4th Jan 2025 and 10 Million, nodes that is, I’ve set, dragged, deleted as at yesterday and the 2 days downtime broke the 1500+ days series of uninterrupted mapping. Here’s to the next.

April 1, 25 , really, and we’re on 11 Million, 3 months near exactly or 11,111 nodes a day, keeping me from the streets away.

Sept 12, 2025, a slow one with six zeros added to get to 12,004,134 exact. It’s a still summer and sunny so the pushbike will be getting more attention today.

Dec. 12, 2025, ‘back on track’, one more million nodes in 3 months exact, only 13,011,800 according to the HDYC tracker.

As time passes I am delving further into the discovery that I outlined here, and contextualised a little more here and all relating to the Fingal task set up by myself and the osm community three years ago.

In quantum of the problem there are new data available from the Heigit counting service. This shows that as the validation continued up to the 18th December 2024 when the task was a year old an additional 14 thousand missing buildings were added.

Looking further into this missing building set it is distributed as follows by building tags:

*building=shed up 3700

*building=garage up 1800

*building=farm_auxiliary up 200

*building=service up 58

*building=ruins up 56

There is also some re-tagging of building objects from the building=yes tag, which mappers were requested to attempt to do.

… See full entry

Since yesterday, we’ve updated our Map of Mithraea using OpenStreetMap and Leaflet – and we’re quite pleased with the result!

If you’re interested in archaeology, ancient Rome, or Indo-European traditions, we invite you to explore it here: https://www.mithraeum.eu/tabula

Vale, The New Mithraeum

On the 22nd and 23rd of November 2024, I visited the Ho Technical University (HTU) YouthMappers chapter for an exciting two-day program sponsored by OSM Ghana. These two days were not just about mapping but about igniting passion, fostering collaboration, and sharing stories that inspire.

Day One: Presentations and Knowledge Sharing

… See full entry

I’ve deleted OSM node 151352138 which was place=hamlet name=Dominion within the city of Longmont, CO.

It looks like this node was (automatically?) added to OSM based on USGS GNIS feature id 178314. This GNIS feature 178314 includes the following, my emphasis

• Class: Populated Place
• Feature code: Unincorporated Place
• Description: railroad siding
• Entry Date: October 13, 1978

I’ve lived in Longmont since 2008, and I’ve never seen or heard anyone refer to this location or area as “Dominion”. This GNIS “railroad siding” feature should never have been added to OSM as a place=hamlet. I checked current aerial imagery, and while there is a BNSF railway line nearby, there is definitely (no longer?) a siding near this location.

So in changeset 160974302 I’ve deleted OSM node 151352138 which was place=hamlet name=Dominion

https://americanamap.org/

Wikimedia Commons

Stolpersteine

Einige Stolpersteine haben keinen Commons-Bilder, weil sie eigentlich Sammel-Stolpersteine sind

area["de:amtlicher_gemeindeschluessel"="15002000"]->.municipality;
(
nw[!"wikimedia_commons"]["memorial"="stolperstein"]
  (area.municipality);
);
out;

Noch mehr Commons-Bilder für diverse Nodes

area["de:amtlicher_gemeindeschluessel"="15002000"]->.municipality;
(
(nw["historic"="memorial"][!"wikimedia_commons"](area.municipality););
(nw["amenity"="clock"][!"wikimedia_commons"](area.municipality););
(nw["tourism"="information"][!"wikimedia_commons"](area.municipality););
);

out;

Earlier today I OSM-stumbled upon a stele marking the western front line of the First World War in Belgium and France. In Dutch we apparently call them demarcatiepalen, a term which I find amusingly technical sounding. In French they’re often called les bornes Vauthier, named after the veteran who took the initiative of erecting them. Carved from pink granite, they stand about a metre tall. There’s a whole line of them, but I noticed that they could use a lot of work, so that became my project for this evening.

After a few hours’ work (including some distraction due to nearby unmapped stables), the 19 extant Belgian steles have all been found, added and homogenised in OSM and referenced to the database of Onroerend Erfgoed, the heritage agency of the Flemish government.

Tada: https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/1Wtx

… See full entry

This last 5 years I have been faced with a terrifyingly real and all consuming gang stalking problem (concept which I didn’t even fully believe in until at the grips of it myself), bringing with it cognitive dissonance, dissociation and confusion through gas-lighting, bullying, financial and emotional abuse by those who are supposed to be closest to me.

it feels like I have lost all sense of footing; like solid ground could very well turn out to have been ocean this whole time and it would not be all that shocking.

My participation in this project is an attempt to help me reconnect with myself and my surroundings

By deliberately noticing everything it encompasses, and by thoroughly researching each of it’s composing elements to be able to represent them with as much fidelity as possible, I hope to regain some sense of direction and purpose and find refuge from stagnancy, isolation and depression.

Hi, my name is Joh, 
and I will stand strong and make best of this, and every situation. 
I shall bend not break,
I shall be, 
Because I have as much right to do so as everyone else.

This is the developer’s diary concerning the fifth year of the damn project – the project that helps mappers by dividing a big area into smaller planar shapes that people can map together.

The damn project is currently used by few mappers as a tool for tracking personal mapping. (Does it make it a competitor to the SimpleTaskManager?)

In 2024, we had some problems:

• We had performance issues when working with more than 300 000 squares in a single area; we solved these issues by pagination and forbidding creation of areas with more than 10 000 squares.

• The damn JavaScript clients confuse mappers and we need to be serious about it; we will address this issue in 2025, but it’s not yet decided how. We are open to ideas!

2024 did not bring much to the damn project, though there are some highlights:

• Probably no suprise that we moved to OAuth2. The amount of work is -21 lines of code. We welcome such changes.

• I wrote Unofficial design documents for HOT Tasking Manager.

  The original intent of the damn project was to show that HOT Tasking Manager (HOT TM) can be done better. To help HOT TM developers, last year I wrote Unofficial design documents for HOT Tasking Manager. There is (obviously) more reasoning and comparison than in the damn server dev doc, but I don’t think it will help anyway. There is too much work and I saw the HOT TM source code. It’s unmaintainable, in my opinion.

• We implemented enforce divide to squares function when creating new area.

  If the (area’s GeoJSON)’s FeatureCollection has member 'name' then divide to squares function is NOT used. In such a case it’s expected you already divided the area – this is for compatibility reasons with MapSwipe. enforce divide to squares overrides this behavior, enforcing the division of the area to squares even if the 'name' member is present in the GeoJSON’s FeatureCollection of the area.

And finally, the plan for 2025 – there are two main things:

… See full entry

Hi all,

In 2025, we have plans to integrate [Relocate.me]{https://relocate.me} with OpenStreetMap to rely on contributions from a global community of mappers, ensuring it is updated frequently.

More to come!

2024…I’ve learned a lot of things…

• I mapped some trees at my university.
• I love nature! So I helped @Ludway map his school with some kids. There, I practiced my knowledge of trees and species. I learned how to measure a tree! Also, I learned about some botanical things.
• I mapped my neighborhood and learned how to map buildings, shops, paths, etc.
• Now I’m envolved in YouthMappers, and I’m very proud of that.
• I met amazing people like @AngocA, @JuanMelo and @se_bras , who have taught me many things about the GIS and how develop proyects.

This was a great year, I hope next year will be better!! :)

It has been a productive year for me on osm yet I am still reaching for a more comprehensive map of both Anchorage and greater Alaska.

Mapping Natural Features

This year I continued to map large swathes of natural features in Alaska. It is still very much an open canvas to add features and without even a goal in mind it has been easy and quick to add large areas in small osm breaks throughout the day in 2024. Corollary studies published this year on the prevalence of Alzheimer’s based on occupation points to reduces occurrences with jobs requiring constant active direction finding (ambulance drivers and taxi drivers in particular). It’s been hypothesized this is from activation or stimulation of the hippocampus. That’s something I imagine I can trigger to some degree with mapping that I wouldn’t get from my typical computer work. I feel as though osm is keeping my brain sharp at least.

My First 2025 Goal

… See full entry

TODO

En 2023 tuve la oportunidad de ser parte de la organización del SoTM Brasil, el primero de su nombre. En este año que ya se acaba pude participar y ayudar en la organización del grandioso SoTM Latam 2024, que ha sucedido después de muchos años sin él.

He tenido la oportunidad del reencuentro con grandes amigos y hacer nuevos amigos Geniales. A mi me encanta tener contacto con mis hermanos de Latinoamérica! Algunos de los mejores (seguro que me voy a olvidar de alguien, disculpas jaja): Juan, Johnatan, Andrez, Leonardo, Celín, Emilio, Silvia, Yessica, Maya, Gustavo, Patricia, Graeme, Leticia Maria, Zorka, Salim. Y más gente muy chévere que todavia no recuerdo sus nombres jajaja

… See full entry

As I wrote some time ago, I started mapping (remotely) in Indianola, Iowa. I have now reached completion (as complete as it can be with the imagery available) with buildings and added more street furniture, minor highways etc.

In total, I added or modified 6,428 buildings.

… See full entry

Manchmal lädt man sich nicht alle Daten in den Editor. Und manchmal vergisst man betroffene Dinge. Passiert mir auch immer wieder.

Mitte dieses Monats bin ich auf eine Serie von Änderungen gestoßen, wo Wege aufgeteilt worden sind, ohne Routenrelationen mitzubearbeiten. Und weil da zwar viele Routen betroffen waren, aber alle Lücken räumlich begrenzt waren, hab ich mir gedacht ich probier, ob ich das nachträglich programmatisch angehen kann, die OSM Editoren schaffen das ja auch.

Die Daten hab ich schnell abgefragt und nachdem ich über alte turnlanes:turns-Relationen gestoßen bin und die zusammen mit den Abbiegebeschränkungen überprüft hab, hab ich mich auch schon den Routen zuwenden können und zu basteln begonnen:

… See full entry

Well over a year ago I extracted all the https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity=pub objects for Great Britain. Nearly 860 keys are used across all the elements. I’ve spent some time delving into these keys, trying to classify them, and hopefully learn a bit about two things: the kinds of information people want to know about pubs; and why synonyms exist for certain keys and tags. I’ve been prompted by SomeoneElse’s list of building tags.

A pub which I recently edited on OSM adding https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:real_fire=yes.

… See full entry

Meu primeiro State of the Map LatAm presencial aconteceu de forma especial: em casa, na minha querida Belém-PA. Este evento foi muito mais do que um marco profissional; foi uma experiência profundamente pessoal, que celebrou uma história de resiliência e construção colaborativa que perpassa o ato de mapear.

Tudo começou em Montevidéu, no evento Abrelatam de 2023, quando Juan compartilhou comigo a ideia de trazer o SOTM LatAm para a Amazônia. Desde então, foi quase um ano de preparação para realizar o primeiro evento desse porte na região, vinculado ao FOSS4G 2024, que também tive a honra de coordenar. Mais do que uma conquista, foi uma oportunidade de estar envolvida em todas as etapas do processo: do lançamento da proposta à escolha da data, local e identidade visual.

… See full entry

‘Home’ now listed as a point