Sometimes I think I’m a bottom feeder going through the map and cleaning up the obvious errors and this comes from my observations over time and cleaning up thousands of duplicate buildings.

Because many countries do not have good census data you can do a rough calculation by multiplying the number of houses by an average number of people who live in them. It isn’t perfect but if you have nothing better then it works.

So duplicate buildings are a problem. When you’re looking to see how many schools you need duplicate buildings mess the numbers up. Buildings incorrectly tagged or not tagged at all also mess the numbers up.

Then we get to the imagery used. These days I’m seeing more and more microsoft BuildingFootprints tags on buildings. They are normally very accurate and align well with Bing imagery. The largest most accurate satellites are only accurate to 60 meters so the imagery has to be aligned. My recommendation would be to use Bing imagery and find a building that aligns with it. Then switch to your preferred imagery and align it with the Bing aligned one.

This helps ensure that buildings are only mapped once and when you add buildings you don’t add an existing building and if someone imports using microsoft BuildingFootprints then your building won’t be remapped 10 meters away in the future.

Disposable mappers are often used meaning many will only may a few times. So we don’t really have time to train them.

We want to get the most accurate mapping we can from them and as many buildings as we can. With JOSM buildings_tool plugin I can highlight one building then add more by clicking and holding down the button, moving to the opposite corner of the building and releasing the mouse button. If they aren’t in line it takes another mouse button click. You get a rectangular building correctly labelled. This is far less than using iD. Plus you don’t need a validator to inspect each one to see if it is correct.

You need to install JOSM and Microsoft openJDK but you’ll get a lot more buildings out of them. It is possible to set it all up on a USB stick and run it from there.

With iD mapped buildings there is room for error in tagging. Some aren’t tagged at all, I’ve seen some tagged barrier=fence amongst others. Also many buildings are rectangular in shape but you won’t think it from the mapping.

The buildings tagged microsoft BuildingFootprints implies an import. Officially there is a formal process for an import. If you are importing please follow it. Part of the requirement is to visually check to see if the building has already been mapped. I strongly suspect this is not being followed in all cases.

Thanks for reading

John

Well, the fellowship was the first of its kind for me. The whole time, the commitment led me to learn and know the vast features and tools of OpenStreetMap. The fact that overwhelmed me most that how the organization has managed and engaged numerous volunteers and improved its tools over time. Training and resources were efficient and convenient in a structure that proved instrumental for me in completing the tasks. The biggest delight is seeing my edits come into visualization within moments which truly instills a feeling that I am making an impact by mapping. Throughout the whole time, I have been able to discover a little of it and may also have made slight and/or big mistakes during edits or validation, ahead of this, I want to explore this platform more and be an instrumental mapper.

On va essayer de faire des updates mensuels à partir de maintenant 😉

Que dire sur ce mois de juin? J’ai continué à laisser OSM me guider là où ça me plaisait plutôt que rester du côté de Seraing et ses environs proches (non pas que Herstal soit à l’autre bout du monde cela dit 😁). La première vidéo cependant est sur une zone que j’avais faite récemment, mais qui avait une situation un peu confuse que j’ai vérifié sur place, et donc :

Ce mappeur OpenStreetMap EXPOSE LA VÉRITÉ sur cet ancien quartier près de l’aéroport de Bierset - Voici la vidéo que j’ai prise quand je me suis rendu dans le coin en question. La confusion venait du fait que les anciennes rues de ce quartier sont toujours visibles sur le PICC à l’heure actuelle (et l’avenue de la miniature est elle toujours sur les images satellite les plus récentes disponibles ici sur OSM) alors que cette zone est maintenant une énorme zone en friche pour faire simple

La vidéo suivante est le résultat d’un article sur le site de la ville de Seraing qui annonçait de nouveaux travaux pour…

Améliorons Seraing (sur OpenStreetMap) - Épisode 38 (La liaison manquante du boulevard urbain) - Version live de ce changeset où je mappe les travaux et le futur tracé en gros

On retourne ensuite à Herstal (que je n’ai pas vraiment “quitté” cela dit hors caméra) pour…

Ce mappeur OpenStreetMap DÉPLACE UNE DALLE (avec une 🖱️), mais pas seulement! - Sous ce titre ridicule se cache ce changeset où je corrige et remets à jour toute un quartier qui en avait bien besoin

À partir d’ici, j’ai commencé à utiliser le tag “footway=alley” pour désigner plus précisément les petites allées piétonnes qui passent derrière des habitations dans certains quartiers. De nouveau, ça me fait “voyager” un petit peu dans la région liégeoise et j’ajoute/corrige d’autres choses dans le même temps, ce qui nous amène à…

Améliorons Flémalle (sur OpenStreetMap) - Épisode 8 (Le piétonnier des Trixhes) - Version live de ce changeset où j’ajoute et corrige quelques chemins piétons dans le quartier des Trixhes et l’importance qu’a une carte plus complète pour les planificateurs comme Komoot et Geovelo

Améliorons Flémalle (sur OpenStreetMap) - Épisode 9 (Complétons le piétonnier des Trixhes!) - Version live de ce changeset où je continue ce petit “projet” après une visite sur le terrain

Vers la fin du mois, j’ai atteint trois caps différents : mes 38 ans (🤷‍♂️), ma centième vidéo sur Youtube (🤷‍♂️ de nouveau), et surtout mon millième update sur OSM qui est…

Améliorons Seraing (sur OpenStreetMap) - Épisode 39 (Update 1000!) - Version live de ce changeset qui est juste une session de micromapping dans laquelle je complète le quartier de la Fontaine Domalus à Boncelles en utilisant par exemple “footway=alley” quand c’était opportun

Et voilà pour ce mois de juin sur OSM et Youtube. Un nouveau cap sera franchi d’ici une bonne semaine vu que je fêterai mes deux ans sur OSM le 9 juillet et j’ai une vidéo rétrospective qui est prévue, mais je vais sans doute continuer mes ajouts de bâtiments un peu partout en région liégeoise et la mise à jour du piétonnier de certains quartiers (et de ceux-ci même la plupart du temps) avec notre fameux “footway=alley” quand c’est utile.

A+ 😀

20/06/2024-26/06/2024

Mapping

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

Community

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

OpenStreetMap Foundation

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

Events

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

Education

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

OSM research

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

OSM in action

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

Software

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

Programming

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

Releases

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

Did you know …

• … that the Civis is a platform that records citizen science projects, based on eu-citizen.science, and that makes them available on an interactive map with OpenStreetMap?

Other “geo” things

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

Upcoming Events

Where	What	Online	When	Country
	[Online] OpenStreetMap Foundation board of Directors – public videomeeting		2024-06-27
Lübeck	143. OSM-Stammtisch Lübeck und Umgebung		2024-06-27
	OSM Nederland bijeenkomst (online)		2024-06-27
Lyon	SotM-FR 2024 – Lyon		2024-06-28 – 2024-06-30
Düsseldorf	Düsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen (online)		2024-06-28
The Municipal District of Portlaoise	Portlaoise Mapping Initiative		2024-06-29
中央区	マッピングパーティ in 北海道神宮		2024-06-30
Tartu linn	FOSS4G Europe 2024		2024-06-30 – 2024-07-07
Richmond	MapRVA Meetup		2024-07-02
	MapRoulette Community Meeting		2024-07-02
	Missing Maps London: (Online) Mapathon		2024-07-02
Berlin	OSM-Verkehrswende #60	✓	2024-07-02
Potsdam	Radnetz Brandenburg Mapping Abend #7	✓	2024-07-03
Stuttgart	Stuttgarter OpenStreetMap-Treffen		2024-07-03
Dresden	Dresden – OSM Stammtisch		2024-07-04
	OSMF Engineering Working Group meeting		2024-07-05
中正區	OpenStreetMap x Wikidata Taipei #66		2024-07-08
San Jose	South Bay Map Night	✓	2024-07-10
München	Münchner OSM-Treffen		2024-07-09
Salt Lake City	OSM Utah Monthly Map Night		2024-07-11
Lorain County	OpenStreetMap Midwest Meetup	✓	2024-07-11
Bochum	Bochumer OSM Treffen		2024-07-10
Amsterdam	Maptime Amsterdam: Summertime Meetup		2024-07-11
Wildau	193. Berlin-Brandenburg OpenStreetMap Stammtisch		2024-07-11
København	OSMmapperCPH		2024-07-14
England	OSM UK Online Chat		2024-07-15

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

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

Day 25 and 1/4 of the challenge done!

Today I mapped Kosovë and I found out that we have not one but two villages name Kosovë in Albania.

Kosovë has a population of 931 according to 2011 population census.

“#100villagesin100days #day25”

The Importance of Community Mapping

Over the past two decades, in particular, mapping has become open access, since map data is increasingly used to support society facing crisis. As this goal gained momentum, a community-driven mapping interface emerged in 2003. Open Street Maps pioneered the way for easy updating and access to map data at your fingertips.

It was a marvel back then, and these mapping tools paved the way for Crowdsourced Mapping after the catastrophe in Haiti in 2010. However, there is still a large human resource deficit that can only be satisfied if we make OSM knowledge prominent throughout institutions and schools alike, as was cultivated in the OSM Guru Program during in-person training at JNTU, Hyderabad.

The Importance of Every door App

Every Door is an Android and iOS app for creating and editing items in OpenStreetMap. It allows you to change node and polygon features, as well as create point features such as stores, benches, and building entrances. The source code is available on GitHub under the Open ISC license.

This program is specifically developed to help users keep amenities and shops up to date while also performing comprehensive micro-mapping.

We finally thank the Students of JNTU and department of Enviromatics for paving the way for commnutiy mapping using the Everydoor App

From a casual interest in maps to fully diving into the depths of community mapping and data validation, that is how I can describe my OpenStreetMap journey up to this point.

Programs conducted by the YouthMappers Network, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, and the Open Mapping Hub Asia Pacific taught me everything I know in the field of open mapping. These programs continuously introduced me to the wonders of the geospatial field, from the creation of maps to real-world applications of open spatial data; and they consistently piqued my interest, driving me to learn even more. When the opportunity came to be one of OMHAP’s Open Mapping Gurus, I was ecstatic. It was a chance to learn from the best and most experienced people in the field and an opportunity to help the community—the core value of being an open mapper.

Being open to new learning experiences was the best attitude I had when I started my OM Guru journey. I had basic knowledge of what I was doing, but I wanted to discover more, to dive deeper into the strategies, approaches, and styles that expert OSM contributors use. I chose the Validation Track fellowship because this was the skill I wanted to develop further. I wanted to learn more about the technicalities of data checking in OSM to ensure that the data is reliable and always of a high standard. Many tools for data checking and validation were new to me, such as OSM Inspector, Osmose, and OSMCha, and I greatly enjoyed these tools as they were more convenient depending on different use cases. My validation skill in the tasking manager using JOSM was honed as well with the tasks assigned. This experience taught me things that can only be learned through extensive practice such as shortcuts, the ability to easily identify features from a certain imagery, and other methods to make mapping and validating large datasets more efficient. Each task I completed helped me become a better mapper.

Aside from building my own capacity, each task we completed was also a contribution to the OSM community. These tasks were not only for our learning but also served as real-life applications that could help anyone in the OSM community.

Through this experience, I have come to greatly appreciate the work and dedication of the OSM validators, as it is not an easy task to ensure that all OSM data is maintained to a high standard.

Admittedly, there were times when I struggled to balance my volunteer work as an OM Guru with my other responsibilities. However, managing my workload was also one of the valuable lessons I learned in this program—to follow through on the commitments I made. I am very thankful to the managers of the OM Guru program for their understanding and consideration of any problems the Gurus encountered.

With everything I have learned and my strong interest in advocating open mapping, I am starting to build my career around this field, connecting my academic background to this passion. Not only am I doing what I enjoy, but I am also helping the community in the best way I know how.

ไม่

Me, MySelf and OM Guru Fellowship

Hello Fellas! Greetings from Indonesian Mapper.

Okay, I believe this is my first diary entry as I start contributing to OpenStreetMap. I’m not sure how many people will be interested in reading my diary, but I’ll share my story here.

“Above the sky, there is still sky” - it’s a quote we’ve probably heard before. OpenStreetMap is made up of many contributors from around the world, all of whom are great mappers and work diligently for the world. I realize that the knowledge I have now must have been possessed by several people before me. Because of this, I feel that with OpenStreetMap, I can learn and collaborate with other mappers.

Just a quick flashback to 2019 when I made my first contribution to OpenStreetMap. At that time, I was still unsure of what OpenStreetMap was. I thought it was just a mapping tool and had no idea about the many surprises it held.

As a geography student, mapping is my passion, and I enjoy contributing to OpenStreetMap. To my surprise, I became the best mapper in a competition held by OpenStreetMap Indonesia. In 2021, I was the only Indonesian participant in the HOTOSM internship. The following year, I was hired at OpenStreetMap Indonesia (POI), and now I am part of the OM Guru Fellowship program. The Om Guru gives us tasks to work on each month, I am responsible as a validator, where the tasks given to me are things related to validation. I carry out validation using quite a lot of media such as OSMCha or OSM Inspector, of course, this adds to my knowledge and skills.

“For me, by consistently practicing and loving what we do, we will invite miracles into our lives”.

This fellowship is fascinating because it allows teachers to contribute and learn about the different landscapes in each country. So, what impact does this fellowship have? Well, for me, this fellowship has improved my mapping skills. More importantly, it has taught me to broaden my perspective, showing me that knowledge is not restricted by who, where, or how you study.

Thank you to the OM Guru Fellowship; I am very proud to be a part of this activity!

Munich Trudering shines – München Trudering leuchtet

Fascinated by the conceptual work and the impressive renderings of the “MASTERPLAN BELEUCHTUNGSKONZEPT FREIHAM NORD” <1> I was wondering if one would be able to “re-engineer” the existing reality of a city or a city district by means and capabilities of Open Street Map in order to finally achieve a rendering similar to <2>.

First steps

OK, I thought, let me try to find out. I started to walk through the streets of my neighbourhood identifying and positioning street lamps with the tool EVERY DOOR. As always the devil is hidden in the detail. How to determine height? Typically in the early evenings (I order to see the laser dot), I started to measure the distance from street level to lamp body with an of the shelf laser instrument (BOSCH Zamo 3). This worked quite well in not so busy streets however I did not had the guts so far to do a measurement in one of the main streets with constant traffic especially when the lamp poles are located at the center of a 4 lane street. I need to find an alternative solution for those cases. Height is one of the most important parameters for illumination.

I was made aware by a very helpful OSM member <3> that there is a moving map renderer <4> to display exactly the kind of rendering I was looking for. It turned out that this tool is becoming my most important tool for quality control. Gaps and irregularities in “lighting” and referencing are very easy to identify.

“Picture 1”: Current progress for Munich Trudering.

Next steps

I will close several gaps in smaller streets and will combine this with revisiting some of the streets where I was initially unsure about the light technology used. In <5> “high_pressure_sodium / electric / led / fluorescent / sodium / metal_halide / mercury” are offered however I still struggle sometimes to identify the correct one. I started to collect GPS referenced photographs of lamps in question in order to fix them later in OSM. And finally I want to understand better identifying “Lichtfarben” <6> (colors of light, color temperature) and how this could be provided to OSM. I understand that the light technology determines to a certain extent color temperature - how does this translate to LEDs? I see rework done in my neighborhood to switch to LEDs and it appears that color temperature may not be equal for the different LED lamp types installed.

The cover sheet of the referenced “masterplan” does present a 3D rendering during night time. Does it look like a possible future state for a renderer?

Sources

<1> MASTERPLAN BELEUCHTUNGSKONZEPT FREIHAMNORD, Landeshauptstadt München Baureferat, 29-JUN-2016

<2> MASTERPLAN …, page 4

<3> https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Strubbl

<4> https://osmstreetlight.bplaced.net/

<5> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/DE:Tag:highway%3Dstreet_lamp

<6> MASTERPLAN …, page 6

Took me two days to finish Zdojan because yesterday had almost no time at all to map.

Zdojan is a village in Diber with a population of around, 1477 (as per 2011 population census).

“#100villagesin100days #day24”

Just getting started with OSM tonight. Ive been a lover of maps and geography since as far back as I can remember. My interest in globes and maps lead me to travel to many places and put experiences with long standing “points on paper”. What has brought me to learn about openstreetmaps is an interest (an obsession rather) in helping to connect a growing global community of freedom fighters who believe money should not be controlled by an oligarchy, but remain open source.

For all the merchants who see the infrastructure of money as public domain and recognize how imperative it is to ensure everyone has access to permissionless, uncensorable transactions, I solute you and will be working on helping the growing but still niche community know where they can shop with other like minded people.

There are several mapping organizations on this same beat, and I believe the decentralization and variety of options to map these merchant datapoints, highlighting and emphasizing certain relevant offerings within the broader community will be net beneficial to all, as well as keep standards competitive and delivery of info evolving.

Looking forward to to using this platform!

Gyn gyn

Hello Friends, I am Tilok I am from Assam, India. I would like to share my OM Guru fellowship experience.

For the past five months, I’ve been on an incredible journey as an OM Guru, Asia Pacific Hub Mapping Fellow. It involved exploring the digital landscapes of Micronesia, Vanuatu, Philippines, Tonga, India, Pakistan and many more through different humanatarian projects.

My mission? To map these regions using IDEditor and JOSM. I felt like a digital explorer, uncovering and mapping unmapped roads, buildings, and landmarks.

Enter Everydoor, a game-changer for adding Points of Interest (POIs). This mobile app turned POI hunting into a real-life treasure hunt! I must’ve added over 100 POIs around my own neighborhood, making the map a more accurate reflection of the cool places around me.

But the real thrill came with Mapillary. This app lets us collect POIs on the go! Imagine cruising down the highways and streets, phone mounted on the dashboard, capturing street views that were previously missing. It’s like creating a digital time capsule of the places I visit. Back home on Wi-Fi, I’d use Rapid Editor to review the photos and add those missing POIs. It’s incredibly satisfying to see those blank stretches on the map suddenly come alive with street view data!

And let’s not forget validation – the quality check of the mapping world. Coming into the fellowship, I had dabbled in validation, but these past months filled me with confidence. Now, I can ensure the accuracy of other mappers’ work, making the entire map even more reliable.

Speaking of making a difference, checking out https://neis-one.org/tag/yosmhm/ and seeing my “mapping footprints” is truly inspiring. It’s a visual representation of my contribution to this massive, collaborative project.

The Open Mapping Fellowship has been a phenomenal experience. I’ve learned a lot, enhanced my skills through different trainings, and become part of a global community dedicated to creating a free and accessible map of the world. I would like to thank everyone involved in making this fellowship a successful one, also a big shout-out to the mentors for their guidance and trainings.

Here’s to many more mapping adventures in the future!

Namaste :)

Today, I want to look back on my time with OpenStreetMap (OSM) and how the OSM Guru Fellowship has helped me grow.

I started contributing to OSM in 2019. Since then, I’ve made over 2000 changesets. Each one has helped make the map a bit better and more accurate.

Working with Jungle Bus and GeoMinds has been great. These projects showed me how important good maps are, especially in places that need them most. I’m proud to have been a part of their work.

One of my biggest projects was mapping public transportation in Kochi. We added 24,000 kilometers of routes to OSM. It was a huge task, but knowing it helps people get around the city makes it all worth it.

The OSM Guru Fellowship has been amazing. It taught me a lot about OSM and its concepts, giving me the skills I needed to be a better mapper. I learned that knowledge is power, but community is even more powerful.

The OSM community is something I love being part of. It’s inspiring to see people from all over the world work together to map the world. The fellowship connected me with others who are just as passionate about mapping as I am.

Looking back, I’m thankful for everything I’ve learned and the people I’ve met. The OSM Guru Fellowship has been a big part of my journey, and I’m excited for what comes next. Here’s to more mapping and a stronger community!

Kinnakorai is a beautiful village about 50 km from Ooty town. The beauty lies in the journey to the village itself. Kinnakorai is similar to any other remote mountain village in India, but the villagers looked at us like we came from Krypton on a UFO. I can’t blame them at all because we were in full gear with 25 people on different motorcycles.

By the way, the day I realized that the road to the village was incorrect, I had the complete GPX trace along the route. So, I planned to fix the roads, and here we are. I edited the roads with my GPX traces and pushed the updates to OSM. Now anyone can rely on those maps. :)

Today I mapped a village named Vesqi located in Baldushk, close to the capital.

I did not know there was a reservoir in Baldushk so another one to visit added to my list.

“#100villagesin100days #day23”

OpenStreetMap Foundation members will vote to elect a new board in October. There will be four seats available: of Arnalie Vicario, Craig Allan, Mateusz Konieczny and Sarah Hoffmann, whose board terms are ending. The terms of Dani Waltersdorfer, Guillaume Rischard and Roland Olbricht will continue. There are seven seats on the foundation board and board members are volunteers.

Self-nominations of board candidates will open on 28 July 2024 and you will be able to nominate yourself on this OpenStreetMap wiki page: https://wiki.osm.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM2024/Election_to_Board#List_of_board_candidates

You can create an account on the OSM wiki here and you will be able to add your name to the table that will be added on that date by editing the page here (please wait until 28 July 2024 to do so). Self-nominations will close on the 13^th of August at 23:59 UTC.

Election timeline

The timeline of the election is here: https://wiki.osm.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM2024/Election_to_Board#Key_dates

What the board is/is not, rules and responsibilities and why run

Please read the links on the OSM wiki.

A lot of the foundation’s work is done by the volunteers of our Working Groups, and if you want to help the foundation, you can also look at joining those.

Who can become a board candidate

Any natural person may be elected to become a board member, provided that:

• they have been a normal OSM Foundation member [1] or an associate member [2] during the full 180 days before the General Meeting, which will take place on 19 October 2024, and
• have been a normal member for the full 28 days prior to the General Meeting, and
• are willing to act as a board member, and
• are permitted by law to do so.

[1] Normal members provide their full residential address and can vote on all issues. Their residential address may be disclosed to other members.
[2] Associate members provide just their country of residence - which may also be disclosed to other members - and can vote - but not on all issues. Additionally, they cannot be board candidates.

If you want to find out the type of your OpenStreetMap Foundation membership (normal or associate), please check the most recent approval/renewal membership email or email the volunteers of the Membership Working Group at membership@osmfoundation.org from the email account associated with your OSM Foundation membership. Please see the OSM wiki regarding changing your membership type.

Resources about the 2024 board election and Annual General Meeting

The main two pages that have the information about the 2024 board election and Annual General Meeting are:

• OSM wiki: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/AGM2024/Election_to_Board and
• OSM Foundation website: https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Annual_General_Meetings/2024

Resolutions proposed by OSM Foundation members

OSM Foundation members can submit resolutions and ask the membership to vote on them. The resolutions need to be supported by at least 5% of members eligible to vote, in order to be added to the ballots. Please read: Companies Act 2006: Members’ power to require circulation of written resolution. The deadline for providing the supported resolutions will be the 24th of August.

How you can help

A few of the current and past board members have mentioned that the thought of being a candidate did not cross their mind until it was suggested to them. So, you might want to think if you’d like to run for the board or to suggest being a candidate to others.

Do you want to translate this and other blog posts in another language..? Send an email to communication@osmfoundation.org with subject: Helping with translations in [your language]

The OpenStreetMap Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation, formed 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, is financially supported by membership fees and donations, and organises the annual, international State of the Map conference. Our volunteer Working Groups and small core staff work to support the OpenStreetMap project. Join the OpenStreetMap Foundation for just £15 a year or for free if you are an active OpenStreetMap contributor

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Today I mapped the tiny village of Kaftall.

Kaftall does not have many houses, but they are spread all around the hill in quite a big area.

I also moved around a little and mapped some building on the surrounding areas.

“#100villagesin100days #day22”

In new version of userscript, I focused on analyzing edits. QuickLook for changesets, hotkeys, filtering changesets, mass actions and more.

Help wanted: I would be grateful if someone knows how to get into the site code and manage the map (add new objects, change layers, colors …) This would make it much easier for new features to appear. Otherwise, they will only be available in OSM-NG (:

👮‍♂️ QuickLook of changes in tags

Now you don’t need to open OSMCha for simple changesets. Tag changes will be visible directly on the changeset page.

Now you can easily check edits that are the size of a whole world:

The extension will also show whether there have been changes to the geometry and whether the objects made by the user still exist

🚏 Navigate with Alt + ←/→

But what if you need to check a lot of edits from the StreetComplete user? Now you can use Alt + ←/→ to navigate between user edits!

🗂️ Filtering changesets

Tired of that osm.org/history spammed with big edits? Now you can hide large edits. Or filter them by user and comment.

And yes, now you don’t have to click Load More many times

🌪 Mass actions

Have you ever encountered a situation where you need to cancel a MAPS.ME user edits? Now it’s easy to do.

❗️ Do not engage in rollbacks of mass automatic vandalism! This will quickly make DWGs and manual rollbacks will make it harder for them to work ❗️

🪪 Highlighting moderators and blocked users

To reduce your worries about vandalism, the list of recent changesets highlights the accounts of moderators, blocked users and beginners.

🕵️ Search for deleted account usernames

The Internet remembers everything. OpenStreetMap is no exception.

Other

• The settings menu now works in Chromium, and the settings are divided into sections.
• The script now supports Violentmonkey
• The link to open the Rapid editor is more stable
• External links in notes and comments open in a new tab

Install: https://github.com/deevroman/better-osm-org

I started my journey as an OSM contributor in August 2018. My knowledge was initially limited to the iD editor and HOT tasking manager platform, with minimal community mapathon contributions within Nigeria. Consequently, my contributions to OSM were very low and inconsistent.

In November 2023, while seeking more opportunities to volunteer and contribute to the growing OpenStreetMap community, I discovered the OM Guru fellowship organized by the Open Mapping Hub Asia-Pacific. I applied as a Mapper, which complemented my background as a Remote Sensing and GIS student.

During my six-month tenure in the fellowship, I was exposed to various aspects of mapping, from building data capturing using JOSM, to Amenities/POI mapping with Every Door, and street-level imagery capturing using Mapillary, focusing on Disaster, Humanitarian, and Climate action. Additionally, I learned and developed my skills in JOSM validation and field mapping. The weekly training sessions and webinars exposed me to more applications of GIS and Remote Sensing in open spatial data science, thus enhancing my geospatial expertise.

One significant highlight of the fellowship was the Climate Change Challenge, where OM Guru-led groups competed in 8 climate challenges. I led a team of OSM contributors, which provided me with valuable leadership and teamwork experience. I was exposed to more applications and tools within the OSM ecosystem, such as Mapswipe, Maproullete, and mapping with RapidID. I contributed to mapping high priority, disaster prone and impacted areas in Asia-pacific countries.

The OM Guru fellowship came to me at the right time, and I was fortunate to utilize this opportunity. It transformed my OSM experience and provided me with the skills and expertise needed henceforth within the OSM community and beyond. The last 6 months have been incredibly enriching, filled with knowledge and skill development. It was the best period of my OSM contributions. Moving forward, I am confident in my ability to lead mapping activities and motivated to continue contributing to OSM in general. Thank you, Open Mapping Hub Asia-Pacific, for the opportunity!

I can’t save the changes. It shows error instead

OpenStreetMap is a public good. Public goods should support all members of the public. OpenStreetMap has instead decided to forsake my fellow LGBTQ people this year by hosting State of the Map in a country where it’s illegal to be gay. This Draconian legal code is abhorrent, and the tacit support of it demonstrated by hosting an annual international conference there is equally so.

Perhaps more worrisome is that the State of the Map website seems to me to be lying about the situation. See the text at https://2024.stateofthemap.org/venue/#safety.

LGBTQ community members are allowed to enter Kenya but it is important to mention that the nation is conservative when it comes to traditions and practices and therefore public showcasing of such related acts might expose one to public criticism. Unfortunately, there are no proper legal frameworks to protect this group of people.

“Public criticism” does not begin to describe up to 21 years of imprisonment. That this is all they say on the issue is beyond troubling: it is actively misleading. I seriously hope nobody reads this, decides to attend, and is jailed in a foreign country for their sexual orientation.

I have been an OpenStreetMap contributor for 15 years, over half my life and my entire adulthood. But this is where I have to draw the line. I can no longer offer my volunteer labor for an organization that tacitly supports criminalization of my people. As such, this pride month, I have made the difficult decision to boycott OpenStreetMap for the remainder of 2024, unless the organization can commit to some meaningful action to right this wrong. I suggest all LGBTQ allies do likewise.

Travelling to Thessaloniki today and got a 10-hour bumpy bus drive ahead.

Mapping while travelling by bus is definitely a huge challenge, but I think I managed to map Hajdaraj.

I think the village includes another area close to it, but somehow it is separated in a different residential area. Ill double check to make sure I got it all.

“#100villagesin100days #day21”