weeklyOSM 393

23/01/2018-29/01/2018

Knotenzentralität

Visualization of the centrality of nodes using OpenStreetMap data 1 | Picture by Geoff Boeing

Mapping

  • Matej Lieskovský started a discussion on the mailing lists about how non-breaking spaces in name tags should be handled. Some languages, in this case, Czech, have rules about how a name can be displayed when split over two lines. The question is whether such rules should be enforced directly in the data in the OSM database or applied by data consumers.
  • Christoph Hormann has prepared new satellite layers of parts of the Antarctic and the Western Alps based on Landsat and Sentinel 2 satellite images. Amongst other things, he asks if they are suitable for mapping leaf_cycle.
  • Vespucci will support imagery from OpenAerialMap soon.
  • Voting for the proposal of piste:type=connection for connections between ski lifts and pistes is open, until February 8th.
  • The vote on the hydropower water supplies proposal was suspended due to pertinent remarks.

Community

  • Scott Davies tweets a rendition of buildings of Walthamstow, London, made with OpenStreetMap data using QGIS and Inkscape.
  • In France, a mapping party was held (fr) at La Fabrique Numerique, Gonesse where data were added to both OSM and Google Maps at the same time.
  • Post Mortem III: Randy Meech has written another post on the closing of Mapzen. It features the future of former team members and Mapzen’s products.
  • Reddit user BeFlatXIII starts a thread on OpenStreetMap about township mapping in Ohio, which results in rendering inconsistencies. Among the answers there are relevant links to OSM Wiki and to US mailing lists.

Imports

  • The plan of the import of buildings from the Spanish cadastre is already in its final stage.The import will begin as soon as possible, initially on Tenerife and in the city of Málaga.
  • Albert Pundt suggests improving county boundaries in Pennsylvania using TIGER 2017 data. The use of “Replace Geometry” from the utilsplugin2 JOSM plugin is recommended in the comments.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

  • The License Working Group of the OSM Foundation has published the FAQ on the recently enacted Trademark Policy along with other relevant documents.

Events

  • The call for abstracts for the Academic Track of the State of the Map 2018 is now open.
  • On April 14th and 15th, an OpenStreetMap hackweekend will take place in the DB-Mindbox in Berlin. Even sooner, an OSM hackweekend will take place on February 17/18 in Geofabrik in Karlsruhe.
  • 3rd of March is celebrated as Open Data Day. Join or organize one of the dozens of events around the world. Mapbox is supporting the mini-grants program to help local communities share the benefits of open data, particularly in Open Mapping. Find more about it here.

Humanitarian OSM

  • HOT reports on the refugee issue in Northern Uganda where up to 7,000 people a day are arriving, having fled from violence in South Sudan. HOT tries by providing equipment and training together with the refugees to capture Water points, also even sinking.
  • HOT, OpenStreetMap and ThinkWhere (a geospatial company in Scotland) get a mention in a UK parliamentary debate.

Maps

  • Franscisco Morales tweeted a Monde Geospatial video tutorial on how to download watershed delineation from OpenStreetMap for ArcGIS.
  • Ilya Zverev has revived OpenWhateverMap, originally created by Grant Slater. Have a look at the unusual rendering of the map!
  • The map style OSM-Carto will show military areas differently in the next version, see the pull request by andrzej-r with its examples.

switch2OSM

  • Niantic has updated its map data for PokemonGo and Ingress to the status of December 15, 2017. Unfortunately this also increases vandalism.

Programming

  • [1] Geoff Boeing wrote about easily measuring and visualizing street network centrality with OSMnx (Python) and OSM data.
  • Frederik Ramm suggests the introduction of a feature in the OSM API to allow moderators to rename user accounts, which he wants to use against obscene usernames.
  • The Heidelberg Institute for Geoinformation Technology is looking for a Software Developer (Web) for a limited period of two years.
  • Nakaner has released an Osmium-based C++ program called PrepDelRels that determines which paths become unnecessary when deleting a relation.

Releases

  • OSM-Carto has been released in version 4.7.0. An icon for tourism=apartment has been added and the entrances are now displayed. The full change list can be found here.
  • The new release of Mapbox Navigation SDK for iOS v0.13.0 comes with user location tracking in standalone map views, Danish and partial Hebrew localizations and Mapbox Navigation SDK for Android v0.9.0 opportunistically reroutes in the background, turn banner improvements including route shields and much more.

Did you know …

  • … the collaborative route planning platform FacilMap?

Other “geo” things

  • With Mapire historical maps can be compared with each other or with today’s maps/satellite images of OpenStreetMap and Here Aerial.
  • The website of the Colorado-Convention-Center in Denver/Colorado contains an 3D-Multi Floor-Indoor Map based on OpenStreetMap.
  • Indoor navigation in AR with Unity” – a blog post that shows how to use the Mapbox Maps SDK for Unity to create an augmented reality navigation application.
  • Here bought the indoor map startup Micello.
  • Microsoft Power User magazine speculates that the use of the Google Maps API on a recent Microsoft app presages the end of Bing Maps.
  • The Guardian reports about Strava heatmap revealing the location of secret US Army bases
  • TomTom discontinues the provision of what had been sold as “lifelong” data updates for some navigation devices (some actually still, or very recently, on sale). See also the comment by “Anonymaps” on Twitter.
  • Due to a military exercise, GPS disturbances and failures in the western USA are expected from 26 January to 18 February.
  • Brian Reinhart from the Dallas Observer has found that a lot of restaurants which do not exist in in real life are present on the Google Maps, and in services that rely on that. During his research it was easy for him to create and delete another imaginary restaurant. He wasn’t able to answer why they are there though – maybe someone just enjoys creating fake data?

Upcoming Events

WhereWhatWhenCountry
BiellaIncontro mapper di Biellese2018-02-03italy
MontrealLes Mercredis cartographie2018-02-07canada
StuttgartStuttgarter Stammtisch2018-02-07germany
Berlin116. Berlin-Brandenburg Stammtisch2018-02-09germany
near BrisbaneBeaudesert Mapping Party2018-02-10australia
Tokyo東京!街歩き!マッピングパーティ:第16回 赤坂氷川神社2018-02-10japan
RennesCartographie humanitaire2018-02-11france
LyonRencontre libre mensuelle2018-02-13france
NantesRéunion mensuelle2018-02-13france
ToulouseRéunion mensuelle2018-02-14france
KarlsruheKarlsruhe Hack Weekend February 20182018-02-17-2018-02-18germany
Otaru小樽マッピングパーティー2018-02-17japan
RomeFOSS4G-IT 20182018-02-19-2018-02-22italy
Cologne Bonn AirportFOSSGIS 20182018-03-21-2018-03-24germany
TurinMERGE-it2018-03-23-2018-03-24italy
PoznańState of the Map Poland 20182018-04-13-2018-04-14poland
Disneyland Paris Marne/Chessy Railway StationFOSS4G-fr 20182018-05-15-2018-05-17france
BordeauxState of the Map France 20182018-06-01-2018-06-03france
MilanState of the Map 2018 (international conference)2018-07-28-2018-07-30italy
Dar es SalaamFOSS4G 20182018-08-29-2018-08-31tanzania
BengaluruState of the Map Asia 2018 (effective date to confirm)2018-10-01-2018-10-31india

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 Anne Ghisla, Nakaner, Peda, SK53, SeleneYang, SomeoneElse, Spanholz, Spec80, YoViajo, derFred, jinalfoflia, sev_osm.