(English) weekly 271

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22/09/2015 – 28/09/2015

Mapping

• Users glibbertorsten describes how the tag addr:housname can be abused to achieve better results in OsmAnd. The abuse is also pointed out in the comments.
• User baditaflorinhas created a nice graphic comparing the average node distance on highways between continents.
• User Malenki is not amused about his “useless survey” in Wales.

• KSUToeBee was looking for shooting ranges in the iD presets, but was surprised to see the results. 😉
• Marc Zoutendijk describes a problem with the use of the hamlet tag in Taiwan. This might be caused by difficulties with the translation of English tags into Chinese.
• Marc Farra and Dylan Moriarty created a tool named Planet Stream that combines augmented diffs of Overpass API with the metadata from OSM-meta-util. The tool allows for a wide variety of real-time data analysis. As an example they built an OSM hashtag leader board.
• On talk-at it has been recommended to switch to basemap.at when the geoimage.at server stops serving imagery.

Community

• User noordfiets complains on the Dutch forum that bicycle infrastructure is becoming less visible with some of the recent changes to the main map style. There is an impression in the Dutch community that a few key players can push the style in a certain direction without bothering too much about community input. He also posted his griefs to the talk-mailing list.
• Mappa Mercia blogs about the reopening of the railway station in Birmingham after its extension and development. They are looking for experts in public transport, indoor and 3D mapping to help them plan the proper mapping of the station.
• The OpenCage Data Blog published an interview  with Javin Ochieng about OpenStreetMap in Kenya.
• Jonwit talks about his experiences, to familiarize with the help of a small test project using OpenStreetMap and Overpass Turbo.
• André Pirard launches the idea for a tag that would open a pop-up in the editors and ask for confirmation to edit the tag or object. The purpose is to protect data from accidental edits.

Imports

• Jonah Adkins reported the successful completion of an import in York County (Virginia, USA).
• Yuichiro Nishimura informs of an intended import of roads and buildings in the Japanese city Tondabayashi.

Events

• SotMs is everywhere. Also in Barcelona, this Saturday, October 03.

Humanitarian OSM

• In Missing Maps project Mapillary will be used. The Voice of America reported.
• A case study illustrates the experiences of the American Red Cross with Missing Maps projects.

Maps

• [1] Lukas Martinelli explains in a tutorial how to create a “map T-shirt” with Mapbox Studio.
• In the US there are many large and smaller no-fly zones. These are particularly important for the growing number of drone pilots. The Directions Magazine shows a compilation of available online maps.
• The company Urbica developed new map styles for the MAPS.ME app. The procedure is described in detail on medium.com.
• “Mapping Berlin” … some of the finest cartographical representations of the city of Berlin, by Laura Harker.
  

switch2OSM

• The tourist office of Paris uses OpenStreetMap! (via @cq94)

Licences

• Simon Poole proposed a new “Metadata Guideline”.  Paul Norman shifted it into a separate thread.

Software

• Users TAWML indicates a newly available navigation app for Android and iOS called Magic Earth. The offline maps are based on OSM data.
• Mapzen announces Mapzen Search – powered by Pelias.
• The UK Environment Agency has released its laser data. Chris Hill wrote here and here about the extraction of building height from LIDAR data. 
• Paul Norman announced on the dev–list that there is a PPA for Ubuntu with nightly builds of osm2pgsql. The announcement leads to a discussion about DebianGis, which packages numerous free GIS and OSM software programs for Debian.

Did you know …

• … the Irish community’s project to map all townlands. A townland is a small geographical division of land. According to the wiki page for the project there are about 61,000 townlands. Mapping progress can be seen on townlands.ie. Out-of-copyright maps are made available via Map Warper. A significant part of the messages on the Irish mailing list are requests to make new sheets available on the website.
• … the new wiki page with a collection of time-lapse videos of OSM mappings?
• … the “complete” feature in the developer version of the Overpass API?
• … about the possibility to present the development of OSM in the past 10 years in your region?
• … that QMapShack is the the successor product of QLandkarte GT?

other “geo” things

• Mapbox committed to net neutrality.
• BuzzFeed published another collection of 18 world maps.
• The police of Berlin visualized pickpocketing incidents in a heatmap. (via @PolizeiBerlin_E)
• SK53 answers chillly’s question about why in the OSM universe Y-X coordinates are preferred over X-Y

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