Manfred Reiter

27/06/2023-03/07/2023

Where are the top 10 corporations contributing? Here DevSeed. [¹] © piebro | map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

About us

As Chris correctly pointed out, in a comment to our issue #675, we do not link to platforms that are not publicly accessible. Therefore, in future we will no longer link to messages on Twitter. If you want to distribute information coming from Twitter that is relevant to our readers, and you think we should report on it, please provide a non-Twitter link.If you are thinking of joining the Fediverse (especially Mastodon), Jorge Sanz has many tips on where to find accounts that cover geographical topics.

arjunaraoc published a how-to guide on mapping roadside fuelling stations using OsmAnd to collect the data and JOSM to add the new POIs to the map.
CactiStaccingCrane shared his experience of suffering from burnout while mapping landuse in Vietnam. He provided tips for OSM contributors to avoid this.
Cascafico explained how to create a simple script to automatically validate the URLs in OSM tags. In a reply, Strubbl referred to his programme on Codeberg, with which one can specify an OSM relation and then all the mapped websites within this boundary will be checked. He then showed an example analysis for München.
darkonus shared his technique for creating smooth curves using the CAD Tools plug-in in JOSM.
Kai Johnson blogged about his glossary of landforms, which he has put together for contributors interested in mapping natural features.
The FlatLaf plug-in lets you personalise the interface of JOSM with nine different themes. You can view these FlatLaf themes on the OSM wiki. The plug-in is maintained by DevCharly on GitHub and it’s also available under the Apache licence for use in other software.
The proposal playground=*, to add values to the list of documented playground equipment, is open for vote until Friday 14 July.

Mateusz Konieczny has published a MapRoulette challenge listing cases where the wikipedia tag links to a non-existing Wikipedia entry. This is an experimental tool and feedback is welcome. As with any QA tool, remember to use your brain and do not change things blindly!
Obianinulu reported on a two-day training course, held at the University of Nigeria in Enugu, on using the iD Editor and Tasking Manager.
With Maxar imagery being unavailable for several weeks, SColchester published a short guide that outlines the steps you can take to switch your Tasking Manager project to alternative imagery sources.

GrapeMapping published a diary post listing their favourite OpenStreetMap sites and tools.
OSM Belgium has declared Michel Hebert, from Grenoble, to be their Mapper of the Month.
Having moved to Bonaire a couple of months ago, Probelnijs described some of the challenges they have encountered while contributing to OSM.
William Edmisten described how he mounted a GoPro MAX 360° camera on his car, processed the videos, and imported them into JOSM to help find missing features in OpenStreetMap.

Maxar cut off access to their imagery a few weeks ago as they try to deal with non-OpenStreetMap related use of the imagery. The OSMF board is in contact with Maxar to try and resolve the situation.
The OpenStreetMap Foundation Board reported on their ‘OSMF Board Screen to Screen’ meeting held in June 2023.

Quincy Morgan unveiled the new design of the OpenStreetMap United States website at the State of the Map US 2023.

Sebastian Kauer and Petra Sauerborn have written ► an article on using OpenStreetMap in the classroom, looking at potential benefits and challenges.

[1] Piet Brömmel has updated his OSM statistics to June 2023 and added some statistics on corporate editors. According to the June 2023 statistics, the ten companies adding the most data to OpenStreetMap are: Meta, Kaart, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Grab, DigitalEgypt, DevSeed, TomTom, and Lightcypher.
Christoph Hormann wrote, in the first of a series, about ‘drawing the line’ on maps, how different styles of lines are used to convey information in cartography.
Ruben Mendoza reported that Development Seed have incorporated Meta’s Segment Anything Model into their DS-Annotate tool.

Robert Potter, from the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning, Australia, consulted the OSM-talk mailing list on the issue of ODbL licences on OpenStreetMap. Adam Franco advised them to release their geospatial data to a public domain licence first, before adding it to the OSM database.

Meta Reality Labs have released OrienterNet, an AI-based application to automatically estimate a location based on visual information contained in photos and an user provided coarse location within 100 to 200 meters.
autoevolution reviewed OsmAnd on Android Auto as an alternative to Google Maps.

Starting with Debian 12 ‘Bookworm’, the libgdal-perl package, which is based on XS, will no longer be in the repositories. The upstream support period has ended. You can follow these instructions to migrate to the CPAN package Geo::GDAL::FFI. For more details, see the release notes for Debian 12.
Jonny J Watson (pixmusix) built a wall hanging board that can display a simulation of pedestrians in Paris. This simulation was created using a Raspberry Pi device and OpenStreetMap data (via the PrettyMaps Python library).

… Geoconfirmed? It is a community-based geolocation platform with a global reach, focusing on the current conflict in Ukraine. In addition, Syria and Yemen, among others, are also highlighted.
… that the maximum size of a PDF version 7 file is 381 km x 381 km?

The Taj Mahal was incorrectly named ‘Shiva Kshetra’ on OpenStreetMap for 13 days. Mappers from Kerala corrected it.

HeiGIT has analysed and compared the data in the regions of Maribor, Slovenia and Ngaoundéré, Cameroon using their OSM Element Vectorisation Tool.
HeiGIT also analysed the correlations between indicators generated from the OSM data in Heidelberg, first to ensure that these indicators measured distinct data attributes, and then to look for interesting or surprising correlations. This was their third and final example of using the OSM Element Vectorisation Tool.

Where	What	Online	When
London	Missing Maps London Mapathon		2023-07-04 – 2030-07-04
	Reunião – OSM Brasil – Mapeamento Aberto para Gestão de Riscos/Desastres [Horário 3]		2023-07-07
København	OSMmapperCPH		2023-07-09
臺北市	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata 月聚會 #54		2023-07-10
Zürich	OSM-Stammtisch		2023-07-11
München	Münchner OSM-Treffen		2023-07-11
	OSMF Engineering Working Group meeting		2023-07-12
Salt Lake City	Salt Lake City OSM Night		2023-07-13
Berlin	181. Berlin-Brandenburg OpenStreetMap Stammtisch		2023-07-13
Bochum	OpenStreetMap-Stammtisch Bochum		2023-07-13
Montrouge	Rencontre contributeurs Sud de Paris		2023-07-13
	165. Treffen des OSM-Stammtisches Bonn		2023-07-18
Lüneburg	Lüneburger Mappertreffen (online)		2023-07-18
The Municipal District of Kilkenny City	Kilkenny History Mappers MeetUp		2023-07-18
Karlsruhe	Stammtisch Karlsruhe		2023-07-19 – 2030-06-21
Lorain County	OpenStreetMap Ohio Meetup – Kickoff	✓	2023-07-20
	Missing Maps – DRK & MSF Online Mapathon		2023-07-19