weeklyOSM 460

07/05/2019-13/05/2019

Mapping

• Osmose now uses the MapCSS validation rules of the OpenRailwayMap project to validate railway infrastructure.
• Dr Erin Ryan found a number of gaps and errors in OpenStreetMap data around Charlottesville, Virginia when trying to geocode arrest data. Various types of errors were noted: apparent multiple locations for a prison and the complete absence of the suffix “Extended” on some roads (e.g. Avon Street).
• Christopher Beddow, from Mapillary, has been travelling and recently he was lucky to have good weather whilst capturing some splendid scenery in Scotland.
• A golf simulator using OSM data leads to very detailed mapping of golf courses.
• Nick Bolten wants to change the way we tag pedestrian crossings as he thinks that crossing=* has problems in terms of orthogonality, understand-ability and semantic correctness. With his proposal for crossing=marked he is disturbing a wasps nest: the tag has already been implemented in iD but the usage is disputed.
• Quincy Morgan, one of the maintainers of the iD editor, introduced a new tag nonsquare=yes. This is meant for buildings with some, or all, corners not being a right angle. The idea is to avoid such buildings showing up as validation issues. He ignored requests to discuss such a change with the OSM community. This is criticised by multiple users on the Talk mailing list.
• TBKMrt wants to extend the range of values for the key toll= beyond yes/no, which are currently 98.98% of the values. He suggests toll=<COUNTRY CODE>:<TYPE> with <TYPE> being one of fee, vignette, meter or no. The key toll:type= could be used with distance or time.

Community

• dktue, a German OSM mapper, asked (automatic translation) on Talk-AT why postal codes in Austria are not recorded nationwide, as they are in Germany. In the course of the discussion it turned out that he means postal code multipolygons, which cannot be recorded easily due to the lack of data in Austria.
• Well-known Russian mapper Ilya Zverev started a podcast about GIS-technology “Mapokalypse” (in Russian) with Sergei Golubev and Maxim Dubinin (CEO of NextGIS). Together they discuss one specific topic connected to GIS in each episode. The last podcast “OpenStreetMap kills” (automatic translation) was about the negative impact of OSM.
• alexkemp analysed the spam flood that has reached OSM diaries since the end of April with up to 30,000 spam-posts daily. In his blog post he details his suggested “no-edit, no-diary” rule to stop the spam.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

• The German local chapter FOSSGIS received funding requests for an OpenLayers code sprint (automatic translation) and a replacement for the Overpass development server (automatic translation). The OpenLayers developers want to spend five days to make the open source Javascript library faster, easier to use and more error-free. The requested Overpass server will replace the existing, five year old development machine.
• The minutes of the Licence Working Group meeting on 11 April were published.
• The OSMF Board will meet physically in Brussels later in May and asks for topics and issues that the community thinks should be considered. If you have a topic, you are asked to fill out the survey.
• The Open Source Initiative approached the OSMF last year and asked whether OSMF wants to become an affiliate and follow organisations like the Linux Foundation, the Python Software Foundation, Wikimedia Foundation and many more. The OSMF board decided in favour and the application has been accepted.

Events

• The website of FOSS4G Hokkaido 2019 has been opened (automatic translation). The meeting will be held in Sapporo on July 12 and 13. Applications for presentation and workshop subjects will be accepted until May 24.

Humanitarian OSM

• Mapillary and HOT are collaborating to speed up map data collection in undermapped regions with the launch of the #map2020 campaign. #map2020 asks local mappers to submit street level imagery using projects that collect data for humanitarian purposes. The two winning projects will be invited to the HOT Summit in Heidelberg, Germany in September this year.

Maps

• Bexhill-OSM, a detailed map of Bexhill-on-Sea, England, added a feature to view 1300 photos of notable buildings, including 360 panoramas, in full screen. A short guide is included in this tweet.
• The public Swiss geoportal made an OSM-based vector tile map available. As Boris Mericskay points out (automatic translation) in his tweet, the test map style can be customised to a certain extent.
• The Russian OSM website openstreetmap.ru has recently updated POI and address information.
• Dmitriy Konoshonkin created a guide around Krasnoyarsk (Russia). As a base map he used OpenStreetMap.

switch2OSM

• OpenStreetMap US points to an Associated Press article on how data from U.S. Census Bureau, Cal Fire and OpenStreetMap were combined to evaluate fire-related evacuation routes.

Open Data

• CycleStreets wrote a blog post about the proposed release of information on 240,000 cycling infrastructure assets in Greater London by Transport for London as open data. The blog article points to a newly created demo map for selected areas to allow OSM mappers to evaluate the data. Please note that we are not yet allowed to use the data for OSM purposes.

Software

• CleanTechnica, a cleantech-focused website, promotes A Better Route Planner (ABRP), a router dedicated to electric vehicles, and OpenStreetMap, on which ABRP is based. The website explains why OSM matters and how users can start editing to improve electric-based mobility.
• geohacker from Development Seed introduces the offline-first field mapping tool called “Observe”. The comprehensive blog post covers the motivation, a short user guide, future plans and asks for feedback.

Releases

• Leaflet version 1.5.1 has just been announced. If you had troubles with the module export regression, whose fix is the only changelog entry, then you should update.
• Westnordost has released version 12 of StreetComplete. The new version added the new quest “What is the name of this place?” and comes with some minor improvements.
• Many new tests have recently been added to the Jungle Bus validators for JOSM (which improve the quality of public transport data in OSM):
  • on the new tags interval, opening_hours and interval:conditional
  • on line colours
  • on the tag differences between the route_master relationship and its route relationships
  • on the walking bus lines
  • on the geometry of bus stops and bus stations
  • etc.

  These validators can be enabled in Preferences > Data Validator > Attribute Checker Rules tab.
  Your help is welcome to translate these new tests.

• The OsmAnd team promised to bring the iOS version of its navigation app up to the same level as on Android. Version 2.70 has recently been released. Their blog post details the new features. However, there is still some way to go as the Android version was upgraded to 3.30 in March 2019.

Did you know …

• … the Lifecycle prefixes with which you can describe the current status of an important object? The prefixes are mainly used to separate objects and facilities that are planned or under construction or that have been closed, expired, removed (also translocated) or destroyed from currently existing objects, in order to continue to find them in the OSM database.
• … how to tag a door that opens automatically? The key for this is automatic_door. This can be important information for handicapped people who may need to know if they can use a door without help.
• … this video clip from the Portuguese channel TVI? It was pointed out to us by a reader and documents the usage of OSM at the public Civil Protection authority.
• … openSenseMap, the map with open sensor data? The senseBox offers students and interested citizens an OSM platform to collect and publish measurement data.

OSM in the media

• In Russia an interview (automatic translation) with Russian cartographer Nikita came out on the radio station “Echo of Moscow” on the programme “Inside”. In his interview Nikita often mentions OpenStreetMap. For example, he thinks that the basics of OSM should be taught in schools in geography lessons.
• OpenStreetMap was featured in the latest issue of Japanese GIS magazine 地図中心 (Map Central). The contents were about crisis mapping, mapping parties, ODbL, and so on. Of course community members contributed those articles. (automatic translation)

Other “geo” things

• Timofey Samsonov et.al. describe in a paper (PDF) the automated addition of intermediate contour lines. Software for the generation of main and counting contour lines has been available for about 50 years. However, intermediate contour lines are only drawn where there is space and it makes sense for the terrain to be shown. An ArcGIS version can be found on GitHub.
• The Linux Foundation, backed by a number of large companies, has established the Urban Computing Foundation, which is dedicated to open source software with a focus on mobility.
• ZDNet reports on a project started by the UK’s national mapping agency, the Ordnance Survey, that aims to create a highly precise real-time map for 5G planning and autonomous driving. It is intended to collect the data by processing imagery taken by the camera-equipped cars of utility companies.

Upcoming Events

Where	What	When	Country
Prague	Wikimedia Hackathon 2019	2019-05-17-2019-05-19
Santa Cruz	Santa Cruz Ca. Mapping Party	2019-05-18	California
Reading	Reading Missing Maps Mapathon	2019-05-21
Cologne Bonn Airport	Bonner Stammtisch	2019-05-21
Derby	Derby pub meetup	2019-05-21
Lüneburg	Lüneburger Mappertreffen	2019-05-21
Viersen	OSM Stammtisch Viersen	2019-05-21
Cambridge	Missing Maps Mapathon	2019-05-22
Lübeck	Lübecker Mappertreffen	2019-05-23
Montrouge	Rencontre mensuelle de Montrouge et alentours	2019-05-23
Vienna	62. Wiener Stammtisch	2019-05-23
Greater Vancouver area	Metrotown mappy Hour	2019-05-24
Strasbourg	Rencontre périodique de Strasbourg	2019-05-25
Bremen	Bremer Mappertreffen	2019-05-27
Rome	Incontro mensile	2019-05-27
Salt Lake City	SLC Map Night	2019-05-28
Mannheim	Mannheimer Mapathons	2019-05-28
Zurich	Missing Maps Mapathon Zurich	2019-05-29
Saarbrücken	Mapathon OpenSaar/Ärzte ohne Grenzen/EuYoutH_OSM/Libre_Graphics_Meeting_2019	2019-05-29
Montpellier	Réunion mensuelle	2019-05-29
Düsseldorf	Stammtisch	2019-05-29
Bratislava	Missing Maps mapathon Bratislava #6 at Faculty of Civil Engineering Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava in Bratislava	2019-05-30
Joué-lès-Tours	Stand OSM sur la fête du vélo	2019-06-01
Taipei	OSM x Wikidata #5	2019-06-03
London	Missing Maps Mapathon	2019-06-04
Essen	Mappertreffen	2019-06-05
Toulouse	Rencontre mensuelle	2019-06-05
Stuttgart	Stuttgarter Stammtisch	2019-06-05
Bochum	Mappertreffen	2019-06-06
Mannheim	Mannheimer Mapathons	2019-06-06
Nantes	Réunion mensuelle	2019-06-06
Dresden	Stammtisch Dresden	2019-06-06
Reutti	Stammtisch Ulmer Alb	2019-06-06
Dortmund	Mappertreffen	2019-06-07
Montpellier	State of the Map France 2019	2019-06-14-2019-06-16
Angra do Heroísmo	Erasmus+ EuYoutH_OSM Meeting	2019-06-24-2019-06-29
Minneapolis	State of the Map US 2019	2019-09-06-2019-09-08
Edinburgh	FOSS4GUK 2019	2019-09-18-2019-09-21
Heidelberg	Erasmus+ EuYoutH_OSM Meeting	2019-09-18-2019-09-23
Heidelberg	HOT Summit 2019	2019-09-19-2019-09-20
Heidelberg	State of the Map 2019 (international conference)	2019-09-21-2019-09-23
Grand-Bassam	State of the Map Africa 2019	2019-11-22-2019-11-24

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 Nakaner, Rogehm, SK53, Silka123, SunCobalt, TheSwavu, derFred, geologist.