Jan Michel asked for comments on his proposed tagging of new types of electric mobility devices such as scooters, pedelecs or electrical bicycles as the usage is regulated in many countries.
Francesco Ansanelli has updated the roundtrip page and created a (so far empty) closed loop proposal which started a lengthy discussion about this topic on the tagging mailing list.
jmkennedyie published a nice animation of OSM’s evolution in Ireland since 2006.
The proposal of telecom=distribution_point for tagging telecommunication equipment, allowing one or more households to connect to a single telecom local loop upstream cable, has been accepted.
Community
Roland Olbricht announced the availability of a user manual for the Overpass API in English, French and German. The manual, which has been created with a focus on long-term stable functionality and translatability, isn’t a manual in the conventional sense but a guided tour.
Global Healthsites Mapping Project and the Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology/GIScience Research Group announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding recently. The cooperation has been agreed to improve analyses, sharing and use of OpenStreetMap health facility data.
switch2OSM
SomeoneElse explains in his diary entry why “Switch2OSM” was moved from WordPress to Github. He also explains how to suggest changes or improvements to the site.
Open Data
Following the recent publication of the articles What is OSM? and How To Use the OpenStreetMap Wiki on the Transport for New South Wales Open Data blog, Andrew Harvey reminds them that OSM can’t use any of their open data without an attribution waiver and asks if there is any chance of obtaining one.
The Open Data Day 2020, an annual celebration of open data, will take place on 7 March 2020. You are invited to join one of the events around the world or host your own.
Software
Randy Meech and his team announced StreetCred for iOS and Android. StreetCred is a gamified data enrichment app to improve OSM. The app allows you to create and update POI data.
Releases
Quincy Morgan announced the updates to iD in v2.17.0. Other than improvements such as a single click function to add tunnels or bridges and the continued visibility of select features even when zoomed out, the release notes include some non-core changes like the addition of a privacy policy, the ability to opt out of icons loaded from third-party sites, the new iD blog and the removal of Maxar imagery layers following the announced suspension of service.
Did you know …
… 19 amazing maps? Mapbox’s list of 19 maps that they thought stood out in 2019.
… that you can map playground equipment in a playground as separate OSM elements with the tag Key:playground?
… the Wiki Site, where you can submit pictures as showcase examples of the OSM project and suggest candidates for picture of the week?
OSM in the media
The Hindu, one of India’s largest newspapers, features an article on Shriphani Palakodety, who creates nice-looking maps and visualisations with OSM data.
Other “geo” things
Technology Reviewreported on mysterious attacks on ship-borne GPS devices in China. The spoofed GPS positions appear to be arranged in circles, which perplexed some of the exports consulted by the journal.
DW News tweeted about a young Zimbabwean man who, in his own time, is working to make his continent better mapped on Google StreetView.
Ayman Jaddaa suggests a redesign of Apple Maps and introduces an impressive design proposal of their own, which received positive feedback on Reddit. One suggestion is to improve crowdsourcing of map data. Probably unknown to the author, Apple Maps already uses OpenStreetMap in some countries.
You can watch 35 years of climate change in the Arctic in just over two minutes in a time-lapse video released by the American Geophysical Union.
Stages Cycling has released a GPS unit with an OSM-based map doctored for cyclists to allow you to wander around with confidence without a preset route. The map highlights not only bike paths and bike lanes but also things like coffee shops, bike shops, and restrooms.
Geospatial World reported that Geoalert has completed the very first version of its ambitiously big map data project – Urban Mapping, 54 million buildings all over Russia, data for which is available through their platform’s API.
Upcoming Events
Where
What
When
Country
Alice
PoliMappers Adventures 2019
2019-12-01-2019-12-31
Düsseldorf
Stammtisch
2019-12-27
hosted by Chaos Communication Congress 36C3
OpenStreetMap assembly
2019-12-27-2019-12-30
London
Missing Maps London
2020-01-07
Hanover
OSM-Bearbeitung mit JOSM
2020-01-08
London
Geomob LDN (featuring OSMUK)
2020-01-08
Stuttgart
Stuttgarter Stammtisch
2020-01-08
Berlin
139. Berlin-Brandenburg Stammtisch
2020-01-09
Bochum
Mappertreffen
2020-01-09
Nantes
Rencontre mensuelle
2020-01-09
Montrouge
Rencontre mensuelle locale des contributeurs de Montrouge et alentours
2020-01-09
Salvador
Mapeia Bahia
2020-01-11
Toronto
Toronto Mappy Hour
2020-01-13
Cologne
Köln Stammtisch
2020-01-15
Ulmer Alb
Stammtisch Ulmer Alb
2020-01-16
Dortmund
Mappertreffen
2020-01-17
Riga
State of the Map Baltics
2020-03-06
Valcea
EuYoutH OSM Meeting
2020-04-27-2020-05-01
Cape Town
State of the Map 2020
2020-07-03-2020-07-05
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.