07/09/2021-13/09/2021
Castle Dossier Map Switzerland [1] © IFS Geometa Lab | map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
Mapping campaigns
- The Swiss OSM Project of the Month for September is the mapping of electrical vehicle charging stations
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Mapping
- A long thread on the Swiss mailing list, split over several months, discussed how to map the border between Switzerland and Italy around Monte Generoso, where the precise line is uncertain. Earlier discussions occurred in July and August.
- John Stanworth wants to further improve his mapping of
smoothness=*andmtb:scale=*and asked other cycling contributors for comments on his views. - Hiddenhausen asked > , on the German forum, what the use of the tag
landuse=street_greenmight mean. It appears to be an ad hoc attempt to refine the use oflanduse=grassfor grassy highway verges and medians. - Voting is underway, until Saturday 25 September, for
headlight=*to reflect the legal requirement on some roads to use your headlights. - SK53 clarified with examples that, in his opinion, there is widespread misuse of the
sac_scale=*tag for real alpine climbing routes, which the Swiss Alpine Club grades with a completely different scale. - User Koreller asked for feedback on their contribution a guide to mapping North Korea available on the OSM wiki.
Community
- Amanda McCann shared with us what she did in OpenStreetMap during August 2021.
- Numerous OSM contributors have received ‘friend’ requests through the OSM website which appear to be phishing attacks. Not surprisingly this has received comments on the German forum >
and OSM subreddit.
Imports
- Marius David (marius851000) intends > importing open data about restaurants in the Pays de la Loire (France), and he is seeking inputs on how to do it before starting.
> OpenStreetMap Foundation
- Simon Poole justified his insistence that the OSMF register trademarks, whilst he served on the LWG, by referring to a recent trademark debacle involving PostgreSQL. A Spanish not-for-profit registered ‘PostgreSQL’ as a mark in Spain, and has recently applied for broader coverage in the European Union and USA. The latter application was recently abandoned, but the ‘PostgreSQL Community’ is still live.
Education
- The UN Mappers team has announced the launch of an internship programme. Several open positions relate to OSM in mapping and feature extraction, social media and communication, geospatial analysis, and map visualisation and design. The internships are fully remote or in-person at the UN duty stations in Brindisi (Italy) and Valencia (Spain), and are open to all nationalities. These internships are an opportunity to work in an international environment, gaining experience and developing high skills in the humanitarian field. The deadline to apply is Saturday 9 October.
Humanitarian OSM
- The monthly HOT Tech Working Group meeting has been put on hold. The hot_tech team has convened a number of working groups specific to individual technologies or projects such as the OSM Galaxy Project. Anyone who wishes to participate in these is requested to fill out a form.
- HOT announced the appointment of Dr Ibrahima Cisse as Director of the Western and Northern Africa Open Mapping Hub.
- The Open Mapping Hub Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA), organised by HOT, announced a range of Open Mapping grants. Expressions of interest are invited immediately, with formal proposals expected during October.
- The HOT Quality Control and Assurance Working Group have developed and released the ‘Problem User Escalation Document’, which outlines the steps in escalating data quality problems encountered with users (mappers/validators).
Maps
- [1] The Institute for Software at the Technical University of East Switzerland (IFS OST) invites (Video ) us to check out their video regarding mapping technology for the Castle Dossier Map The video forms part of an entry for the Prix Carto of the Swiss Society of Cartographers.
- Jaisen Nedumpala reported on how he used OSM to help map a 3 km buffer zone during the recent Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala (India), with the personal support of Heinz_V from Germany and OSM contributors from Kerala.
) us to check out their video regarding mapping technology for the switch2OSM
- Sustrans, the UK cycling infrastructure charity, asked for local input for improving a national cycle route in the city of Durham. Gregory Marler’s (user livingwithdragons) advice, given somewhat tongue-in-cheek, was to switch to OSM.
Programming
- The
momepyPython library for analysing urban form is now at version 0.5.0. Of particular interest is the addition of the COINS algorithm for classifiying street hierarchies.
Did you know …
- … what the charging regime is for using the HOT Tasking Manager? Also known as the Tasking Manager Sustainability Model.
- … there is a page on the OSM Wiki for noting sites that use OSM but don’t provide correct attribution?
- … that OpenCage post geographical trivia via Twitter on the last Friday of each month (hashtag #fridaygeotrivia)?
Other “geo” things
- The Colorado Department of Transport falsely changed the status of an open road to closed, not only on their own site (albeit briefly), but directly on Google, Waze, TomTom and AppleMaps. A major highway Interstate-70 was actually closed due to mudslides, causing an increase in traffic on a minor road. The fictitious road closure was meant to discourage further traffic build-up.
- Using the example of the ‘Chinese Name of Lidl’ Yunus reflected on the challenge for western companies to select a Chinese name for their brand.
Upcoming Events
| Where | What | Online | When | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
OSM Africa Monthly Mapathon: Map Malawi  | 2021-09-04 – 2021-10-04 | |||
| Karlsruhe | Karlsruhe Hack Weekend | 2021-09-17 – 2021-09-19 |  | |
| Anderlecht | Software Freedom Day | 2021-09-18 |  | |
| Nantes | Journées européennes du patrimoine 2021, Nantes | 2021-09-18 |  | |
| Grenoble | Atelier OpenStreetMap – retrouvailles et initiation ! | 2021-09-20 | | |
| Lyon | Rencontre mensuelle Lyon | 2021-09-21 | | |
| Bonn | 143. Treffen des OSM-Stammtisches Bonn | 2021-09-21 | | |
| Berlin | OSM-Verkehrswende #27 (Online) | 2021-09-21 | | |
| Lüneburg | Lüneburger Mappertreffen (online) | 2021-09-21 | | |
| DRK Missing Maps Online Mapathon | 2021-09-23 | |||
| [Online] OpenStreetMap Foundation board of Directors – public meeting | 2021-09-24 | |||
| Düsseldorf | Düsseldorfer OSM-Treffen (online) | 2021-09-24 | | |
| Amsterdam | OSM Nederland maandelijkse bijeenkomst (online) | ✓ | 2021-09-25 |  |
| FOSS4G 2021 Buenos Aires – Online Edition | 2021-09-27 – 2021-10-02 | |||
| Bremen | Bremer Mappertreffen (Online) | ✓ | 2021-09-27 | |
| Grenoble | Mapathon Missing Maps – Cartographier des cartes humanitaires sur un mode collaboratif et libre. | 2021-09-28 | | |
| San Jose | South Bay Map Night | ✓ | 2021-09-29 |  |
| Bruxelles – Brussel | Virtual OpenStreetMap Belgium meeting | ✓ | 2021-09-28 | |
| okres Žilina | Missing Maps mapathon Slovakia online #4 | 2021-09-30 |  | |
| 京田辺市 | 京都！街歩き！マッピングパーティ：第26回 Re:一休寺 | 2021-10-02 | jp | |
| Greater London | Missing Maps London Mapathon | 2021-10-05 |  | |
| Landau an der Isar | Virtuelles Niederbayern-Treffen | ✓ | 2021-10-05 | |
| Stuttgart | Stuttgarter Stammtisch (Online) | 2021-10-05 | | |
| Hlavní město Praha | Online validation mapathon | ✓ | 2021-10-07 | cz |
| Nordrhein-Westfalen | OSM-Treffen Bochum (Oktober) | 2021-10-07 | | |
| UN Mappers: MaPathon – le Università a servizio della cooperazione internazionale | 2021-10-08 | |||
| Berlin | 160. Berlin-Brandenburg OpenStreetMap Stammtisch | ✓ | 2021-10-08 | |
Note:
If you like to see your event here, please put it into the OSM calendar. Only data which is there, will appear in weeklyOSM.
This weeklyOSM was produced by Nordpfeil, PierZen, SK53, TheSwavu, arnalielsewhere, derFred.