[1] Quick, get your act together! As we go to press the OSM 17th birthday global mapathon will be underway. The mapathon starts at 03:00 UTC (13:00 Australian Eastern Standard Time) on Sunday 8 August with the OSGeo Oceania community. A different OSM chapter takes the lead each hour until 19:00 UTC (12:00 PDT; 17:00 EDT) when OSM US concludes the mapathon. Most communities have chosen thematic mapping activities.
Mapping campaigns
MoiraPrime pointed out, on the talk-us list, that the Amazon corporate mappers are now working on college and university campuses across the US. They appear to be making extensive use of existing campus maps, which may or may not be compatible with OSM.
Eiim set out their ambitious plans for mapping Oxford, Ohio.
OSM US are working to map playgrounds in Philadelphia. The project is a collaboration with KABOOM!, a not-for-profit devoted to improving access to playgrounds for poorer children.
OSM Uganda is joining with Nairobi-based social enterprise Upande to collect map data related to agriculture and food security.
Mapping
Frederik Ramm from the Data Working Group highlighted that automatic problem fixing can be considered to be an automated edit, and therefore subject to the automated edits policy. Andy Townsend, also from the DWG, provided an example of the type of issue that DWG is finding when contributors apply ’tag fixes’ suggested by editors inappropriately.
AngocA continued> his series of diary posts on OSM Notes with advice about how to post a note in various applications and websites. The advice focuses particularly on people wishing to have their business mapped on OSM.
Another numeric milestone surpassed, user gpserror reported that the USA now contains over 1 billion nodes.
The proposal foraging=* to indicate whether or not foraging for plants/fruit/fungi etc. is permissible for a given location or plant is open for comments.
The following proposals are waiting for your vote:
cycle_barrier=*, cycle_barrier:installation=*, corners=*, deflection=*, spacing=*, opening=* and overlap=* to indicate type, design, size and width specifications for cycle barriers – i.e. barriers along a path that slow or prevent access for bicycle users. Voting is open until Monday 16 August.
maintained=no/yes/rarely/semi/intense to indicate how maintained a natural feature is. It is initially meant for mapping shrubbery as natural=scrub but can be used on any natural feature. Voting is open until Tuesday 17 August.
User SK53 blogged about two unusual pavement (sidewalk) features: deterrent paving and perforated kerbs. The former is difficult to walk or drive over; the latter helps to improve surface water drainage.
User SK53 also provided some detailed notes on tactile paving used in the United Kingdom, and recommends using them to estimate widths of crossings and pavements (sidewalks).
Simon Poole reported> that orthophotos from the SwissTopo geoportal are now available directly in the iD editor. Previously these needed to entered as a custom layer.
Community
Dongha Hwang has created> a Facebook page for the Korean OSM community.
OSM US has published its latest monthly newsletter, for July 2021.
OpenStreetMap Foundation
Allan Mustard, chair of OSM Foundation, requested for feedback to help flesh out the draft Strategic Plan for the foundation.
User pnorman summarised his recent SotM 2021 presentation on the OpenStreetMap Standard Layer and who is using it.
Open Data
Google Research Ghana has released the OpenBuilding dataset. The open dataset contains 516 million buildings, across an area of 19.4 million km² (64% of the African continent). The data are licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence, which is not directly compatible with OSM.
Licences
OpenStreetMap France tweetedthat more than 10,000 websites have integrated maps that use OSM data. For domains using such maps without attribution, of which there are over 200, a special tile is served partially replacing some map tiles.
Software
Mapswipe announced a new release including updated translations in various languages. Italian is newly supported.
WhatOSM outlined> some developing issues with using WGS84 as a baseline for geodata, some of which we have reported earlier. These are most acute for objects located on the Australian tectonic plate which has moved 1.8 m relative to the original specification but applies elsewhere too. Most geosoftware, and data formats, including OSM, make inadequate provision for the best way to handle WGS84 coordinates, the use of epochs. For many uses, the best practice is to use a local coordinate system unaffected by plate tectonic shifts.
Programming
User SomeoneElse shows you how to programme a watchdog for changes to long-distance paths on OpenStreetMap.
Did you know …
… of the detailed map of roads throughout the Roman Empire? Known as the Tabula Peutingeriana, the existing source is a 13th century parchment map, but internal evidence, such as the presence of Pompeii, suggests the original source was compiled in the 1st century CE.
OSM in the media
The New York Timesanalysed how governments and other organisations have used geospatial data to plan COVID-19 vaccination campaigns (paywall). The article mentions a range of other purposes in using geodata and GIS during the COVID-19 pandemic by US authorities. In less-developed nations, it also features the joint mapping initiative of, amongst others, Alcis, CartONG, HOT, iMMAP and MapAction, ‘Geographic Information Management Initiative for COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery’.
Esquire Philippinesdove deep to look at the activities of Mapbeks in providing mapping of LGBTQI+ spaces using OSM data. The article provides detailed background on three of these: the LGBT Safe Spaces Map, HIV Facilities and Support Map, and Mapbeks Stories Map.
Other “geo” things
Twitter user RevK reported that an emergency service in England is only accepting postcodes or what3words locations.
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