weeklyOSM 535

13/10/2020-19/10/2020

lead picture

opening_hours evaluation tool 1 |

Mapping

  • Robert Delmenico suggested, on the tagging mailing list, replacing man_made=* with human_made=*. Many doubted the value of the proposal. Such suggestions are repeated every few years (February 2012, March 2017).
  • Following a report (de) > en by n-tv, which reveals the unexpectedly high number of trees in the Sahara and Sahel, there was a discussion (de) > en about what forest density and size is actually needed to match the established tagging for forest and woodland in OSM.
  • Mueschel’s proposal for the new tags electric_bicycle and speed_pedelec has been approved.
  • User bkil proposed the tag audible=* for ‘objects generating audible cues’. Voting is underway until the end of October.
  • Robhubi published a blog post (de) > en about the distinction between pavements and footpaths in Austria. The differentiation has an impact on the vehicles permitted to use them.

Community

  • Jean-Marc Liotier published an article ‘Measuring data quality or why are we even Openstreetmapping anyway’ in which he doesn’t define any quality metrics but reframes the problem instead.
  • LCCWG, the ‘Local Chapters and Communities Working Group’, invites you to join the working group.
  • The Mapillary team is seeking editors using JOSM to interview about their workflows, whether or not they include use of the Mapillary plugin for JOSM. Interested users should reach out to osm@mapillary.com.
  • Want to receive a postcard? Hungry for a connection with a fellow OSMer? Try OSMCards: a service to send or request postcards from many OSM contributors all over the world. See the talk recording from the SotM 2020 to see why it was made and how it works.
  • Steve Coast is upset that he was denied a Foundation ‘free membership’. Active Contributor Memberships were introduced by the Foundation to encourage more active community members to join the OSMF. People can demonstrate their active contribution by having mapped on 42 or more days, or explaining how else they have contributed to OpenStreetMap, over the past year.

Imports

  • Ben Discoe updated his TIGER node/way burndown chart and concludes that, if progress continues at the same rate, in about 29 years each imported TIGER node will have been touched and the community will need more than 9 years ‘before each path is hopefully aligned and cleaned up’.

Local chapter news

  • Anita Graser was honoured with the 2020 Sol Katz Award, presented on 10 September 2020, during the virtual OSGeo Annual General Meeting. She is best known for being involved in QGIS, which is one of the most successful OSGeo projects. Read more about Anita Graser in her blog.
  • OSM RDC’s application for membership as a local chapter of OSM in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is online.
  • Thierry Hancart is Mapper of the Month of the Belgian local chapter.

Events

  • The OpenStreetMap conference US Connect 2020 will take place online next weekend. The programme has been announced: three days of talks, workshops, birds of a feather sessions, mapathons, and opportunities to connect with fellow OpenStreetMap enthusiasts!
  • Geoweek and Weekend 2020 (ja) > en will be held as a pre-event for mapping and hacking to make SotM Japan 2020 (ja) > en and FOSS4G 2020 Japan Online (ja) > en even more exciting. Registration is here (ja).
  • The OSGeo Day videos of AGIT 2020 are now available online (de) > en.

Humanitarian OSM

  • The UN Mappers (‘Mapping the #world and serving humanity’) have set up a task on HOT’s Tasking Manager to map roads, waterways, and villages in Somalia.
  • Students of EuYoutH_OSM met online for a joint mapping exercise using the Francophone Libre Task Manager.
  • Russ Deffner has called on the OSM community to take action against COVID-19, by contributing to one of HOT’s projects either on their Tasking Manager or Mapswipe.
  • Five OSM communities, spread across the Philippines, Turkey, Uganda, Kenya, and Zambia, have received Facebook Community Impact Microgrants to support community engagement and training.
  • Long-time contributor Russ Deffner celebrates his 10-year anniversary with a diary entry where he summarises the past year and shares his aspirations for the next one.
  • CartONG has announced it has opened registration for the 2020 GeOnG Forum. The forum will be focused on how information management technology and practices can truly be human-centred, integrating the (different) rights of people and communities in their full diversity.

Maps

  • The Ministry of Public Works and Transport of Costa Rica has published, over an OSM base map, a map of the National Road Network with roads classified as primary, secondary, tertiary, or cross streets.
  • The CGN Spotter Guide makes (de) > en plane spotting much easier around Cologne Airport (CGN) and some other places.

Software

  • Still a fan of the Potlatch 2 aesthetic? JOSM includes a conversion of the map style. Guillaume Rischard has vectorised it. The modernised version can be included in the Map Paint Styles preferences.

Programming

  • The new openrouteservice map client (VueJS) development is in the final phase and now has a feature that allows routes, isochrones, and other features from openrouteservice (ORS) to be integrated into other websites (with the embedding code available via a share button). This allows webmasters and editors to embed those geographic features easily into their websites using the new ORS client.

Did you know …

  • [1] … there is a tool to check your opening_hours tagging?

Other “geo” things

  • Wikimedia CH is currently running a four-language writing competition for articles on Swiss castles and palaces. The purely virtual event runs until the end of November. Every Monday an online meeting is held from 7 to 8 PM, as an informal BigBlueButton session, in which everyone speaks their native language or English.
  • Germany introduced (de) > en their Experimental Space Surveillance and Tracking Radar (Gestra), designed to track space debris. It consists of two units, each the size of a shipping container. Entry into service is planned for the beginning of 2021.
  • Apple announced version 1.0.0 of their ‘Indoor Mapping Data Format’. As a commentator said ‘YAPF: Yet Another Proprietary Format’.
  • The Sounds of the Forest collected sounds from forests and woodlands across the world. Supported by the PRS Foundation’s Open Fund for Organisations, music will be created from the collected data and premiered at next year’s Timber Festival on 2 to 4 July 2021.

Upcoming Events

WhereWhatWhenCountry
Cobb Virtual AcademyWikidata+OSM: Its use cases2020-10-25india
RennesAtelier découverte OSM / Wikipédia / Wikidata [1]2020-10-25france
BremenBremer Stammtisch2020-10-26germany
Arlon(cancelled – annulé) Réunion des contributeurs OpenStreetMap2020-10-26belgium
Salt Lake City / VirtualOpenStreetMap Utah Map Night2020-10-27united states
DüsseldorfDüsseldorfer OSM-Stammtisch2020-10-28germany
Salt Lake City / VirtualOpenStreetMap Utah Map Night2020-10-29united states
LondonMissing Maps London Mapathon2020-11-03united kingdom
StuttgartStuttgarter Stammtisch (online)2020-11-04germany
DresdenDresdner OSM-Stammtisch2020-11-05germany
OnlineState of the Map Japan 2020 Online2020-11-07japan
TaipeiOSM x Wikidata #222020-11-09taiwan
Salt Lake City / VirtualOpenStreetMap Utah Map Night2020-11-10united states
MunichMünchner Stammtisch2020-11-11germany
Zurich123. OSM Meetup Zurich2020-11-11switzerland
Berlin149. Berlin-Brandenburg Stammtisch (Online)2020-11-12germany
Online2020 Pista ng Mapa2020-11-13-2020-11-27philippines
OnlineFOSS4G SotM Oceania 20202020-11-20oceania

Note: If you like to see your event here, please put it into the calendar. Only data which is there, will appear in weeklyOSM. Please check your event in our public calendar preview and correct it, where appropriate.

This weeklyOSM was produced by Climate_Ben, MatthiasMatthias, MichaelFS, Nordpfeil, PierZen, Polyglot, Rogehm, TheSwavu, YoViajo, derFred, richter_fn, Can.