I went to miles farm today. 8/10/2026

No new street developments. Mostly just new houses

纠正了一些先辈们所标注的不准确道路，这些道路或是如今已与从前大不相同，或是先前的标注不规范。删去了箐湖和县政府大楼，本人之前的相关数据太过于粗略。增加了一些建筑，删除了已不复存在的地点。有的地方不够详细，明天打算实地勘探后再修改。那么就这样吧，晚安OSM。

A while back a message popped up in my inbox inviting me to compete for a GoPro Max2 360-degree sport camera, courtesy of Meta, which of course now owns Mapillary and thus has a vested interest in supporting crowdsourced collection of street-level imagery. I submitted the application assuming it would come to naught and was pleasantly surprised when a GoPro Max2 appeared on my doorstep on July 15th. What follows is a review of that camera for collecting street-level imagery. Amazon sells this camera for $299. To put that in perspective, I paid about $200 for a RealMe model RMX3241 when we got to Italy for SOTM a couple of years ago and discovered that my wife’s iPhone was not unlocked as advertised, so a local Italian SIM card wouldn’t work.

Description:

The GoPro Max2 features back-to-back fixed-focus-to-infinity fisheye lenses. The built-in processor stitches those images together and stores the combined image as a 360-degree view of everything, not just horizontally but vertically as well. A smartphone app, Quik, can be downloaded to control the camera via a wifi connection (and that is vastly easier than trying to control the camera via the tiny LCD screen). The camera can collect both video and still images, 360-degree JPEGs, which can be displayed by VLC Media Player as well as GoPro’s proprietary Player. GoPro Player, a free download, is a desktop imagery editor that allows you to trim video files and also to edit the point of view of video and still photos.

After charging the batteries I did some initial filming by walking around my back yard and viewing the videos on the camera’s LED screen. That led to basic familiarity; after a short time the controls became relatively intuitive. I downloaded the Quik app to my Android phone, connected the camera and phone, and used it to start and stop the camera, select modes, and generally experimented a bit, then deleted those test videos. The Quik app is not hard to figure out.

I researched on the internet options for mounting the camera on top of a car and settled on the Bushman Panoramic Popeye Magnetic Base, which B&H Photo in New York sold me for about $50 including taxes and shipping. I mounted the camera on the provided 10-inch (25 cm) pole, then mounted the pole on the magnetic base and placed it on the roof of the car with one lens facing left and the other facing right. The magnetic base secured the camera firmly yet was easily removed given the leverage the 10” pole provides.

I collected five sets of video imagery at 30fps on July 29 in the general area of Falls Church, Virginia, and still photographs 2 seconds apart on August 4 in the general area of Annandale, Virginia. I was curious to see if clarity of the images would differ between video and still photos taken from a moving automobile.

Pro:

Setup of the camera is relatively easy though the documentation seems to assume that the user is familiar with GoPro equipment. I already had a GoPro Hero so was not completely at sea but could not figure out how to open the battery door and had to consult with a YouTube video (my fear of breaking something made me check that first).

Once installed and functioning, the GoPro Player software was easy to figure out. It is relatively intuitive and after only a couple of false starts I was able to trim from collected videos the first several frames and last several frames that showed me mounting and dismounting the camera after turning it on (I had not yet experimented with starting and stopping the camera remotely, which I now do). I have not yet used Player for any editing other than that. Transferring the 360-degree files to the desktop computer was easy, by simply removing the camera’s SD card, sticking it into a USB adapter, and copying the files to a dedicated folder on my desktop’s 8Tb SSD.

Mapillary’s updated desktop uploader worked perfectly and uploaded all five trimmed videos relatively quickly. Past versions of the uploader have at times been buggy, so having this version of the uploader work so well was pleasant.

The Quik app works well for starting and stopping the camera, changing modes, and so on. This makes control of the camera from inside a car very easy.

After receiving the video Mapillary parses it, extracting selected frames and posting them on the Mapillary website. This process was surprisingly quick, with the photos appearing the next day. This was a real surprise given that in the past still photographs collected with one of my smartphones running the Mapillary app took several days to be processed and posted. The software appears to remove duplicate frames so stopping at stop signs does not result in several extra frames of the same scene (that is not true if you take still photos, however). This has been a problem with some versions of the Mapillary app, which abandoned distance-based interval setting in favor of time-based, and continued to collect imagery when a vehicle stopped at stop signs and stop lights.

Following the video experiments I set the camera to collect still photos and cruised Annandale. At 25 mph (40 kph) the 2-second interval (the briefest interval available) was brief enough to collect imagery that nearly always overlapped enough to capture information of interest to an OSM mapper. I suspect that moving any faster than that would leave out useful information in still-photo mode. I noticed no difference in image quality between video and still photos. Imagery is generally sufficient to identify business occupancies, though making out house numbers is hit or miss, and signs farther than about 30 feet (9 meters) from the camera have to have really large letters to be made out.

Cons:

GoPro and Microsoft Store have conspired to install GoPro Player in a subfolder located in the WindowsApps folder. Access to that folder requires administrator privileges, which means that after you install Player it will not run. You click on the icon, the Critical Stop beep sounds, and the user interface fails to appear. Checking Task Manager reveals that the program is running, sort of, but its functions are not accessible to the user. I emailed GoPro Support, which replied with a series of questions, one of which was whether I had tried launching the program as the administrator. That had not occurred to me so I tried it and Player launched. Obviously, running routine programs as the administrator is a less than optimal solution and should be corrected. GoPro and Microsoft Store should arrange for the installation program to install Player in ..\Program Files\GoPro or someplace similar that does not require administrator privileges to launch (most polite program installers ask the user where the program should be installed–this one does not). GoPro’s help desk simply said it follows Microsoft policy on software downloaded from the Microsoft Store and claimed that the program should launch without administrator privileges.

In reviewing the 360-degree photos in OpenStreetMap using the iD editor, while the photos were there and easily manipulated to pan in any direction, anything farther away than about thirty feet (9 meters) was blurry enough that unless the letters were really big the signs were not legible. I noted when comparing these images with imagery collected with my RealMe model RMX3241 smart phone’s 48 megapixel camera that the RealMe’s images are only a hair clearer and thus only slightly more legible. The tradeoff is of course that a 360-degree view allows you place POIs much more precisely and with zero guesswork. This means the Max2 needs to be driven as closely as possible to storefronts and such if you want to collect as much information as possible.

Editing using Quik on the smartphone is nearly impossible and a waste of time. Also, if you download a 360-degree video to the smartphone it both occupies an inordinate amount of space and cannot be easily found in the file system. Quik is useful for remotely controlling the phone and that’s about all.

Battery life when collecting imagery is about two hours, and the kit came with two batteries, so imagery collection is limited to battery life. There is no separate charger included–you charge the battery by connecting a USB cable to a charging port inside the battery door. A separate battery charger, which comes with two spare batteries, costs $79.99 plus shipping and taxes from GoPro. This means your imagery collection during long trips, as I have done at various times, such as collecting imagery on US Route 50 in West Virginia will be limited to battery life times however many batteries you’ve invested in. By contrast, my dash-mounted RealMe smart phone running the Mapillary app can run indefinitely by plugging into a power socket in the car, though it only collects whatever the single lens can see.

Where to see the imagery:

https://www.mapillary.com/app/user/apmwa?lat=38.87252489173562&lng=-77.15295395359306&z=17&pKey=1374712051462422&x=0.2523889213771153&y=0.49999999999999983&zoom=0

https://www.mapillary.com/app/user/apmwa?lat=38.87073799866701&lng=-77.16677960139998&z=17&pKey=2556032581515703&x=0.7973914264299434&y=0.5&zoom=0

https://www.mapillary.com/app/user/apmwa?lat=38.87095690394227&lng=-77.16453690990403&z=17&pKey=1055544633695914&x=0.18044404021753957&y=0.49999999999999983&zoom=0

https://www.mapillary.com/app/user/apmwa?lat=38.873351146668114&lng=-77.1461389073852&z=17&pKey=1404069464992751&x=0.15606263554401384&y=0.47321936185741825&zoom=0

https://www.mapillary.com/app/user/apmwa?lat=38.865436500000015&lng=-77.19527499999998&z=17&pKey=1900402680923668&x=0.36095465234470736&y=0.5000000000000001&zoom=0

https://www.mapillary.com/app/user/apmwa?lat=38.83504210000001&lng=-77.18747680000001&z=18.327593300918466&pKey=2116999718896607&x=0.3076318708877394&y=0.5263241838228742&zoom=0&focus=photo

Bottom line:

For short (under two to four hours) imagery collection expeditions, the GoPro Max2 is a solid collector of street-level imagery, and it makes consulting Mapillary images in iD much more powerful thanks to the 360-degree view. I’m using it to improve OSM in Northern Virginia. Image quality is acceptable. For long drives I will probably stick to the RealMe on long stretches, but put the Max2 on the roof for collecting POIs in towns where we overnight.

from marathon to speedway

I build bike + train loops in France by crossing OpenStreetMap with the official cycling-route reference (ONV / Réseau vélo et marche). Two points I’d value the community’s view on: at which level the identity (ref) of a multi-level superroute should live, and whether the emerging ref:FR:RVM tag (which carries the ONV id and gives an exact OSM↔ONV join key) is worth spreading. Full write-up (FR): https://tisseurdevoies.fr/articles/openstreetmap-veloroutes-retour-experience

Je fais du vélo, j’aime rentrer en train, et j’ai fini par construire un outil qui repère les boucles réalisables entre deux gares. Pour ça, je croise les véloroutes d’OpenStreetMap avec le référentiel officiel des véloroutes françaises, l’ONV (Réseau vélo et marche). J’ai écrit un retour d’expérience complet (choix du référentiel, fusion des deux sources, reconstruction de l’ordre) : https://tisseurdevoies.fr/articles/openstreetmap-veloroutes-retour-experience. Je voulais soumettre ici les deux points où votre avis m’aiderait le plus.

1. À quel niveau vit l’identité d’un itinéraire ?

Les grandes véloroutes sont souvent modélisées en superroute sur plusieurs niveaux. La Route des Grandes Alpes, par exemple, a une racine type=superroute qui porte ref=VRGA, puis un « tracé principal » et des « variantes », puis les étapes. C’est une belle structure, mais un consommateur qui ne lit que les relations type=route feuilles passe à côté de l’identité portée par la racine. Sur la quarantaine de superroutes vélo que j’ai croisées, le ref se trouve tantôt sur la racine, tantôt sur les feuilles, tantôt nulle part. Y a-t-il une recommandation, ou un usage qui se dégage, sur le niveau où placer le ref ? (Détail : https://tisseurdevoies.fr/articles/openstreetmap-veloroutes-retour-experience#questions-ouvertes.)

2. ref:FR:RVM : une clé de jointure OSM ↔ ONV ?

Croiser OSM et l’ONV par identifiant ne marche pas directement : le numero de l’ONV et le ref d’OSM ne coïncident que dans environ un cas sur quatre. Mais j’ai vu émerger le tag ref:FR:RVM, qui encode l’id_iti de l’ONV. Là où il est présent, il pointe exactement vers le bon itinéraire, la clé de jointure qui manque partout ailleurs. Il reste rare (moins de 1 % des véloroutes que j’ai croisées). Est-ce un usage que d’autres suivent, ou qu’une reco pourrait encourager ? (Détail : https://tisseurdevoies.fr/articles/openstreetmap-veloroutes-retour-experience#axe-2.)

Le reste du retour d’expérience (dédoublonnage et pontage entre OSM et l’ONV, reconstruction d’un ordre de parcours à partir d’une relation qui est un réseau plus qu’une ligne, cas des bacs et traversiers) est dans l’article. Je prends volontiers les contre-exemples et les corrections.

Nicolas

Today I finished mapping all the homes in the Stonebrae Country Club, a gated community surrounding a golf course at the top of the loop where Fairview Avenue becomes Hayward Avenue. In 2010 I worked as a NARFU Census taker and had to note down which addresses were inhabitable because they hadn’t been built yet. Now all that land with just paved streets are homes. Many of my children’s friends live there as they attended the elementary school across the street from the outer bounds of the neighborhood.

Next step is to start my way down Hayward Avenue and eventually into the heart of the city.

30/07/2026-05/08/2026

Mapping campaigns

• Uber has proposed, on the OSM Community forum, an organised editing activity to improve pedestrian mapping in 21 countries. Various mappers criticise it due to a lack of details and because Uber has a poor track record in the UK.

Community

• Rphyrin made an Overpass Ultra script for viewing image=* tags in OpenStreetMap.
• MideaFind has used OpenStreetMap data to collect the locations of stores that might sell portable air conditioners.
• Andrea Grandi explained why Book Corners won’t sync contributions back to OpenStreetMap. Pieter Vander Vennet responded in his blog.

Imports

• Oscar Car Rental announced ► that they are planning an organised editing activity to add their 93 missing car rental locations in Germany, along with performing some data maintenance.

OSM research

• Marni Davis documented Atlanta’s immigrant population in the late 19th century, visualising their neighbourhoods on an OpenHistoricalMap basemap.

Maps

• ^[1] Victor Rotariu and his team are developing a live urban heat map that estimates street-level thermal conditions at a resolution of roughly 25 metres. This data will power a new ‘Cool’ routing mode. Rather than selecting only the fastest or shortest cycling route, Cool mode will identify the route with the lowest estimated heat exposure. The goal is simple: help cyclists avoid the hottest streets, enjoy a more comfortable ride, and arrive at their destination with less sweat on hot summer days.

OSM in action

• A 23-year-old student developer from South Korea has created a navigation app for finding shade covered areas, which has shot to the top of the App Store’s navigation apps. The app uses OpenStreetMap data to plot routes.

Software

• HeiGIT presented their latest update on the roadmap toward the new ohsome API 2.0, outlining the next steps in the evolution of the ohsome platform for analysing OpenStreetMap data. The update introduced planned developments, improvements, and future directions aimed at creating a more flexible, efficient, and sustainable API for OSM history data analytics.

Releases

• The CoMaps team published release 2026.07.16, which is now available via Codeberg, F-Droid, Google Play, and the iOS AppStore. This version adds a preview of turn-by-turn directions when creating a route, adds lane guidance and improved next turn descriptions for iOS/CarPlay, per-transport-mode routing options, support for more OSM tags, and many further bug fixes and improvements.
• Organic Maps July 2026 has been released, bringing a collection of bug fixes and general improvements.
• A note for mappers resolving notes: Organic Maps version 2026.07.15 has fixed a long-standing issue, where notes left inside large forest polygons and road lines would always move to the centre of the object. Notes are now added at the user’s click location.
• Tina announced that OsmAnd Astronomy, currently available in the OsmAnd Android 5.4 beta (on paid plans Maps+ and OsmAnd Pro), now includes tools for exploring solar and lunar events. Users can move through a timeline to preview upcoming astronomical events, check eclipse visibility from any location on Earth, and watch exactly how each solar or lunar eclipse will unfold before it actually occurs.
• HeiGIT reported the release of Ohsome-Planet version of 1.3.1, codename ‘Baarle-Hertog‘. This tool is designed to facilitate the transformation of raw OpenStreetMap history data into the geoParquet format, making it more accessible for spatial data analysis.

Did you know that …

• … the OSM Apps Catalog allows you to browse a list of thousands of various map apps?

OSM in the media

• BRUZZ, a local newspaper in Brussels, commented ► on the rise in recent years of private swimming pools in residential neighbourhoods. They praised OSM volunteers for having mapped them and showed maps with their locations.
• Heise’s c’t Open Source Spotlight newsletter reported ► on CoMaps and interviewed OSM community member Bastian Greshake Tzovaras about CoMaps, OSM and free software in general.

Other “geo” things

• Google had integrated its AI image generator ‘Nano Banana 2’ into Google Earth. They removed it two days later after people started abusing it, as the BBC reported.
• The Times of India explained how Polynesian navigators crossed the Pacific Ocean by reading the stars, ocean swells, winds, birds, and clouds to find their way.
• In response to the recent news about Moroccan migrants crossing into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, OpenCage reshared their previously published geo-trivia posts about Spain and Morocco.

Upcoming Events

Country	Where	Venue	What	When
		Online	Racha Mapping Party	2026-07-27 – 2026-08-09
	नई दिल्ली	Jitsi Meet (online)	OSM’s 22nd Birthday × OSM India Monthly Online Mapathon	2026-08-08 – 2026-08-09
	臺北市	國立臺灣科技大學研揚大樓412-1教室	COSCUP 2026 State of the Map Taiwan 2026 / Wikidata Community Summit 2026	2026-08-09
	New Delhi	Indian Coffee House, Connaught Place	OSM’s 22nd Birthday × OSM Delhi Mapping Party No.30	2026-08-09
	大阪市	11F, Urban Net Midosuji Building, 4-2-13 Awajicho	OpenStreetMap関西カンファレンス2026 / OSM Kansai Conference 2026	2026-08-09
	København	Cafe Bevar’s	OSMmapperCPH	2026-08-09
	臺北市	MozSpace Taipei	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata Taipei #91	2026-08-10
	Zürich	Bitwäscherei Zürich	190. OSM-Stammtisch Zürich	2026-08-11
	Hamburg	Voraussichtlich: “Variable”, Karolinenstraße 23	Hamburger Mappertreffen	2026-08-11
		temporärhaus	OSM-Stammtisch Ulm/Neu-Ulm	2026-08-11
			Missing Maps Online Mapathon von Ärzte ohne Grenzen	2026-08-12
	München	Echardinger Einkehr	Münchner OSM-Treffen	2026-08-12
			UN Mappers Mappy Hour	2026-08-13
		Hochschule Rhein-Sieg	OSM auf der FrOSCon 2026 in Sankt Augustin	2026-08-15 – 2026-08-16
	Hannover	Hannover Congress Centrum	OSM auf der Maker Faire Hannover 2026	2026-08-15 – 2026-08-16
		Stadt- und Waagenmuseum Oschatz	Kartenwerkstatt Oschatz	2026-08-16
	Magdeburg	Netz39 e.V. , Leibnizstraße 32, 39104 Magdeburg	3. OSM Stammtisch Magdeburg	2026-08-18
			Missing Maps London Mid-Month for Advanced Mappers (no training provided) (Online) [eng]	2026-08-18
	Chemnitz	Kaffeesatz, Chemnitz	OSM-Stammtisch Chemnitz	2026-08-18
	Bonn	Dotty’s	203. OSM-Stammtisch Bonn	2026-08-18
	Derby	The Brunswick, Railway Terrace, Derby	East Midlands pub meet-up	2026-08-18
		Online	Lüneburger Mappertreffen (online)	2026-08-18
	Karlsruhe	Vogelbräu Karlsruhe	Stammtisch Karlsruhe	2026-08-19
	Amsterdam	TomTom HQ	Maptime Amsterdam: 2026 Summertime Maptime	2026-08-20
	Potsdam	MachBar	Potsdamer Mappertreffen	2026-08-21
	Stadtgebiet Bremen	Online und im Hackerspace Bremen	Bremer Mappertreffen	2026-08-24

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 HeiGIT, MatthiasMatthias, Nakaner, Raquel Dezidério Souto, Strubbl, Andrew Davidson, TrickyFoxy, barefootstache, derFred.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

Tourism and Digital Mapping: Research Digital

Google Maps Location

Image by Seli Kasela - Google Maps Location

Open in Google Maps

SELI KASELA DIGITAL CREATIVE STUDIO

Jalan Pantai Balangan No.85
Jimbaran, Kec. Kuta Selatan
Kabupaten Badung, Bali 80361
Indonesia

Open SELI KASELA I in Google Maps

Digital Mapping and Tourism

This entry documents my personal work exploring the relationship between tourism, digital mapping, geographic information, and local destination discovery.

The location featured here is OSSY SURF TRIP BALI in the Balangan area of South Kuta, Badung, Bali, Indonesia.

Mapping Perspective

Digital maps are an important part of modern tourism. Travelers use geographic information to discover:

• Surf schools
• Beaches
• Hotels and accommodation
• Restaurants
• Local businesses
• Attractions
• Roads and transportation
• Points of interest

My interest is in documenting how local tourism places are represented within the wider digital mapping ecosystem.

OpenStreetMap and Local Knowledge

OpenStreetMap provides a collaborative environment for geographic information and community mapping.

This diary entry is part of my personal documentation of tourism, digital mapping, geographic information, and destination discovery.

Location Reference

Place: OSSY SURF TRIP BALI
Area: Balangan, South Kuta, Badung, Bali
Country: Indonesia
Topic: Tourism and Digital Mapping
Purpose: Personal work documentation

Open location in Google Maps

MY LOCATION BUILD OWN INDEPENDENT

Looking 4 surrounding Flock action

I have already forgotten how I first came across StreetComplete, but what I do remember is that I immediately fell in love with the concept of the app.

I like wandering around and exploring. When travelling, the things that attract me the most are actually very “normal”. Maybe there is a neighbourhood, maybe a lovely park, maybe a path along the river… I just follow the direction of the road and take a turn at a junction if I feel like it.

I don’t know. I just really don’t like those crowded and buzzing tourist attractions. On the contrary, it is in the nooks and crannies of everyday life that I can feel the vibe of a neighbourhood, a town, or a city.

This convenience store has some good samosas. This small community park offers the best shade during the scorching summer. This path along the canal has ducks and geese to guide your walk…

From these small and seemingly negligible things, I feel a city comes alive.

And that’s why StreetComplete is my best travel companion. It pulls up a bunch of quests for me to explore. The surface of the pavement, the sound signal at a crossing, the bin at a bus stop, the name of a store… It simply guides me to dive deeper into an area, and I can explore while completing the quests along the way.

Gamification is a good way to encourage contributions to OSM, but for me, StreetComplete is far more than just a game. It lets me immerse myself into a city and teaches me how to look at it from a new perspective.

Is You Now We Started Adding A Lot Of New Stuff And Changes To R 8 Side And R 16 Side. R 8 Side Will Be Done At Aug 29th And R 16 Side Will Be Done On Last Day Of Sep.

··· I didn’t start contributing to OSM because of any grand philosophy or ideology. I simply began editing because I needed to. But as I became more involved, I learned more about what I believed OSM stood for—openness, decentralization, freedom to collaborate, and a community built around shared stewardship rather than commercial ownership. At least, that was how I came to understand OSM.

That understanding was what motivated me to continue contributing. I chose to spend my time improving OSM instead of Google Maps or the dominant commercial map used in my country. I even spent time studying OSM’s principles and community practices because I wanted to contribute in a way that respected those values.

If utility had been my only motivation, I probably wouldn’t have contributed to OSM at all. In the region where I live, almost nobody actually uses OSM. From a purely practical perspective, my efforts have very little visible impact. Yet I kept contributing because I believed OSM represented something fundamentally different from commercial mapping platforms. That belief—not efficiency or popularity—was what made my contributions meaningful.

For that reason, I don’t believe corporate participation is inherently a problem. OSM is open to everyone, and companies should absolutely be free to use the data and contribute to improving it.

My concern is not that companies participate. My concern is whether, over time, the priorities of the project could gradually shift toward the interests of organizations that naturally have business objectives and far greater resources than individual volunteers. Simply saying that “companies are part of the community” doesn’t fully address that concern. To me, the more important question is not whether companies belong here, but how the community ensures that the values and priorities shaped by volunteers remain just as influential as corporate interests.

Perhaps this is the source of my confusion.

If embracing greater corporate participation is a natural direction for OSM, then what is the unique value that continues to distinguish OSM? I don’t believe OSM’s identity has ever been about being anti-business or anti-capitalist. Rather, I believed it was about remaining independent of any single commercial interest, and about building a project where individuals could participate on equal footing in a genuinely open community.

So I would genuinely like to ask those who have been part of this community much longer than I have:

As corporate participation continues to grow, what do you believe will continue to make OSM fundamentally different from commercial mapping platforms? And what principles or safeguards do you think are important to ensure that corporate participation strengthens the project without gradually redefining its priorities?

*** This comment was written in response to the article, “Who Really Owns OpenStreetMap? A Personal Concern About Big Tech in OSM”. If contributing to OSM is ultimately no different from contributing to a commercial map service, then I see little motivation to invest my time and effort in contributing to OSM, given that it provides so little practical benefit to me or to the people around me.

Mapping

Over the past year, our OpenStreetMap Pakistan community has been actively working to map high-risk flood zones across the country—both areas historically affected by extreme flooding and regions facing critical vulnerability during upcoming monsoon seasons.

Shifting from Reactive Response to Proactive Preparedness

During last year’s monsoon floods, our mapping response began after the disaster had already struck. While those post-disaster edits were vital for ongoing emergency response, we recognised the need to get ahead of the curve.

This year, we shifted our strategy completely: we initiated pre-disaster mapping well before the monsoon season arrived.

By leveraging flood projections and high-risk zone data from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and prominent emergency monitoring sources, we identified priority regions across Pakistan. We began our efforts by focusing heavily on areas categorised as the highest risk of severe flooding, ensuring that digital infrastructure is in place before rising waters cut off communities.

Community Coordination & HOT Tasking Manager

Together with two fellow community members, I took charge of creating, organizing, and managing dedicated projects on the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) Tasking Manager.

To drive contributions and sustain momentum, we have been organising community mapping parties and mapathons. Local mappers and volunteers across Pakistan came together to trace the following:

*Missing road networks and bridge connections

*Remote village footprints and building clusters

*Key natural landmarks and waterways

These precise layers are already empowering ground rescue teams, military logistics, and international aid agencies to plan evacuation routes, calculate population exposure, and navigate flood-affected corridors.

Global Recognition

Our community’s proactive mapping drive was recently highlighted in a feature article by the UK newspaper Oxford Herald:

📰 Read the full feature: [Mapping for Rescue: How Volunteer Maps Are Saving Lives in Pakistan’s Flood Zones] (https://oxfordherald.co.uk/mapping-for-rescue-how-volunteer-maps-are-saving-lives-in-pakistans-flood-zones)

Looking Ahead: The Work Continues

Because the monsoon season in Pakistan typically extends through the end of August, our work is far from finished. We are currently actively editing, validating, and managing existing tasks while preparing to launch new projects on the Tasking Manager as updated satellite imagery and risk models become available.

A massive thank you to all team members at Kaart & the mappers, validators, and community members who have dedicated their time to this effort!

If you would like to contribute or help validate ongoing tasks, keep an eye on our project listings on the HOT Tasking Manager or reach out directly to the OSM Pakistan community

This afternoon, I noticed that several of my colleagues were visiting a recently opened school in the far south.

They took several photos, which is quite a rarity on the internet, since not many people actually go there and upload pictures of the newly built buildings.

I wanted to upload those photos, hoping they might be useful for anyone trying to find information about the place.

Then I remembered that OpenStreetMap has this image=* tag.

I could associate an image with the place by adding an image URL there. So I opened Vespucci on my Android phone and added the image URL to the object.

Now I’m back at my PC, and I wanted to make a simple app (or maybe just a script) to browse every image=* tag that exists in OpenStreetMap.

At first, I thought of doing it the usual way : build a Leaflet web map, query the Overpass API, then display the images in popups.

But then I remembered that the Overpass API has recently been under heavy load.

From what I’ve heard, it’s because of a barrage of AI scrapers… or maybe just a flood of quick-and-dirty, vibe-coded OSM apps being produced en masse.

Whatever the exact reason, it has noticeably affected the service.

Knowing that, I was discouraged from making the situation any worse. So I scrapped that idea.

Then I remembered something else:

Overpass Ultra.

I don’t know exactly how it works internally, but I assume it uses a different Overpass API endpoint than the ones I would normally query directly.

If that’s the case, perhaps using Ultra wouldn’t add to the current strain on the public Overpass servers.

I also realized that Overpass Ultra’s advanced styling syntax lets me solve the whole problem directly within the query itself, without having to build my own Leaflet-based web app.

So here it is: a quickly put-together Ultra query that displays every OpenStreetMap object containing an image=* tag and shows the referenced image in a simple popup.

---
title: OSM image popup
description: Show only the object name and its image.
popupTemplate: >
  <h2>
    {% if tags.name %}
      {{ tags.name }}
    {% else %}
      {{ type }} {{ id }}
    {% endif %}
  </h2>

  {% if tags.image %}
    <img src="{{ tags.image }}" style="max-width:400px;max-height:300px;">
  {% endif %}
---

[bbox:{{bbox}}];

nwr["image"];

out geom;

Problem solved. My curiosity is satisfied, and I hope this little project won’t contribute to the worsening of the current Overpass API situation.

I’m on my mobile phone, and l find it the most useful tool. If l must work on OSM from the laptop, l’d have to do it offline. For that, l’d have to download the josm offline map, after locating the coordinates.

05/08/’26 01:18

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On a silver post on the NE corner of Hwy 64 and 285

Life in a multi-million population City can be tough on Introverted minds. For me, mapping in OpenStreetMap is first and foremost an activity to improve publicly accessible geodata around my local and known places, though it has also recently become a way for me to virtually travel to far away places. Exploring remote corners of the earth that are not quite as bustling with activity, where not every square-meter has already been meticulously mapped to the nth degree. Theres even a subreddit for this kind of exploration: /r/GoogleEarthFinds !

Zooming in on a random patch of rainforest, a tiny island in the pacific or one of the thousands of meandering arms off the Amazonas shows a mostly untouched view of nature. Panning around looking for interesting landmarks, it only takes a few minutes to stumble upon a secluded village whose roads are not even connected to the world-wide network, or a lonely farm in the middle of nowhere. These are the places that fascinate me the most. I get lost in imagining what life is like there, who lives there, what untold stories do these places hold? While daydreaming of this, i map the buildings I see, paths and roads, things that can safely be confirmed from aerial imagery. Switching to different imagery providers can show how these places evolved, has the village grown or shrunk? Have Roads been extended or left to be reclaimed by mother nature? A handy website for viewing satellite imagery with different timestamps is https://livingatlas.arcgis.com/wayback

Usually I just zoom into random places and see where it takes me. With the power of Overpass Turbo, one can find places in a slightly organized fashion. Below is a prompt which shows islands that have residential areas on them, within the current view of the map:

[out:json][timeout:25];
(
nwr["place"="island"]({{bbox}});
  );

nwr["landuse"="residential"]({{bbox}});

// print results
out geom;

Or simply highlighting villages in the current map view:

[out:json][timeout:25];
(
nwr["place"="village"]({{bbox}});
  );

// print results
out geom;

August comes with two alarms on the calendar. On August 12, a total solar eclipse sweeps from the Arctic across Greenland and Iceland, reaching northern Spain and the Balearic Islands just before sunset — the first total solar eclipse visible from mainland Europe since 1999. Sixteen days later, on August 28, a deep partial lunar eclipse covers 96% of the Moon's surface, making it nearly indistinguishable from a total eclipse for anyone watching from the Americas.

Two rare events in the same month. And both of them unusual in their own way. The solar eclipse arcs up and over the North Pole, which means its path runs north-to-south rather than the typical west-to-east sweep. In Spain, the Sun will sit only a few degrees above the horizon during totality — turning the eclipse into something closer to a golden-hour phenomenon than a midday event. The lunar eclipse, meanwhile, stops just short of totality: at its peak, a narrow bright sliver of the Moon remains uncovered, leaving the rest darkened and faintly reddish.

OsmAnd Astronomy now includes (Android only, currently available in OsmAnd 5.4 beta via Google Play or as a nightly build) dedicated explorers for both events. You can move through the timeline, check visibility for any location on the planet, and see exactly how each eclipse develops — before either of them actually happens.

Animation: A.T. Sinclair / NASA — Public Domain

Solar Eclipse Explorer​

Open the Star Map and tap Search. Among the standard categories — Solar system, Constellations, Stars — you'll now see two new entries: Solar eclipse and Lunar eclipse. Tap Solar eclipse to open the explorer.

The screen switches to a dark view centred on the Sun, with the Moon's disc moving across it. Below, a card shows the current eclipse: its type, the percentage of the Sun obscured, the Sun's altitude at the selected location, and the exact start, maximum, and end times. A timeline slider lets you move through the event minute by minute and watch how the geometry changes.

Tap Show map to open the flat map below the card. The eclipse shadow appears as a path across the planet — a narrow band of totality with the penumbra spreading outward on both sides. Use Fit eclipse path to zoom to the full shadow on the map, or drag the map to any location to recalculate visibility for that point. The card updates instantly: move to Iceland and it shows totality, move to London and it switches to partial with a different obscuration value.

To switch between eclipses, use the arrows on either side of the eclipse title — Previous and Next — to jump to other solar eclipses and explore their paths across different parts of the world.

Lunar Eclipse Explorer​

Tap Lunar eclipse in Search to open the second explorer. The interface works the same way — timeline, location-based card, map layer — but the event itself looks different.

Instead of a shadow crossing the planet, you're watching the Moon move through Earth's own shadow. The explorer renders both zones: the faint outer penumbra and the darker umbra at the centre. Three eclipse types are supported — penumbral, partial, and total — and the timeline marks the contact points P1 through P4, showing exactly when the Moon crosses each boundary.

What's unique here is the visibility layer. Unlike a solar eclipse, which is visible only along a narrow path, a lunar eclipse is visible from the entire night side of Earth at once. Tap Show map and the tinted region shows everywhere the Moon is above the horizon during the event — often half the planet. Drag the map or move the slider to see how that region shifts as the night progresses.

Plan Your Eclipse Observation​

In 1504, Christopher Columbus, stranded in Jamaica and facing starvation, consulted an almanac and discovered a total lunar eclipse was coming. He used that knowledge to convince the local people that his god was angry — and when the Moon darkened on schedule, it saved his crew. He had no telescope, no app, and no map. Just a book of predictions and the right timing.

The tools look different now. Before any eclipse, open OsmAnd Astronomy, tap Solar eclipse or Lunar eclipse in Search, and check exactly what you'll see from your location. Move the map, and the card updates instantly — partial or total, obscuration percentage, Sun or Moon altitude, start and end times. Everything Columbus had to calculate by hand, resolved in a single tap.

Use the arrows on the eclipse card to move forward in time — past August, past this year, to any upcoming event. Some eclipses are total, some barely graze the penumbra, some are only visible from the middle of the Pacific. The explorer shows all of them, with the same level of detail for each. If you're planning a trip somewhere and want to know whether an eclipse lines up with your itinerary — or whether you should adjust the itinerary to line up with the eclipse — this is where you find out. Sometimes the sky makes the decision for you.

Don't Have the Astronomy Plugin Yet?​

The sky has two rare events planned for August. As it turns out, so does OsmAnd.

The Astronomy plugin — which includes everything covered in this article — is available with Maps+ and OsmAnd Pro. Until August 5, both are part of the Summer Sale. If you've been on the fence, the timing is hard to ignore. See what's on offer!

August 2–8

August 2

• Fixed Reynoldsburg borders; borders now up-to-date as of most recent annexation on May 24, 2026.
• Updated Reynoldsburg population; increased to 43,350 according to U.S. Census Bureau.
• Added intermittent stream called Little Jordan Run.
• Modified Jackson Avenue; changed “one way” value to “no” and added note that signage by the Street Department is incorrect. Correct name is Jackson Avenue not Jackson Street.
• Modifed Burkey Avenue; changed “one way” value to “no” and added note that signage by the Street Department is incorrect. Correct name is Burkey Avenue, not Burkey Drive.
• Modified Burkey Court; switches from Burkey Avenue to Burkey Court at the intersection with Southwood Avenue, not in the middle of the road.
• Fixed name of Taylor Park Drive (originally shown as just “Taylor Park”).
• Fixed differentiation between Taylor Road and Taylor Road Southwest.
• Added info to Raider Stadium (Reynoldsburg High School football stadium).
• Removed Smokey Bones brand from building at 2200 Baltimore-Reynoldsburg Road (closed permanently after bankruptcy).
• Added info to Reynoldsburg High School’s Livingston Campus.

August 3

• Fixed name of Taylor Road.
• Added 5 ponds near Lakeland Hills neighborhood.

August 5

• Added name of TS Tech Drive as indicated by street signs in the area.
• Added name to the remaining portion of Wilma Drive.

August 9–15

August 9

• Removed nonexistent Truro Township enclave inside Reynoldsburg around Blacklick Creek.

23/07/2026-29/07/2026

Mapping

• ^[1] Les Libres Géographes has shared a methodology called OSM Skeleton, which aims to reduce the heterogeneity of OpenStreetMap data to create a coherent and locally maintainable common dataset of geographic references. The approach systematically identifies, on a national scale, missing, incomplete, inaccurate, or obsolete features among those considered fundamental: place nodes, road network, and residential areas. It uses a hybrid feature called ‘urban areas’ for analytical purposes. In particular, it generates WMS layers of alerts, instruction pages for easily correcting them in JOSM or iD, tracking statistics, and also a score for the density of POIs in towns. Séverin Ménard will present it at the upcoming SotM in Paris.

Community

• ASRvwde shared a collection of various mapping tools that support OSM mapping activities.
• Calvin Amevienku, YouthMappers Regional Ambassador to Ghana, has coordinated his first end-of-year mapathon under his working plan for 2026. The initiative organised training for 25 YouthMappers on how to use JOSM and the HOT Tasking Manager. The activity was sponsored by the IVIDES DATA, from Brazil, and the organisers hope the next steps will help improve the mapping skills of the YouthMappers chapter at the University of Education – Winneba.
• Nile_thebest explained that his passion for mapping on OpenStreetMap has never really faded since he first registered more than 11 months ago.
• Christoph Hormann has written a blog post responding to a OSM Community forum discussion about the OSMF’s AI and chatbot policy, under which moderators may delete AI-generated text or images and have been advised to use the Pangram detection tool. He argues the controversy stems from combining moderator authority with technocratic platform management, leaving forum participants without the tools or experience to manage their own social interactions. Drawing on Usenet-era killfiles, he suggests LLM use by human participants would be less contentious if users could individually filter content rather than have it collectively regulated. He concludes that the dispute reflects an unconsidered attempt to centrally control what people write and read, instead of giving them individual freedom to manage it themselves.
• Rphyrin pondered the ethics of conducting large-scale mapathon campaigns after learning that, in a certain neighbourhood, the locals deliberately preferred to make internal navigation difficult for outsiders to increase the security of the neighbourhood’s residents.

Local chapter news

• OpenStreetMap US’s July 2026 newsletter has been published.

Events

• OSM US tooted that the SOTMUS 2026 videos are available on its YouTube channel. There are almost 60 videos available in the playlist.

OSM research

• Robert Klar and David Gundlegård applied machine learning to predict zonal travel demand using OSM-derived built environment features, including land use, points of interest, and road network attributes, combined with population estimates from WorldPop, in two case study cities: Stockholm and Norrköping. Their research shows that OSM features, particularly those related to residential land use, buildings, and POIs (e.g. companies, healthcare facilities, and public transportation), are strong predictors of zonal travel demand.

Maps

• EclipseMap is an interactive map by Alessio Zanol that allows users to explore the visibility of the solar eclipse on 12 August across Europe. The map shows whether the solar eclipse will be total or partial at a selected location. The app uses OpenStreetMap-based vector tiles from OpenFreeMap as its base map.
• The Agroecology Map is an interactive web map based on OpenStreetMap, maintained by Marcelo S Souza and Eduardo F Formighieri, which showcases agroecological initiatives, as well as records of places and practices. It is intended to promote the sharing of open knowledge and strengthen collaborative networks across different regions. The source is available on Codeberg.
• The Flosm Power Grid is a web map showing the global infrastructure of electricity grids, from high to low voltage, with substations and power plants, all based on OSM data. The elements can be visualised individually via a fold-out selection bar to the left of the map. It is maintained by 123map GmbH & Co.KG and hosted at 123map.de. You can see the set of tags used by this project on taginfo.

OSM in action

• Equidistance.io has analysed OpenStreetMap data and declared The Greene Man on Euston Road to be London’s most equidistant pub. Based on public transport journeys from where residents of all 33 London boroughs actually live, no borough requires more than 70 minutes to reach the pub, with a travel time difference of just 47 minutes between the nearest and furthest boroughs.
• Following Czechia, #geoweirdness turned its attention to proposed national mergers, such as ‘Pan-Iberism’ between Spain and Portugal. Today, the idea has lost momentum since both countries are now part of the EU.
• Denjam used OpenStreetMap data to answer the question: ‘What proportion of beauty salons in a particular city allow customers to book online without having to ring first’?

Software

• The openstreetmap-website project celebrated 20 years since the first commit with some old screenshots of a very different era.
• Soon, when uploading a GPX trace to OSM, you will no longer be able to choose some of the visibility levels, as the website development team is working to simplify and improve the GPX trace management system.
• OSM2CDR is a web service that exports OpenStreetMap data for any drawn area or administrative boundary into 62+ formats aimed at non-GIS users, CorelDRAW CDR, AutoCAD DWG/DXF, SVG, STL for 3D printing, and dozens of other formats, keeping map layers editable and clipping exports to administrative boundaries. The catalogue offers about 2.9 million ready to use admin areas in 193 countries. There is also a blog with rich content. The ODbL attribution is embedded in every export.
• OWL Places can now work in reverse: adding OpenStreetMap links to Wikidata.

Programming

• Juno Computers have developed Car Navigation, a navigation app for Linux systems. It uses OpenStreetMap data and services for place search and route planning, including Photon, Nominatim, OSRM, and Valhalla.
• Andy Townsend has updated his diary entry describing how to set up an Overpass API server, covering data for Britain and Ireland only (we reported earlier). The guide is a response to the ongoing overload of public Overpass servers and uses an actively maintained forked version of the Overpass software. The guide walks you through server setup on Hetzner cloud hardware, Apache configuration, compilation, and loading data from a Geofabrik extract. The post also links to other installation guides, including Brian Sperlongano’s guide and an earlier diary entry by Kai Johnson.
• Milan Janosov shared an urban data science reading list, including a hands-on path from your first OpenStreetMap query to city-scale spatial models.

Releases

• Baba version 1.22.1 for Panoramax contributions from Android has been released.

Did you know that …

• … BeMaps.es? BeMaps is a web-based mapping tool that allows you to create and share maps in three steps: upload data, select a map template, and publish or share with specific recipients. This tool offers pre-prepared data layers for regions around the world. BeMaps was developed by the GEOT (Geography) and IAAA (Information Systems) research groups at the University of Zaragoza, in collaboration with the company Geoslab. As well as a free version, there are paid plans available for educational purposes, non-profit organisations, and standard use.
• … Milan Janosov posted, on Substack, a short guide ‘OpenStreetMap vs Global Building Atlas (GBA) Explained’? It includes Python scripts to extract buildings from OSM and the GBA, a new dataset from the Technical University of Munich covering 2.75 billion buildings worldwide, derived from satellite imagery and deep learning (we reported earlier).

Other “geo” things

• The Digital Encyclopedia of Africa compiles the civilisations, languages, myths, architecture, and living traditions of indigenous communities across the continent. The website has an interactive map and is full of city profiles which are based on open archives (UNESCO, museums, public libraries), alongside premium and scholarly sources for deeper research.
• Arte is showing the video ‘Contre-cartographie: What Google Maps Doesn’t Show You’. Two French artists feature in it: Larissa Fassler and Mathias Poisson. They explain the concept of counter-cartography. This approach challenges our usual relationship with space. It also questions how we normally represent the world. This brings to light issues that would otherwise go unnoticed. The video has subtitles in English, Spanish, Polish, and Italian.
• Werner Pluta, of Heise, reported that researchers from RWTH Aachen, ETH Zurich, and the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia triggered an artificial earthquake with a magnitude just below zero in the Alps as part of an experiment to improve future earthquake prediction.
• While Joël Lapointe, an amateur astronomer, was planning a camping vacation in 2024 he observed a strange 25 km depression near lake Marsal, north of Magpie in Quebec, that looked like a meteor crater in satellite imagery. Alerted geologists explored the site and confirmed the discovery of this previously unidentified 390-million-year-old Uhackatik meteor crater. The name was chosen in consultation with the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit.
• Jnally, of Spatial Source, reported that Andrii Rohovyi recently improved the routing algorithm of OpenTripPlanner. Rohovyi explained their improvement in a preprint, ‘Early Pruning for Public Transport Routing’, available on arXiv.

Upcoming Events

Country	Where	Venue	What	When
		Online	Racha Mapping Party	2026-07-27 – 2026-08-02
			UN Mappers Community Discussion: Community Chapters Initiative	2026-07-31
	Hannover	Endhaltestelle Roderbruch der Stadtbahnlinie 4	Mapping Party	2026-07-31
	Thiruvananthapuram	Kazhakoottam Market bus stop	Mapping Party at Kazhakoottam	2026-08-01
	Uppsala	Datorföreningen Update	Kartträff i Uppsala. Tema Cykelinfrastruktur	2026-08-02
	Salzburg	Bewohnerservice Elisabeth-Vorstadt	OSM-Treffpunkt	2026-08-04
			Missing Maps London Mapathon (with Training) Beginner Friendly (Online) [eng]	2026-08-04
	San Jose	Online	South Bay Map Night	2026-08-04
			iD Community Chat	2026-08-05
	Stuttgart	Biergarten Tschechen & Söhne	Stuttgarter OpenStreetMap-Treffen	2026-08-05
	Angers	L’Arrière Train, 3 rue de Frémur, Angers	Angers Rencontre mensuelle OpenStreetMap	2026-08-06
		Bar Le Schmilblik	Rencontre mensuelle des contributeurs Paris sud	2026-08-06
	臺北市	國立臺灣科技大學研揚大樓412-1教室	COSCUP 2026 State of the Map Taiwan 2026 / Wikidata Community Summit 2026	2026-08-09
	大阪市	11F, Urban Net Midosuji Building, 4-2-13 Awajicho	OpenStreetMap関西カンファレンス2026 / OSM Kansai Conference 2026	2026-08-09
	København	Cafe Bevar’s	OSMmapperCPH	2026-08-09
	New Delhi	North Delhi	OSM Delhi Mapping Party No.31 (North Zone)	2026-08-09
	臺北市	MozSpace Taipei	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata Taipei #91	2026-08-10
	Hamburg	Voraussichtlich: “Variable”, Karolinenstraße 23	Hamburger Mappertreffen	2026-08-11
		temporärhaus	OSM-Stammtisch Ulm/Neu-Ulm	2026-08-11
			Missing Maps Online Mapathon von Ärzte ohne Grenzen	2026-08-12
	München	Echardinger Einkehr	Münchner OSM-Treffen	2026-08-12
			UN Mappers Mappy Hour	2026-08-13
		Hochschule Rhein-Sieg	OSM auf der FrOSCon 2026 in Sankt Augustin	2026-08-15 – 2026-08-16
	Hannover	Hannover Congress Centrum	OSM auf der Maker Faire Hannover 2026	2026-08-15 – 2026-08-16
	नई दिल्ली	Jitsi Meet (online)	OSM India – Monthly Online Mapathon	2026-08-15
		Stadt- und Waagenmuseum Oschatz	Kartenwerkstatt Oschatz	2026-08-16

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 MarcoR, MatthiasMatthias, Minh Nguyen, Raquel Dezidério Souto, SeverinGeo, Strubbl, Andrew Davidson, barefootstache, derFred.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

To-do: Add bus route 42 stops through Highton and Belmont. Will be referring to McHarry’s route map and ensuring match with Transport Victoria resources.