an article in the GIScience News Blog titled “10 Million Contributions: It’s time for MapSwipe Analytics!”. He refers, among other things, to several activities: MapSwipe Analytics website MapSwipeTools MapSwipe Data Repository and a scientific article

“Towards evaluating the mobile crowdsourcing of geographic information about human settlements.” AGILE 2017 International Conference on Geographic Information Science. ” written by Herfort, B., Reinmuth, M., Porto de Albuquerque M.J. and Zipf, A.

The OpenAerialMap project now has a much simpler way to upload new images.

Russell Deffner alerts us of the second round of the mapping challenge to eradicate malaria.

Maps

[1] Michael Schön showed an updated version of the Geopedia in a lightning talk at the FOSSGIS conference, which now also integrates Youtube and contains some new interesting features.

an updated version of the Geopedia in a lightning talk at the FOSSGIS conference, which now also integrates Youtube and contains some new interesting features. Alexander Matheisen explains on the OpenRailwayMap mailing list, why he will remove the experimental support of vector tiles from openrailwaymap.org.

switch2OSM

Mapbox writes about the new feature launched by Twitter that will enable businesses on it to privately share and request locations from their customers.

Software

Osmconvert can now also perform simple tagging changes on OSM extracts. See the changed documentation for more information.

Robin Boldt and Emux worked together to create a mobile app for Kurviger route planner. Users can test a public beta release for Android systems.

Programming

David Valdmann writes in the Mapzen blog about the curved lettering, which were introduced with Tangram.js 0.12.

Releases

Provided by the OSM Software Watchlist. Timestamp: 2017-04-03 16:21:53+02 UTC

(*) unfree software. See: freesoftware.

Did you know …

… the Luftlinienkarte (air line map) can calculate distances?

OSM in the media

A Slate article tries to show why burgers have become so expensive in Paris, using many different maps and visualizations based on OSM and the list of French companies, recently published as open data.

Other “geo” things

Google Map Maker is history since the end of March. TURN ON also reported about it and thinks about an alternative if one does not want to provide their information to Google.

According to Heise online, the camera vehicles are on the road again in Europe.

The flight simulator X-Plane-11 is now available. The terrain is based on a current OpenStreetMap.

Upcoming Events

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This weeklyOSM was produced by Nakaner, Peda, Polyglot, Rogehm, Spec80, SrrReal, YoViajo, derFred, jinalfoflia, keithonearth, wambacher.