[In continuation of „Sidewalks by length“ blog post.] As requested there, below chart for all of the world. Also chart for the US East coast, where, by their length, a whopping quarter of all of the worlds footway=sidewalk are located. 60% of the whole earth set is in the US alone (excluding Hawaii and Alaska.) As clearly can be seen, in the US this method trumps the other one, of mapping sidewalks as a property of the streets, they are part of.

For the the world outside of the US, the ratio is not as decisive, but rather more on par. Mapping sidewalks as footways seems, to use a highbrow term in the sense it is sanctioned by the Oxford English Dictionary, prevalent in US mapping.

For a popularity contest, the total alone is sufficient to declare a winner. To determine popularity in this contest though, where every voter has an unlimited number of votes, the number of voters is of interest too, and also the distribution in the number of votes spent per voter.

This requires a bit of hand-waving, errm, a little overpass-turbo experiment, first zoom out to all of the world, sorry, that probably will timeout the query, so settle in on the area from Richmond to Boston - https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/12M7

OHSOME counts 20,000 km in cumulated length, overpass returns 160,000 objects by 2,460 users, which might not be too far off (average length 125m). Paste the data in a spreadsheet and do a bit of more hand-waving - 50% of the data was last modified by 1.6% of the users. Not quite a few have spent quite a lot of votes, so to say. Sidewalk mapping seems to be popular with a select few, most prolific individuals. In statistics speak: The mean being ten times the median being six times the mode, it’s a heavily skewed distribution, where practically all of the contributions come from the outliers.

How often are objects with a footway tag modified? Panning around the area, many are at version 1. Panning also reveals, that sidewalk mapping is quite concentrated and vast swaths of urban space have no sidewalks at all, not even ordinary footways alongside of streets. On the other hand, e.g. Boston even has “street” relations, that link sidewalks to streets.

The overpass method is not expected to bring up anything useful, when applied to the other mapping scheme, as the base objects carrying the sidewalk tag are expected to have seen several revisions with the addition of the property not necessarily being latest.

# filter changed
filterFootway = 'type:way and (\
(footway=sidewalk) \
)'

    # additional coordinates used
    "World":             "-180,-60,180,80", # took 1:10 min:s
    "East Coast":        "-83.7,23.9,-66.4,47.4",
    "Upper East Coast":  "-78.49,36.97,-70.11,42.94",
    "Not North America": "-25,-50,180,80|-110.6,-55.7,-29.2,24.5",
    "South America":     "-110.6,-55.7,-29.2,24.5",

I am mapping because I want to map the world better. For a better experience.

better map - better experience

I want to add veryfied information and help every user using OSM or a connected application.

I’m running for reelection to the OpenStreetMap U.S. board of directors.

For those who don’t know me, I’ve been contributing to the OpenStreetMap project as a volunteer since April 2008, mostly as a mapper and an advocate for the project. I love pondering tagging dilemmas and seeding the map with a level of detail that pleasantly surprises users and gets them off the sidelines. (As for my day job, I’m proud that the iOS software I write at Mapbox is powered by OSM data, but I’m my own board member and mapper.)

In my position statement last year, I wrote about the need to build bridges. Since then, OSMUS and the OSMF achieved normalized relations via a local chapter agreement. Without the distraction of local chapter negotiations, we can look forward to partnering with OSMF in forging less obvious relationships that bring more participants into the OSM project.

I had looked forward to meeting many of you at this year’s State of the Map U.S. conference in Tucson. Instead, we responded to the upheaval of 2020 by organizing the Connect conference and continuing a series of Virtual Mappy Hours that ranged from imports to issues of social justice – all at a safe distance online. I hope you found these events to be as worthwhile (and as much of an escape) as I did.

As a board member, I arguably had the least hands-on role in each of these team efforts. My job has been to connect them to the bigger long-term picture. It’s important for me to give our executive director, Maggie, the room to get the implementation details right but also be available for a gut check or proofread as needed.

In 2021, that bigger long-term picture becomes more concrete. Charter programs and our collaborations with non-profits, the public sector, and corporations are evolving OSMUS beyond an organization that merely organizes events. As we give these efforts a chance to blossom, we must also prioritize the health of the existing community. There are still many hurdles keeping people from getting more deeply involved in OSM’s decisionmaking and organizing. As a board member, I would support and advise Maggie in discovering and addressing these barriers.

I encourage you to read the other candidates’ position statements, hear more from us at the upcoming town hall on Wednesday, and cast your vote by February 7th. In addition to voting for the board, please remember the part about the proposed change to the bylaws. Thank you for your consideration!

(© capk11, CC BY-SA)

The pandemic changed the OSM-PH community plans for the year in 2020. In person meetups became online and we had to adjust our big plans for this new approach. I collected the publication materials we posted in our social media account to get a broad sense of what we did last year.

The montage above is a small collection of them. Some highlights.

• Online events - we had more events than any other previous year. Online platforms allowed us to organize and reach more people. Most of these events were organized not entirely by the community but invitations from various groups (local and international). Pista ng Mapa, our major community event also adopted an online format and a surprising success!
• Mapping - we had the highest number of unique contributors (10k) than previous years. The mapping activities completed baseline information in many areas notably HOT Philippines’ initiatives in Pampanga and Quezon City. Mikko and several mappers lead the effort to improve coverage to the top unmapped towns and completed several towns in Mindanao.
• Recognitions - groups and individuals within our community were recognized for their mapping and community building efforts. UPRI Youthmappers were recognized for inspiring women in mapping and building mapping metrics. 3 Filipino mappers (feye, Mikko and Arnalie) become part of the growing HOT voting memberships. 2 long time community members (Maning for HOT and Eugene for OSMF) were elected as board members in two organizations crucial to the project growth.
• Reclaiming our stories - Despite all our efforts within our local community, stories about how we got here are not amplified to the wider open mapping community. Biases and traditional perspectives on map making continues to undermine what we are trying to build: a more open and inclusive community. As a local community, we continue to question our own motivations and assumptions. David Garcia puts this nicely in 2 questions: “who are you making maps for?” and “who are you making maps with?”.

Thank you to all who made this possible. We’ve done so much last year and we are excited for this year.

The last point will continue to be our focus for the days and months ahead.

In 2020, we held the first ever online State of the Map conference! In July this year, State of the Map 2021 (SotM 2021) will also take place as a virtual conference (dates to be officially announced in mid-February).

The face of every SotM is, of course, its logo; a recognizable graphical element that represents the spirit and mood of that year’s global conference. For this reason, we need the help of the most creative minds in the community to create a new logo for SotM 2021!

The logo is also a crucial element for defining the design and colors of the official SotM website as well as the style of the conference content on all OSM platforms. It will also be used for the beloved SotM merchandise and swag (t-shirts, stickers, etc), making the best memories from the conference unforgettable.

From experienced professionals to graphic design newbies and enthusiasts, everyone can participate and share an original idea with the community!

Contest guidelines

The logo design should:

• be an original artwork
• refer to OpenStreetMap (OSM), and virtual State of the Map (SotM)
• focus on the sense of global community and its core values;
• be easily recognizable
• open licence: CC BY SA or related
• be submitted by Sunday, 14 February 2021 23:59 UTC

How to enter

Please submit your logo proposal via email to sotm@openstreetmap.org, attaching the design file in a PNG format and scalable file format (like PDF or SVG). 

Winner selection

The submitted artworks will be reviewed by the SotM working group, and the winning logo will be decided via vote. The official logo will then be announced after the SotM meeting in mid-February.

Looking for some inspiration?

Take a look at the logos from the past SotMs. If you have any questions about the call, feel free to contact the State of the Map Working Group sotm@openstreetmap.org.

Do  you want to translate this and other blogposts in your language..? Please send an email to communication@osmfoundation.org with subject: Helping with translations in [your language]

The State of the Map conference is the annual, international conference of OpenStreetMap, organised by the OpenStreetMap Foundation. The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed in the UK to support the OpenStreetMap Project. It is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free geospatial data for anyone to use and share. The OpenStreetMap Foundation owns and maintains the infrastructure of the OpenStreetMap project and you can support it by becoming a member.

The State of the Map Organising Committee is one of our volunteer Working Groups.

OpenStreetMap was founded in 2004 and is an international project to create a free map of the world. To do so, we, thousands of volunteers, collect data about roads, railways, rivers, forests, buildings and a lot more worldwide.  Our map data can be downloaded for free by everyone and used for any  purpose – including commercial usage. It is possible to produce your own  maps which highlight certain features, to calculate routes etc. OpenStreetMap is increasingly used when one needs maps which can be very quickly, or easily, updated.

At first I saw her as Virgin Mary, and then when I looked again, it seemed again as Virgin Mary. The vail, the long skirt, the positions of arms, the movement, that profile. It simply didn’t seem to quite add up, with no notable cross or other iconic shapes, I ended up calling her the “Running Woman”. You decide.

As if someone in our more recent past may have been influenced but its not an accidental ground stain. I actually targeted this area to find this 50m tall subject, again only able to see from a very high vantage point.

This one is a little weird. At first it looks like a bunch of random lines going nowhere and coming from nowhere, but they were connected and only after establishing the location of the Man with the decapitated head, are you able to discern its meaning. You are looking at a campfire from a side view, and winds are barely blowing. Very still hot flame low oxygen kind of fire. You can get the sense of crackle as wood is super scare, so you are burning dead brush.

This landing strip is divided by a huge scar in the ground and had to be built as two massive projects trying to connect accurately over this massive ground scar. Located West then South of the Valley with Elongated Heads.

A giant fish, with eye, gill, fins, and tail all splayed out on a hill. Cannot likely be seen from the ground. Located to the west of the Valley of the Elongated Heads its leads the way to turn southward to see The Landing Strip.

Yesterday was my first day, I think I found a new hobby. This is very enjoyable and I feel accomplished when I make a difference. GIS is a great technology.

Estoy creando un mapa para registrar la ubicación de los atentados homicidas (violencia homicida) en los municipios de Moroleón y Uriangato (en México). Estoy utilizando Umap y Wordpress. cartografiaviolencia.wordpress.com

24/01/2021

12/01/2021-18/01/2021

Mapping campaigns

• UN Mappers have opened new humanitarian mapping projects for UN peacekeeping missions:
  • Democratic Republic of Congo
  • Abyei

  The topographic data will support MONUSCO and UNISFA missions to secure peace in the area.

• The first UK Quarterly Project of 2021 is Green Spaces – parks, allotments, playgrounds and commons.
• Pascal Neis pointed out on Twitter that ‘unmapped places‘ is now available worldwide. This was prompted by a tweet by Said Turksever, who has made the Turkish ‘unmapped places’ available for mapping in a MapRoulette task.

Mapping

• OpenInfraMap added a statistics section, showing data about the power network by country. For OSM contributors, this is especially useful to identify mis-tagged power plants.
• The tagging proposal on electricity=*, and the subtags, failed the third vote, with 8 nays on 16 votes cast.
• The proposed tag healthcare=vaccination_centre, for tagging a facility where people are vaccinated, was approved by 20 votes in favour and none against with one abstention.
• Robhubi showed > how a complex multi-function building can be better represented though extending existing building polygons with a greater range of Simple 3D building objects and tags.

Community

• Joy Christine Nduta Kimani, a YouthMapper and a Geomatic engineering student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), shared her experience participating in the URISA Student and Young Professional Digital Competition.
• Yves explained how OpenSnowMap is financed and made a plea for small donations to support the site.
• OpenStreetMap India announced a new Telegram channel for contributors in Rajasthan.
• A newly registered account, which seems to come from China, complained that OpenStreetMap does not follow China’s ‘One China’ policy and ‘correctly’ label Arunachal Pradesh and Taiwan as Chinese territories. The diary post attracted the attention of a member of the Data Working Group, and mappers from China and Taiwan. Previously we reported that Mapbox CN supplies a government-certified map version for China, which does not follow the on-the-ground principle of OpenStreetMap data.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

• Christine Karch is looking for volunteers, with various qualifications, to support the organising team for the SotM, the annual international OpenStreetMap conference.
• Chair of OSMF Allan Mustard announced that the 2021 survey of users and contributors, which we mentioned last week, is now available. The survey will remain open for responses until Sunday 14 February. The announcement raised concerns about whether the survey complies with the GDPR, but Allan Mustard considered them as trolling.
• Christoph Hormann has published > a preview of his traditional report as the FOSSGIS representative on the OSMF Advisory Board at the FOSSGIS General Meeting scheduled for March.

Local chapter news

• The nomination period for the OpenStreetMap US Board Elections will close on Sunday 24 January.

Humanitarian OSM

• In outlining the role of the new open mapping hub for Asia supported by HOT, Rebecca Firth introduces a new term hOSM, meaning humanitarian OpenStreetMap in contradistinction to HOT (Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team), referring to the US incorporated not-for profit. This difficulty of distinguishing between a broader community of OSM participants with humanitarian interests and the specific activities of HOT has a long history. Just one example is this mailing list exchange back in 2014.
• The HOT upcoming community webinar on Friday 29 January will feature three COVID-19 Rapid Response micrograntees; iLab Liberia, OSM Senegal, and Public Lab Mongolia; and HOT’s COVID-19 activation team. You can read about the micrograntees here and here.
• Kontur has added new layers to their emergency mapping dashboard, Disaster Ninja, to show the most densely populated areas within a priority area for mapping (‘alert polygon’). The Urban Core layer highlights the most densely populated regions inside the hazard area, whilst the Settled Periphery layer complements it, showing the dispersed part of the population in the area.

Maps

• [1] With little fanfare, CyclOSM, a beautiful and practical bicycle-oriented map, was added to the default layers on openstreetmap.org.
• Fun with the map data of Wales: A tutorial with overpass queries and OpenStreetmap can be found here.

Software

• gb consite GmbH has developed a tool with the option of displaying the radius of movement around a clicked map point or a municipality (according to OSM admin_level 6 or 8), county, or Kreisfreie Städte (county-free city) in Germany. The 7-day incidences (from the national public health agency Robert Koch Institut) and the vaccination centres (from OSM) can be shown as overlays.
• The new anti-COVID-19 regulations in Italy allow people living in municipalities with fewer than 5000 inhabitants to move within their region a maximum of 30 km, provincial capitals excluded. Users aborruso, napo and pigreco have created a programme > (the code is on GitHub ) able to define the zone for each municipality concerned.
• IpswichMapper wrote about a new application which they have created to make it easier to collect house numbers when surveying. The app has been published on GitHub.

Programming

• Behind the scenes osm2pgsql is an important piece of software, replicating and manipulating OSM data for map rendering from PostgreSQL databases. Many new features have been added to it recently. The developers have many new ideas and plenty of issues to look at. They are holding a virtual meetup on Tuesday 2 February at 18:00 UTC. After an introduction to their plans the remainder of the meeting is planned as a Q and A session focused on future priorities. Anybody can join; you don’t need to register. We reported earlier about OSMF sponsorship of this project.
• The Chemnitz University of Technology is looking for a research assistant to further develop the mapsforge_flutter rendering library, the components for rendering OSM indoor data, the JOSM plugin indoorhelper, and the indoor mapping of buildings themselves. Click here for the job description. Very good written and spoken German and English skills are required. The application deadline is 13 February.

Releases

• The editorial team alone cannot check the release status of the many software products in the OSM environment. Therefore, we would like to regularly present wambacher’s OSM software watchlist to the community. Walter masters the monitoring of updates with his own programming. The list is updated frequently (usually weekly) and is available in three languages . Beginners, advanced users, all users of OSM, can find OSM software products in the current version with corresponding platform and download options. Walter is also happy for tips, if a piece of OSM software is missing from the list.

Did you know …

• … WeGlide? The new global evaluation platform for glider pilots uses OSM maps to visualise cross-country flights. The project is under development by three German pilots and will be used for competitions in the near future.
• … that Switzerland’s first official topographical map series, the Dufour Map, is celebrating its 175th anniversary? Replicas true to the original are being sold and the map is being made available for digital exploration – visitors can also leave their own traces there.
• … there is a ‘To do list’ JOSM plugin? This adds a to do list dialogue that makes it easy to go through large lists of objects. It helps the user to examine objects one at a time in order to edit or update them.

Other “geo” things

• Lewis Isaacs wrote in The Guardian about GPS art, amusingly described as ‘Human etch-a-sketch‘.
• BBC reported about a three year university research project in Kentucky and Colorado (a US FEDA $900,000 grant to the University of Kentucky) where researchers are training ‘drone cowboys’ to find cattle and assess their health and weight from the air.
• Hydro International reported that the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel Falkor has collected the first public seafloor data of the New Year, as part of a global effort to map the entire ocean floor by 2030.
• Michael Schultz (Heidelberg University) reported that the Horizon 2020 LandSense project was successfully concluded. A selection of the publications and deliverables produced are linked in the text. The project has enabled the group to pursue quality aspects of voluntarily collected geodata and to ramp up efforts related to OSM Landuse and Landcover.
• Sarah (Heidelberg University) has been investigating street networks and their quality, in order to find out which of the selected regions has the most detailed information in OpenStreetMap, as well as the best data consistency over the past 10 years.
• Matthias Fejes (Chemnitz University of Technology) reported > on approaches to achieving a seamless transition from outdoor to indoor navigation on smartphones for everyone.
• Theo Armour shared his efforts and ‘Mapifesto 2021-01-12’, a public declaration of intentions, opinions, and objectives that give direction to cartographers, mappers, and lovers of ways of representing reality in the many routes to mapping.
• Mapillary is making available Vistas 2.0, a major semantic annotation upgrade to their street-level image dataset (for AI training and validation) of 25,000 images from around the world.

Upcoming Events

Where	What	Online	When	Country
San Jose	Virtual Civic Hack & Map Night	✓	2021-01-22
Warszawa	Virtual community meeting.		2021-01-22
臺中市	2021 OpenStreetMap x Wikidata 新手教學工作坊		2021-01-24
Bremen	Bremer Mappertreffen (Online)		2021-01-25
Hlavní město Praha	Missing Maps CZ Mapathon 2021 #1	✓	2021-01-26	cz
Ville de Bruxelles – Stad Brussel	Virtual OpenStreetMap Belgium meeting	✓	2021-01-26
	HOT Community WG: Mapping for Covid 19 Response and Resilience: Global Coordination Supporting Local Action		2021-01-29
Warszawa	Virtual community meeting.		2021-01-29
Kampala	Mapping Uganda’s New Cities		2021-01-30 – 2021-01-31
Roma	Compleanno Local Chapter italiano OSM		2021-01-30
Delft	eMWRE Mapathon	✓	2021-02-01
臺北市	OSM x Wikidata #25		2021-02-01
	Osm2pgsql Virtual Meetup		2021-02-02
	Missing Maps London Mapathon		2021-02-02
Landau an der Isar	Virtuelles Niederbayern-Treffen	✓	2021-02-02
	The European Missing Maps Mapathon		2021-02-03
San Jose	Virtual Civic Hack & Map Night	✓	2021-02-05
Dresden	Dresdner OSM-Stammtisch	✓	2021-02-04
Hamburg	Hamburger Mappertreffen		2021-02-09
München	Münchner OSM-Stammtisch		2021-02-10
Zürich	OSM-Treffen Zürich		2021-02-11
Chippewa Township	OpenStreetMap Michigan Meetup	✓	2021-02-12

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 Nordpfeil, PierZen, rogehm, SK53, Sammyhawkrad, TheSwavu, YoViajo, derFred, richter_fn.

I noticed it to the west of the Valley of the Elongated Heads. Its obviously a cadaver, with a recently decapitated head near a fire. I think there is a lot more to this story. I am diving into it. I am still unsure how the body is arranged here and still getting more nuances on the surrounding shapes.

I first contributed to OpenStreetMap in 2014 in a small town in rural Italy where I briefly lived/worked after finding it wasn’t mapped on any platform. After seeing the small town appear on the map I was hooked. Since 2017, I have led a monthly OpenStreetMap meetup, MapABQ, in Albuquerque, New Mexico focused on contributing to OpenStreetMap in New Mexico, an often overlooked area in the United States. Since the group’s inception we’ve engaged with existing mappers around New Mexico and recruited a number of new mappers, while greatly increasing data coverage in New Mexico on OpenStreetMap. Professionally I am a software engineer focusing on geospatial data. I’ve developed tools around OpenStreetMap with Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and use OpenStreetMap data in my current role with SharedStreets.

I am running for the OpenStreetMap US board of directors for 2021-2022 and I have the following priorities:

Support of local communities

I believe OpenStreetMap thrives best in local communities and supporting the growth and sustainability of local groups is mutually beneficial to OpenStreetMap US. Scholarships to State of the Map US and microgrants for specific projects are great ways to increase participation and engagement from often overlooked regions in the US.

Sustainability of the organization

To ensure the success of the executive director role additional paid positions within OpenStreetMap US may assist in the administration and operations of the organization. Paid roles require consistent funding and long term planning to be fully effective. I seek to promote diverse funding, increase membership, and further cultivate existing donors to ensure financial sustainability.

Increased engagement

A culture of diversity and inclusion is core to a healthy and growing membership and participation within OpenStreetMap US. OpenStreetMap should reflect the full diversity of the areas it maps and this will be only be achieved through deliberate focus and commitment. OpenStreetMap US took an important step implementing a Code of Conduct recently and I support building on this foundation to develop an inclusive and diverse community.

Feel free to reach out with any questions.

• Twitter @russ_biggs
• OSM-US Slack @Russbiggs
• OSM Russbiggs

The OSM Foundation Board of Directors needs your feedback on actions it took in 2020 plus your sentiments regarding controversial questions, and asks for some demographic data (optional) so we can understand better both the survey data and the structure of the community. Coincidentally, the survey is divided into “Feedback”, “Community Sentiment”, and “Demographic Data (optional)”.

After seven days, the OSMF 2021 Survey of the OSMverse has received 1,918 responses in total, of which 1,424 are “full” responses (that is, they include the optional demographic data).

A sum of 1,918 total responses means the survey features a 2.24% confidence interval at the 95% confidence level, and a 2.95% confidence interval at the 99% confidence level. The survey features a confidence interval under 3%! This is good validation of the sample, though I suspect it still suffers from a European and North American bias. Male respondents also dominate the sample quite heavily. Therefore: please spread the word, especially to colleagues in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and to women and non-binary mappers! And data users! And software developers! And systems folks! Everyone in the OSM community!

We are shooting for a 2% confidence interval at the 95% confidence level, for which we need a minimum sample of 2,401 “full” respondents, and preferably they will be distributed geographically. Since about a quarter of respondents so far have declined to provide demographic data, this implies we need to hit 3,201 “total” responses or thereabouts.

So please encourage your mapping friends and colleagues, data users, anyone involved in OSM you can think of, to take the survey! It only takes about 5 to 10 minutes to answer 18 questions, and so far is available in 16 languages (English, Chinese (Traditional; Taiwan), French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese). https://osmf.limequery.org/281662

Who am I?

Hello, My name is Daniela Waltersdorfer, although in the OSM Community I’m known by some of you as Dani. I had the pleasure of serving as a OSMUS Board member for this past, and very difficult, year. I work in the Transportation Industry and run, with my awesome two co-hosts, Maptime Boston. In 2019 I joined in on the OSM US Code of Conduct Committee, developed to lead efforts to foster a diverse and inclusive OSM US community and this past 2020 we published the first ever OSMU US Code of Conduct (you can find more information here: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Code_of_Conduct_Committee/OSM_US_Code_of_Conduct#OpenStreetMap_US_Code_of_Conduct )

Why am I running?

If you’d like to read my Manifesto for 2020, you can find it here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/DW2515/diary/392037 As you probably read, I am passionate about making this awesome community more welcoming, regardless of your technical skills. 2020 proved difficult to make these connections in-person- we didn’t have our beloved and biggest event of the year, State of the Map. However, although discouraging at times, this did not stop the Board in brainstorming with Maggie ways to increase grow our community. For more transparency, something I really value, I’ll share about my big expectation. I had hopes of creating a bigger connection between the transportation world and OSM US, especially with the private sector. You see, I work for a transportation consultant firm, meaning I work closely with cities, MPOs, States, and sometimes federal agencies in making transportation planning and engineering decisions. For various projects, OSM data has proven to be quite exquisite and impactful. So why not give back to this awesome project? Unfortunately, the pandemic slowed down some of my goals of creating a more connected community, especially when it comes to sponsorships and funding, for it has impacted many individuals and companies negatively in the economic realm.

Having been on the Board during a year full of obstacles though has taught me that there are always new paths to explore, new ideas to expand, and new projects to get done. I am a full supporter of the Amendment to the OpenStreetMap-US Bylaws (extending board terms), especially now, after having been a member for one year. By being on the Board for a consecutive second year, I believe I can continue to push our community in the right direction; I want to work to expand our footprint and encourage others to come, I want OSM US to be a diverse and inclusive community where all feel safe.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and considering me to represent you.

Please feel free to reach out should you have any questions. Slack: @DWaltersdorfer Twitter: @DWaltersdorfer

¿Quién Soy?

Hola, Mi nombre es Daniela Waltersdorfer, aunque muchos en la comunidad de OSM US me conocen como Dani. He tenido el placer de servir como Miembro del Directorio de OSMUS este pasado año, el cual fue muy difícil para todos. Trabajo en la industria de transporte y lidero Maptime Boston justo a mis otros queridos anfitriones. En el 2019 decidí ser voluntario del Comité de Código de Conducta de OS US, el cual fue desarrollado para promover una comunidad de OSM US más inclusiva y diversa y en el 2020 publicamos el primer Código de Conducta de OSM US de la historia (puedes encontrar más información aquí: (https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/United_States/Code_of_Conduct_Committee/OSM_US_Code_of_Conduct#OpenStreetMap_US_Code_of_Conduct )

¿Por qué estoy postulándome?

Si te interesaría leer mi manifiesto del 2020, lo podrás encontrar aquí (sé que no está en español, pero por favor contáctame si deseas que lo traduzca): https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/DW2515/diary/392037 Soy una persona muy apasionada por hacer que esta comunidad le dé la bienvenida a más miembros, sin importar el nivel de capacidades o habilidades técnicas. El 2020 fue difícil para crear conexiones personales, algo por lo que expresé mucho interés en mi manifiesto anterior, pues no tuvimos nuestro evento más querido y grande del año, State of the Map. Sin embargo, aunque algo desalentador, esto no detuvo al Directorio a pensar y pensar junto a Maggie en maneras para hacer crecer nuestra comunidad. Algo que yo valoro mucho es la transparencia, así que compartiré sobre otra expectativa que tuve para el año pasado. Yo tenía la esperanza de hacer una conexión más grande entre el mundo del transporte y OSM US, especialmente con el sector privado. Verás, yo trabajo para una firma de consultoría de transporte, lo cual quiere decir que trabajo mucho con ciudades, MPOs, estados y a veces agencias federales. Para muchos proyectos la data de OSM ha probado ser exitosa e impactante. Así que, ¿por qué no retribuir a este super proyecto? Desafortunadamente, la pandemia bajó el ritmo de algunas de mis metas para hacer una comunidad más conectada y unida, especialmente cuando se trata de patrocinios y financiamientos, pues ella [la pandemia] impactó negativamente a muchos individuos y compañías económicamente.

Haber estado en el Directorio durante un año lleno de obstáculos me ha enseñado que siempre hay nuevos caminos por explorar, nuevas ideas para expandir y nuevos proyectos por terminar. Yo creo mucho en la Enmienda para los estatutos de OpenStreetMap-US (extender los periodos del directorio), especialmente ahora, después de ser una miembro por un año. Al estar en el Directorio por un segundo año consecutivo, yo creo que podré seguir empujando por mi meta para hacer crecer nuestra comunidad por el camino correcto; quiero trabajar en expandir nuestra huella y animar a otros a unirse, quiero que OSM US sea una comunidad diversa e inclusiva donde todos nos sintamos seguros.

Gracias por tomarte el tiempo en leer mi manifiesto y considerarme para representarte.

Por favor contáctame si tienes alguna pregunta. Slack: @DWaltersdorfer Twitter: @DWaltersdorfer

Hello All!

I made my first edit to the map in 2016 when I discovered OpenStreetMap through a Maptime group which I now organize. I guiltily admit I was unaware membership was an option for some time and didn’t officially join until a little over a year ago. Although I have few changesets to my name (most come from demos while I’m teaching others), I’m an enthusiastic supporter of OSM because I understand the immense potential of this project.

I work in an academic library on an urban campus as geospatial support for students and faculty. Through my position at the University of Colorado Denver, and through the MaptimeMileHigh meetup group I run, I spend much of my time introducing OpenStreetMap to interested mappers and data users. I have led HOTOSM mapathons for students and the community at large to introduce the humanitarian value of this unique crowd-sourced information. I enjoy seeing traditional GIS students get excited when they realize there is an entire world of the geospatial technology they’ve been missing.

Serving on the OpenStreetMap-US board, I hope to expand the awareness of OSM to students, faculty and community leaders as they work together using public data for public good. Through academic frameworks such as the Data to Policy Project (d2p), for which I’m the student and faculty liaison, OSM can shine as support for policy development. With more diverse contributors to the map recruited via community outreach and academic programs similar to d2p, OSM can be better used for research and evidence-based advocacy. With more people from different sectors of society understanding they can contribute data to the global dataset that is OSM, the more representative and complete that dataset will be.

I recognize the OpenStreetMap community is evolving quickly. Growing the community even more will require a solid organization and OSMUS seems to be on the right track. I am impressed with the work prior board members and our executive director, Maggie, have done in terms of transparency, finances, and norms. I look forward to supporting these efforts.

I am a scientist and outdoorsperson at heart. I have a degree in earth sciences, which led me to GIS hydrology projects, which then led to my geospatial career. As I mentioned, I’m now at an urban campus and my work is more human-centered than before. I’m excited to bring this background to help guide the U.S. chapter of the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

I’m happy to discuss anything that comes to your mind after reading my statement. Thanks for considering me!

Other links of interest: SOTMUS 2019 talk, OSMUS Mappy Hour 2020 talk

ตำแหน่ง

I may have proved a point. Elaborate petroglyphs equal elaborate ground etching and the two go side by side. To the Southwest of the Valley of the Elongated heads is an array of geometry of accuracy that cannot be of chance. Line click off of each other, and set up a series of geometry. More and more as I am laying these geometries down I feel a culture that is doing anything and everything it can to appease gods for crop growing weather. No always are these glyphs of recent times but rather it seems to be built upon each other through generations. Could it be a marking of success, or failure like the stock market, but one for weather? Lines vs. Areas.. and some areas are really surround lines, but finished and unfinished. There is some of the lines that obviously connect, and others that are close, near misses or that the terrain fails to give much clues as to what used to be there.

2nd Entry:
How exciting to find additional glyphs to the East of the Valley of the Elongated Heads. Finding it substantiates the overall importance that these glyph geometries are part of symbols that start to unlock the Nazca geometric efforts. I am taken by yet the fresh and very different types of lines and how the geometric shapes interlock. Surprisingly, I didn’t see them before, but as I am identifying each one by one, some of the line escape the other lines and shapes giving way to a brand new area. Are they doing this as a desperate way to save their crops or are they after something else. Why is the secret so difficult to understand? The more dive into these weird and obscure lines, knowing they have been created over a period of around 2000 years at least, the more questions they have. What is their secret? Why are they really doing this? Why is the geometry so precise?

Я живу в классическом районе новостроек: широкие проспекты или лес по краям, десятки высоток внутри, и всё в пешей доступности. Застройщик не знал меры с торговыми площадями: у нас три ТЦ и офисные помещения в подвалах почти каждого дома. Короче, столько магазинов и заведений вокруг, что запомнить невозможно, поэтому хочется нарисовать карту.

Вместо карты я за три недели написал телеграм-бота. Кажется странным: неужели это удобнее, чем интерактивная карта с маркерами, в которые можно тыкать? А вот да: во-первых, как я постоянно говорю, интерактивная карта — признак ленивого интерфейса. Всегда можно придумать лучший интерфейс, который не будет заставлять человека таскать картинки по экрану.

Во-вторых, веб не нужен. Жизнь уходит из страничек в браузере, они — для чтения лонгридов, а тыкают люди в экраны телефонов. Делать проекты нужно там, где живёт твоя целевая аудитория. Ларёк с мороженым лучше открывать на пляже, а не в музее. Указания, куда пройти, — с собой, а не дома на компьютере. Ну и наконец, интерфейс телеграма — отличный вызов для картографического приложения.

Поле ввода и ряд кнопок под ним — это всё, что есть. Нечего таскать, некуда кликать. Бот простой и умеет только отвечать на вопросы. Но знает многое:

• Ищет заведения по ключевым словам. Да, я внезапно написал геокодер.
• Выдаёт карту из космоснимка, который я специально обрисовал в гимпе.
• Подсказывает подъезд и этаж по номеру квартиры для всех домов.

Для каждого заведения есть не только обычные данные типа часов работы и сайтов. Выводятся также мини-карта, собранная из тайлов, и две фоточки: одна с улицы, одна изнутри. И всё это я собрал за неделю для четырёхсот магазинов, заведений и организаций.

Самым интересным было не делать базовые штуки для людей, а организовать процесс сбора заведений, чтобы он не напрягал неразобранными фоточками и записями, был быстр и приятен, не требовал дня отдыха после дня работы. Решение довольно простое: отказаться от двухэтапного картирования. Подошёл к магазину — открыл телеграм — понажимал там кнопочки и вписал слова — сфоткал — сохранил, и магазин сразу появился в выдаче.

Каждый вечер я возвращался домой и дописывал бота, чтобы переложить с себя на него все сложности. Вводить «https://» муторно — пусть бот сам превращает «Ttn. By» в «https://ttn.by». Не ждём точек с запятой и дефисов, позволяем пробелы и запятые. Вместо ввода номера дома предлагаем выбор из ближайших адресов. Ну и так далее: не нужно заставлять человека делать работу, с которой справится машина.

Так я собирал по 60-100 заведений в день, около 15 в час. Это включало в себя не только списывание данных, но и иногда разговоры с сотрудниками, которым я раздавал визитки бота. На районе около полутысячи заведений — знай я это заранее, дважды бы подумал, запуская проект. Но теперь он почти завершён, и я готовлю доклад на FOSDEM и приглашения для СМИ.

Уверен, эта новость вызовет три вопроса:

1. Кто будет обновлять данные, когда я съеду с Маяка Минска?

Не знаю. То есть, конечно, любой человек может нажать кнопку «Поправить» под любым найденным в боте заведением, равно как и добавить новое. Но по опыту понятно, что никто этим заниматься не будет: людям, даже владельцам, проще написать админу в личку или забить. Нужны такие же энтузиасты, как я. И нужен интерфейс, который позволит на повторный обход полутысячи заведений угрохать не неделю, а один-два дня. Его зачатки уже есть (и способ описан в документации), но можно сделать удобнее, особенно для торговых центров. Я пока думаю, как.

2. Где тут OpenStreetMap?

Только в подложке мини-карт и в классификации заведений, которая основана на тегах OSM. Ни одна точка не взята из этого проекта. Вести что-то подобное сразу в OSM — безумие: мы все знаем, что в наших редакторах просто добавлять заведения, но следить за их актуальностью и исправлять — невероятно сложно. И тегировать необычные магазины, типа вегетарианских продуктов, тоже: как бы вместо разработки не увязнуть на неделю в спорах с осмерами про теги. Так что нет, спасибо. Но базу заведений теоретически можно импортировать в OSM, так что если есть желающие, пишите.

3. Как мне поднять такого же бота для своего района?

Самый главный вопрос! Бот опубликован на гитхабе, рядом с ним лежит огромная документация в пяти частях на русском языке. В ней я описал весь процесс, от обхода подъездов и установки бота до сбора заведений и администрирования. Если не считать русского языка, сообщения на котором разбросаны по коду, бот не привязан ни к каким атрибутам моего района. Хотите потратить неделю на обход каждого здания и потом поднять полезный сервис для всех соседей — буду рад помочь!

Приложение пилят — опенсорсные щепки летят. Пока готовил данные и писал бота, разочаровался в сложности базовых операций в вебе. Например, получить числа координат для прямоугольника можно на нескольких сайтах (например), и довольно удобно. А вот скопировать координаты одной точки — непросто. Специальные сайты писались семь-восемь лет назад и все сломались. А использовать для этого osm.org, где нужно открывать панель, ставить галочку, нажимать Ctrl+C... Линукс-версия телеграма не позволяет прикреплять координаты, поэтому пришлось писать свой сайт на замену. Очень простой: двигаешь карту, нажимаешь кнопку, вставляешь куда нужно.

Ещё я горжусь редактором точек в GeoJSON, которым пользуюсь для причёсывания базы заведений бота. Классические редакторы типа geojson.io, uMap, QGIS не катят: чтобы отредактировать точку, нужно ползать по таблицам, двигать мышкой, нажимать «сохранить». Здесь же всё супер-просто: двойной клик для создания точки, все свойства — простым текстом типа «name Название», по примеру Level0. Поэтому копипаст пачки атрибутов вообще не проблема. Есть фильтр а-ля поиск в JOSM, всё сохраняется автоматически и можно восстановить, если закроешь вкладку. Никаких меню и не больше шести кнопок на экране.

Эти новогодние каникулы прошли под темой хорошего пользовательского интерфейса. Видишь неудобство — не мирись, исправь. Именно так развиваются открытые экосистемы: людям чего-то не хватает, и внезапно у них щёлкает понимание, как должно быть, и образовывается время это сделать. Сообщество открытого кода последние годы пытается решить вопрос, что делать, когда понимание и время возникают у разных людей, и откуда взять деньги, чтобы их соединить. Но пока жителям Маяка Минска и тем, кто работает с точками в GeoJSON, немного повезло.