(English) weekly 244 — 17.03.–23.03.2015

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17.03.–23.03.2015

Mapping

• Improve the quality of OSM data by analyzing GraphHopper’s «map matching» results. (choose your language)
• People on the tagging list discuss the use of an alternative to mailing lists and wiki.
• User jonwit is looking for a way to map minefields. So far, there is no well-established/documented tag.

Community

• Mapillary give some initial feedback for traffic sign recognition.
• Simon Poole describes in his diary the journey to pick-up a server donation and his experiences with OsmAnd and Mapillary.
• User mmd asks for help to supplement the Overpass sample collection. He is looking for translators for the new page Overpass API/Overpass API by Example. mmd states on demand that this is important because students will create a learning platform for the Overpass API in «Google Summer of Code» and they should be able to use it.
• How important is voting on new OSM tags? Opinions … differ.
• Colin Broderick describes how one can see the mapping progress in Lesotho with a «punch card».
• [1] Pascal Neis shows an overview of recent changeset discussions. In the future, more opportunities for discussion should be added.
• Edward17 created a weekly exercise in Ukraine as well. The current can be found in the forum. (choose your language)
• Jaisen Nedumpala noticed that the authorities still prefer mainly printed maps in his native India. When he travels in the Panchayat near Koorachundu, he notes that there is not even a survey or cadastral map. To change that, he held a mapping party. In addition to the very extensive report, there are also many beautiful photographs in the article. 🙂

Imports

• In Borno, a state in north-eastern Nigeria, there will be an import of healthcare facilities.
• An import of railway data in the Netherlands has been discussed on the Dutch mailing list and in the forum. Frederik is among the people with objections.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

• The OSMF Board is considering setting up a support force for the board. Frederik asks on the OSMF talk list if anyone has experience in organisations with such a support. The question triggers an extended discussion. In the course of discussions Frederik gives a brief insight into the functions and activities of the board.
• Paul Norman published a first draft of the meeting on 16th February 2015 in Berlin.
• On April 18, will be held the annual general meeting of the Swiss Association OpenStreetMap (OSM Switzerland) in Biel.
• The OSM administrator Firefishy is looking at options for new digital certificates for the various OSM websites.

Events

• Intermediate result SotM US: More than 230 applications for funding were made and more than 200 talk proposals were submitted.
• In Vienna there will be an open source camp under the auspices of Netidee on 15 and 16 May 2015.

Humanitarian OSM

• OSM may use the current aerial photographs of Vanuatu from Airbus D & S. The images are available as a TMS, but have an offset to OSM and Bing.
• PierZen and Severin Menard are candidates for the HOT Board.
• The minutes of the March meeting of the HOT Board has been published. (via HOT-List)
• Some before/after images show the destructive force of the cyclone Pam, which devastated the island nation of Vanuatu.
• Epworth, a suburb of Harare where 150,000 people live, is fully traced and validated. (via Twitter)

Maps

• The default map style to OSM.org has been updated to version 2.29.0. Details of the changes can be found here.

Open-Data

• Information about French companies will now be freely accessible. (Translations)
• Current Landsat satellite images are now available via Amazon’s AWS cloud service.

Software

• The beta testing of the newly developed navigation program Terra! has begun. Interested parties with iOS 8.1 or above devices can register here.
• The command-line tool geotool converts raw geographical data into ASCII art.
• Style development is great to see, but sometimes new icons suggested for the openstreetmap-carto («Standard») style don’t always suggest the right feature to other style maintainers 🙂
• The first applications for the OSM projects for the Google Summer of Code arrive — and questions of the candidates to the projects as well.
• Tom MacWright writes «More than you ever wanted to know about GeoJSON». (in your language)

Did you know about …

• … StaticMapMaker?
• … the website from Walter Nordmann that displays borders?
• … mapschool?
• … that Mapillary reported on 23/03/2015 that 10 million photos were uploaded to a total of nearly 300,000 kilometers. (via @DaCor)

Other «geo» things

• YellowPages.ca is no longer a data supplier to Google Maps. (via @Anonymaps)
• Dane Springmeyer from MapBox reports about «Mapbox Vector Tile Specification by Esri».
• Landsat satellite images can now be virtually displayed quasi in real time on the services of MapBox (MapBox Studio).