weeklyOSM 727

20/06/2024-26/06/2024

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City Bus Manager announces its full release on Steam [1] | © City Bus Manager | map data © OpenStreetMap contributors

Mapping

  • Derick Rethans (@derickr@phpc.social) published the ‘Überterracer’ (uberterrace), a JOSM plugin, which allows you to draw a rectangle, and then quickly convert it to a row of terraced houses and at the same time add numbers to the generated buildings. He wrote about it back in 2015 in his blog and the code is available under the GNU General Public License.
  • Trufi Association challenges you to find a 14-year-old with a bigger OpenStreetMap public transport footprint than Esneider Castro, their Volunteer of the Month.
  • Hungerburg is asking for comments to deprecate the use of waterway=pressurised for anything that is not artificially built for hydropower uses.
  • The proposal to introduce the prefix ordering: for order-only telephone numbers or SMS-only telephone numbers and its associated tags to improve the specificity of contact information will be open for voting from 8 July to 22 July.
  • The vote to mark cycleway=opposite tags as deprecated has been concluded with 67 votes in favour, 0 against, and 0 abstentions.

Community

  • Ashim Paudel shared his experiences as an Open Mapping Guru Validation member. He lists his newly gained insights from the programme and highlights the collaborative OSM community.
  • Teachers at the GAL School in Cusco, Peru, are using open mapping tools to document and preserve the Andean tradition like ‘linderaje’ by merging technology with ancestral practices to enhance education and community identity through the Open Mapping for All programme.
  • Teckids e.V., a non-profit organisation that aims to improve children’s digital literacy, does not recommend the use of OpenStreetMap for its community. As there is a terms of use clause that prohibits the use of OpenStreetMap services for children under 13 years old. They are currently planning to approach the OpenStreetMap Foundation in a coordinated effort to bring about change.
  • Tobias Jordans reported that the talks from the OpenStreetMap State of the Map US 2024 are now on YouTube.
  • Softgrow reported that they discovered a 9 year old way in OSM called ‘Scammell Lane’, but found no evidence for its name at the location. So they contacted the local council, City of Charles Sturt, and asked to erect signs – which they have.
  • Valerie Norton blogged thoughts about proposing toilets:disposal=vault and explains its difference to toilets:disposal=pitlatrine.
  • Volker Krause announced that the KDE Akademy 2024 will take place in a venue that has available OSM indoor mapping, thereby expanding the capabilities of the KDE conference companion app: Kongress.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

  • The OpenStreetMap Foundation announced how to become a candidate for the 2024 election, with self-nominations opening on 28 July and closing on 13 August. Candidates must have been members of the OSM Foundation for at least 180 days prior to the election and have to meet other eligibility requirements. The election will fill four board seats in October.

Events

  • The OpenStreetMap Poland Association is pleased to invite all members of the OSM community to the State of the Map Europe 2024 conference, to be held in Łódź, Poland, from 18–21 July 2024. In addition to many interesting presentations and talks, it will be an opportunity to meet, discuss, and exchange experiences.
  • OpenStreetMap foundation board member Sarah Hoffmann recently joined the 3rd annual UNMaps conference in Valencia, Spain, to present the OpenStreetMap project and participate in a panel discussion about crowd-sourced geodata.

Education

  • IVIDES.org has signed a cooperation agreement with the Universidade Católica de Moçambique. As an initial activity, the institute held a workshop on collaborative mapping with OpenStreetMap for a group of young students who are taking the Master’s course in Geographic Information Systems. Raquel Dezidério Souto recorded this moment in her diary . The files are available in Portuguese.

OSM research

  • Gustavo22soares, a member of a study group at the University of Brasília (UnB), is conducting a survey on the usability of OSM.org. There are two options for the questionnaire: MS Forms or Cryptpad. If you have any questions, you can refer to the post on the forum.

OSM in action

  • [1] City Bus Manager has announced its full release on Steam, showcasing features where players build and manage their bus company using real world map data from OpenStreetMap, creating routes, and managing all aspects of their bus empire.
  • Jakob Miksch reported on Mastodon that he is travelling to FOSS4G Europe and noticed the use of FOSS4G based software on the bus, specifically a Leaflet map using OpenStreetMap data.
  • Sargassum Monitoring is a citizen science initiative that began in Mexico and monitors the occurrence of Sargassum sp. (species of brown algae) around the world and displays the photographs on an interactive map with uMap.

Software

  • The new Mapillary iOS app, called ‘Mapillary 2.0’, features a complete redesign for improved usability, including a new home page, action cards for upload status, faster uploads and map filtering using OpenStreetMap data, making it easier for users to capture, and manage street-level imagery.
  • Ilya Zverev announced that Level0 is now HTTPS-enabled with OAuth2 support and it’s running on a new fast server, thanks to the support of OpenCage. Other services, such as the image offset database, will also be migrated.
  • NorthCrab’s #12 describes the near completion of new search functionality, the addition of four new contributors, and improvements like GPS trace visualisations and fixing the white grid lines bug.
  • Development Seed celebrates a decade of OSMCha, highlighting its role in ensuring the quality of OpenStreetMap edits. The tool has evolved to integrate more tightly with mapping and validation processes, using AI/ML to improve detection of map vandalism and errors. Future plans include improving user interfaces, increasing community engagement, and expanding automated validation capabilities to maintain the high data standards of OpenStreetMap.

Programming

  • Mohit Sindhwani explains how to use CSS filters to style OpenLayers maps, demonstrating techniques for creating different map views. These filters, including greyscale, brightness, and hue-rotate, can be applied to OpenStreetMap data to enhance visual presentations without requiring advanced design skills.
  • Urban building and POI data from the Overture Maps Foundation can be downloaded using the overturemaps-py tool.

Releases

  • OsmAPP has released version 1.4.0 which adds iD Tagging scheme for displaying
    properties, search by overpass, 3D terrain view, overlays support and more.
  • Organic Maps has released a major June update that includes new OpenStreetMap data, street name announcements, iCloud syncing for iOS and GPX export for bookmarks and tracks, as well as various fixes and improvements across all platforms.
  • TrickyFoxy has updated the “better-osm-org” user script, including features like QuickLook for changesets, hotkeys for navigation, filtering changesets, mass actions, and highlighting moderators and banned users.

Did you know …

Other “geo” things

  • The popular speed camera app Blitzer.de has received a major update, adding a navigation feature provided by NUNAV that focuses on avoiding traffic jams using real-time data and OpenStreetMap, making it a potential alternative to Google Maps.
  • PeopleForBikes’ 2024 City Ratings report highlights improvements in bicycle infrastructure in over 2,300 US cities, with improved OpenStreetMap data contributing significantly to better network connectivity and safety.
  • OpenCage announces the start of a two-part series on Caribbean #geoweirdness, sharing unique and interesting geographical facts about the region.
  • PLACE, a nonprofit organization founded by Peter Rabley, collects and publishes high-resolution aerial and street imagery to create detailed maps, particularly for developing countries.
  • The E400 VTOL drone combines vertical take-off and fixed-wing performance with military-grade durability and a hefty price tag, making it a high-flying surveyor’s dream and a budget-conscious OpenStreetMap mapper’s nightmare.
  • The interactive New York Times article of 3 June 2024 details the widespread destruction in Ukraine caused by the ongoing conflict, showing before-and-after satellite images, personal stories of affected residents and an analysis of the humanitarian impact.

Upcoming Events

WhereWhatOnlineWhenCountry
[Online] OpenStreetMap Foundation board of Directors – public videomeeting 2024-06-27
Lübeck143. OSM-Stammtisch Lübeck und Umgebung 2024-06-27flag
OSM Nederland bijeenkomst (online) 2024-06-27
LyonSotM-FR 2024 – Lyon 2024-06-28 – 2024-06-30flag
DüsseldorfDüsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen (online) 2024-06-28flag
The Municipal District of PortlaoisePortlaoise Mapping Initiative 2024-06-29flag
中央区マッピングパーティ in 北海道神宮 2024-06-30flag
Tartu linnFOSS4G Europe 2024 2024-06-30 – 2024-07-07flag
RichmondMapRVA Meetup 2024-07-02flag
MapRoulette Community Meeting 2024-07-02
Missing Maps London: (Online) Mapathon 2024-07-02
BerlinOSM-Verkehrswende #60 2024-07-02flag
PotsdamRadnetz Brandenburg Mapping Abend #7 2024-07-03flag
StuttgartStuttgarter OpenStreetMap-Treffen 2024-07-03flag
DresdenDresden – OSM Stammtisch 2024-07-04flag
OSMF Engineering Working Group meeting 2024-07-05
中正區OpenStreetMap x Wikidata Taipei #66 2024-07-08flag
San JoseSouth Bay Map Night 2024-07-10flag
MünchenMünchner OSM-Treffen 2024-07-09flag
Salt Lake CityOSM Utah Monthly Map Night 2024-07-11flag
Lorain CountyOpenStreetMap Midwest Meetup 2024-07-11flag
BochumBochumer OSM Treffen 2024-07-10flag
AmsterdamMaptime Amsterdam: Summertime Meetup 2024-07-11flag
Wildau193. Berlin-Brandenburg OpenStreetMap Stammtisch 2024-07-11flag
KøbenhavnOSMmapperCPH 2024-07-14flag
EnglandOSM UK Online Chat 2024-07-15flag

Note:
If you like to see your event here, please put it into the OSM calendar. Only data which is there, will appear in weeklyOSM.

This weeklyOSM was produced by MatthiasMatthias, Raquel Dezidério Souto, Strubbl, TheFive, barefootstache, derFred, freyfogle, mcliquid, rtnf, tordans.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.