For several weeks now the desirable contributions in the OSM user blogs have sunk under a deluge of spam. There are people who are calling for countermeasures, such as forced moderation for all new user accounts. alexkemp, who has been involved with forum spam for some time, suspects that the current wave of spam is just the beginning.
OSM Foundation Japan had a meetup between board members and local mappers to build a better community. Many proposals for improvements were made holding mapping parties and the promotion of OSM.
Ilya Zverev in his blog “SHTOSM” ponders (automatic translation) why anyone in the 21st century would need paper maps.
Events
As Laura Mugeha has tweeted, SotM Africa, which will take place on 22-24 November 2019 in Grand-Bassam, Ivory Coast, needs more workshop proposals.
So far only one of talks for the State of the Map US has been submitted by a woman. The organisers are determined to change that, though the target of more than 50 percent of all talks to be submitted by women appears challenging.
Education
Heidelberg University’s GIScience Research Group has used the example of health-related amenities to explore the development of OSM data over time. The results provide deep insight into mapping patterns such as the saturation of an area with a given tag, spin-offs in the form of tag diversification such as amenity=hospital -> amenity=clinic and the erratically increasing usage of the tag as usually seen when a country gets into the scope of the humanitarian sector.
Maps
Can you escape from traffic in a city? Hans Hack has created a map for Berlin showing the places which are farthest away from a road.
The public Swiss geoportal, which has recently introduced an OSM-based vector tile test map with customisable map style, has updated its map with the Mapbox rendering engine. Jeff Konnen from Luxembourg announced that geoportail.lu will “copy” this. Gonza from Argentina reports in a tweet that mapa.ign.gob.ar has also integrated OSM into its base map.
Greenpeace has created a map of air quality in Russian cities. It uses OpenStreetMap as a basemap.
Open Data
…Almost a year ago Tolyatti city administration (Russia) made its official GIS-portal “EMGIS” open to everybody. The portal is now under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Moreover, the OSM community received permission (automatic translation) to use the portal.
Software
OSGeoLive 13.0 has reached Alpha status and the developers are looking for volunteer testers. OSGeoLive is a Linux Live distribution, which is equipped with current Open Source GIS programs.
Peermaps wants to become a distributed, offline-friendly alternative to commercial map providers such as Google Maps. It plans to use peer-to-peer network techniques to share the hosting of files. The project has received funding to build an initial prototype which will display a regularly updated OSM-based map.
… Pascal’s blog post #100? Pascal’s tools are an integral part of the OSM ecosystem.
… the Russian company NextGIS developed an interactive map showing the dynamics of the political borders of Russia and its predecessors. Also they share insights about how this map was created.
… how to tag shops offering vegan, halal, kosher or gluten-free products? The keysdiet:vegan, diet:halal, diet:kosher, diet:gluten_free and several more can be added to mark them.
Long-serving OSMers may still remember how the Maxheight map started in 2012. In its current form, the map not only shows worldwide missing maxheight= tags, but also provides overlays for other truck-related tags. The documentation on the Wiki describes the various ways you can help improve the map.
Other “geo” things
In the Strike Tracker project, Amnesty International used satellite imagery and crowdsourcing to analyse air strikes on the Iraqi city of Raqqa. More than 3000 volunteers collected the data; an analysis website including an OSM map summarises the results.
Microsoft follows Niantic, who has published the augmented reality games Ingress and Pokémon GO, and announced an AR version of Minecraft, called Minecraft Earth. The announcement had extensive press coverage, for instance in Wired and CNN. The game is expected to use Microsoft’s Azure Spatial Anchors , which is Azure’s cloud system combined with OpenStreetMap data, rather than GPS for positioning. It remains to be seen what impact the game will have on OSM.
Garmin launched a device with an OSM-based topo map pre-installed. The Garmin Overlander comes with a proprietary road navigation and topographic OSM map and costs €699. OSM as a map source is only mentioned in the German press release (automatic translation).
Upcoming Events
Where
What
When
Country
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
Toronto
Toronto Mappy Hour
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
Biella
Incontro mensile
2019-06-08
Rennes
Réunion mensuelle
2019-06-10
Bordeaux
Réunion mensuelle
2019-06-10
Lyon
Rencontre mensuelle pour tous
2019-06-11
Salt Lake City
SLC Mappy Hour
2019-06-11
Zurich
OSM Stammtisch Zurich
2019-06-11
Bordeaux
Réunion mensuelle
2019-06-11
Hamburg
Hamburger Mappertreffen
2019-06-11
Leoben
Stammtisch Obersteiermark
2019-06-13
Munich
Münchner Stammtisch
2019-06-13
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.