Thought it worth posting this.

After much frustration I have come up with what I do regarding amenity=parking and highway=rest_area (plus details) and have been running this way for 6-12 months. This is live data input (my eyeball/camera/recording etc) as I drive through. I think there have been maybe 1200-1400 objects so far!

I have generally adopted a formal vs informal data set. Formal is almost based wholly on site signs and informal on a mix of triggers and interpretations.

This generally only applies to regional places, not so such towns and high population areas.

There are always contentions! I have come across many (other mapper) highway=rest_area objects that are not “my formal”, as I make no allowance for locations that “could be”. Indeed any parking area could be an informal rest area, so are informal ones needed at all? In the end I sometimes use informal=yes or informal=no to clarify.

So looking at the SA and WA govt databases and my limited travels, SA calls everything “rest areas” and their naming system starts “RA”. This is also seen on roads where virtually every stop has a rest area sign at 1km before, followed by a “P” or two. WA calls everything “stopping places” with a plain number designation. It’s almost as if “P” locations in WA are not allowed to be rest areas! There is also a distinct lack of HGV defined “P” in WA where I wonder if trucks actually get stuck in small ones! Of course Qld is quite unfriendly in defining large areas with useful facilities as HGV only, but that’s another story!

The “informals” are basically NHVR Green Dot, Stockpiles/gravel pits and any place that looks like a truck has been parking for a few years! I also map gravel pits that “could be” used for parking.

So onto the process.

MAIN DECISIONS

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b-unicycling has her own wonderful YouTube channel, where she mainly focusses on history aspects of osm, and I recommend all of you reading this to subscribe and understand the infectiousness of her enthusiasm and zeal for mapping.

State of the Map Asia Conference 2022: We had a very great time from the very beginning to the end of the conference. We were really very excited to be part of the conference with our team representing Omnecal. We explored the natural beauty of Legazpi City, Philippines, and its people are really very amazing. We recommend visiting Legazpi as it is truly a beautiful place with wonderful people.

There were different kinds of workshop sessions, panel discussions, speaker talks, and many more on Open Street Map Technology and its application to make this world a better place to live. We have learned more clearly that OSM technology has a very big potential to impact the open community. OSM technology can be used as a tech tool for solving real-life problems in our community. We have realized lots of new possibilities through omnecal to provide a better map view with public transportation information, with the OSM technology.

We also had the opportunity to talk with our mentors and inspiring people from big organizations like Meta, Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), etc. It was an honor to share our thoughts with them and establish a mentorship connection with them.

We met many friends from the Philippines and different countries at the conference. They were really very friendly and great people, and we had a memorable and beautiful time with them. Although we all met through the conference, it felt like we had known each other for years. Thank you to these great people for making this trip wonderful.

Thank you for this incredible experience at the State of the Map Asia Conference 2022 in Legazpi City, Philippines. It was an absolute pleasure to be a part of such a diverse and inspiring community of Open Street Map enthusiasts and professionals.

… See full entry

Recorded a track using opentracker app for a 100km journey through the backroads. Phone was placed as far back on the pillion seat to get maximum view of the sky. No kalmann filter or anything.

The resulting track was very smooth, extremely few jaggies. One particular section of note is at the newly opened elevated highway that is probably at least 10 stories high. Due to the slanted imagery, the traced highway and the gps track differs by about 15 meters. Personally, I won’t bother realigning (although the temptation is very irresistible) - besides somebody else would probably moved it back according to imagery. I learned long ago that trying to get people to check imagery alignment with the provided cm level survey points before editing is a hopeless endeavor.

Still, I am pretty excited with the raw GNSS measurement ability of the phone and intend to set out more survey points just for the hell of it. Waiting for kind, knowledgable people to provide an appimage for the gnssanalysis software since I couldn’t get past installing matlab whatever in its current form.

изучаю осм

Heute war ich mal seit längerem wieder mappen, mit StreetComplete. Dabei ist mir aufgefallen, dass hier in Holzlar schon viel gemappt wurde :) Gibt es eigentlich in Holzlar eine kleine Mapping-Community?

It might sound like a no big deal or a win to some people, but to me, it’s a big one. I became an advanced mapper on OpenStreetMap in 2022.

I joined the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap as a volunteer mapper in the year 2019. Unfortunately, I was not active until 2020, during the pandemic. I was introduced to HOTOSM after I joined the Youth Mappers FUTA Club (an affiliate of HOTOSM) as an undergraduate.

In December 2021, I saw a tweet about volunteers that mapped for over 100 days in 2021 on OpenStreetMap, and I was compelled to take up the challenge. I improved my participation and moved from a beginner mapper to an intermediate mapper. I could not map for 100 days but I had over 50 days, which made me eligible for the OSM Foundation member.

Though it is a volunteer task, I must say that I enjoyed every bit of it. Creating solutions that tend to the needs of humanity and also a blueprint that stands the test of time. Feels like a Super Hero (winks).

And yeah in 2022, I added to my new year resolution, to become an advanced mapper on OpenStreetMap. To achieve this, I started strong by contributing daily to OpenStreetMap. I focused more on disaster responses except when I joined mapathons organized for a different need.

It’s a pleasure to have me mark this as a success in my resolution list, and I won’t stop contributing to humanity using the OpenStreetMap tool.

Recently, the Every Door editor became available in F-Droid, and I thought this was a great reason to tell you what I like about this editor.

On osm.org does not support video, so the article will be on telegra.ph https://telegra.ph/Why-you-should-try-Every-Door-01-02

Оригинал на русском языке: https://telegra.ph/Pochemu-vy-dolzhny-poprobovat-EveryDoor-01-02

I just realized that I should mention here that I’ve been putting a good deal of effort (in fits and starts) into combining relation/12907666 with adjacent wooded areas and converting it and the areas around it into multipolygon geometry. It’s a huge job and I only work on it every now and then, but I’m pretty pleased with it as an example of what well-designed geometry can be.

I started my OSM journey as a YouthMapper with the University of Cape Coast YouthMapper chapter in 2016. It was very exciting and I loved every moment spent mapping projects on the tasking manager. This increased my zeal in wanting to become a cartographer :) , I can’t tell if it still holds now because I have grown to like the varieties in the mapping field…

Being a YouthMapper was a privilege because I got the chance to work on a project with OpenStreetMap Ghana through our late patron (Mr. James Eshun) which was also very exciting. The project was the Open Cities Africa, Accra Project which was sponsored by HOT. It was in the year 2018 I got to learn about Open Data Kit (ODK) and Open Mapping Kit (OMK). I also got to know about other open source mapping tools such as OSMAnd, OSM tracker and Maps.me. We did some remote mapping using JOSM and ID editor, mapping buildings, roads, POIs etc. and also went to the field to field validation.

After school I then joined OpenStreetMap Ghana as a volunteer and was privileged to be nominated to be part of the board members. As someone who loves to volunteer it was another opportunity for me to learn an also give back to the society.

For the love of contributing to OpenStreetMap, I had the opportunity to join the HOT Data Quality Internship(DQI) in 2020. There I learned more advanced ways of mapping using JOSM and other Open source tool such as QGIS. This sparked my interest in making sure data contributed was of good quality. I again joined DQI in 2021, it was an amazing encounter and another chance to learn about data quality and other open source tools such as OSGeo , Mapillary, Mapbox etc.

Although, I do not mapped as frequent as before, in order to keep myself in check, I joined OpenStreetMap Africa monthly mapathon where I get to map and validate mapathon tasks and also I go to the tasking manager to contribute to urgent projects.

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Wie jedes Jahr update ich nach und nach meine Statistiken. Angefangen habe ich heute mit den implizierten (oder blödsinnigen) Tags an Autobahnen, und da ist - ähnlich wie letztes Jahr - nichts passiert, wo man was unternehmen müsste.

daumenhochsmilie

ι’м loѕт wιтн тнιѕ ѕтυғғ!! ☹️

This is the fifth in a series of posts which I’m doing inspired by other users’ monthly updates. This is only around a month later, so it’s brief

Catalina Island

In the beginning of December, I did day hikes on Catalina Island, southwest of Los Angeles. The Trans-Catalina Trail is already well-mapped on my route from the airport to Avalon, but I was able to map a few picnic table + shelters, and a one-way drive loop. On the Lone Tree trail, there are several steep points (I was surprised that a Jeep can drive these); one had an unmapped footpath detour (with official signage) around the steepest point. Another point has ~half of a trail. I included it for completeness, and to show that it doesn’t lead anywhere.

Lincoln Park

On the sidewalk I saw a sculpture “Gourd Man” which was missing from OSM. Articles about it typically say that it is in Village Green, but here it is (was it moved? is it a copy?). Anyway I added it.

UP Tacloban YouthMappers: 2022 Retrospective

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The damn project helps mappers by dividing some big area into smaller squares that a human can map. This diary is about the work done in the third year since the publication.

And, to be honest, not much has been done. I had a little of time this year. Still, there are some interesting improvements.

Deployment and server

I will start with probably the most boring stuff: I worked on the documentation and tests. That is thankless work, but I believe it pays off in the longer term. In short – 35 files changed, 1675 insertions(+), 842 deletions(-) and you, as mapper, should not see the difference before/after.

In parallel, I worked on the refactoring deploy. I have moved some upkeep procedures already and I will slowly continue the work.

Notathons

The most motivating for me, I think, is a feedback with a request like “hey, we are working on this and we need that”. This time it was from guys organizing notathons. We improved the damn plugin for JOSM to download notes automatically and periodically. Also, when using the plugin, the changeset comment is (finally!) automatically set based on the area information.

Get inspired by issues of similar projects

I wrote already about damn project point of view on some issues. From that diary, I think that this issue is solved by option to Review newbie, or Map or review work of other mappers workflow.

Because there are not many issues with the damn project (I do not complain!) I sometimes look up interesting issues somewhere else. So, what is there?

First two here and here deal with locking of multiple tasks (squares in damn) for mapping or validation (review in damn). Locking of multiple squares goes against the principle of “divide and map” and therefore it is problematic, but there are valid use-cases. When you need to map multiple squares, merge them first (in mappy client). Do the same with the squares you want to validate, but it is probably better idea to set which mapper in the damn plugin for JOSM instead.

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Few hours to end 2022, so I told my self that it’s a must to pen my experiences in the state of the map Nigeria 2022. It was a wonderful experience as a local Organizing committee member to host the first ever state of the map conference in Nigeria. It seem like an impossibility with lot’s of challenges that faced us, yet we pulled through together with our capacity coordinator Sir Victor Sunday spear heading us. The arrival of our participants and guests hyped my expectations of the conference that I have to put more energy to make it a reality. Indeed it was a reality and amazing one for that matter. My expectations weren’t unmet. I made new and wonderful friends like Petro from Tanzania, Mohammed Ali, Mamman from Abuja, Letwin from Zimbabwe and our wonderful women wing lead Chisom whom I’ve been eager to meet all along. It was like a reunion for unique mappers in general. To all the LOCs Light, Promise, Victor, Chinenye, Joana, you were all amazing and made a rewarding team. Thanks to all our sponsors and contributors to a successful inaugural state of the map 2022. Thanks everybody and Happy New year in minutes.

Few hours to end 2022, so I told my self that it’s a must to pen my experiences in the state of the map Nigeria 2022. It was a wonderful experience as a local Organizing committee member to host the first ever state of the map conference in Nigeria. It seem like an impossibility with lot’s of challenges that faced us, yet we pulled through together with our capacity coordinator Sir Victor Sunday spear heading us. The arrival of our participants and guests hyped my expectations of the conference that I have to put more energy to make it a reality. Indeed it was a reality and amazing one for that matter. My expectations weren’t unmet. I made new and wonderful friends like Petro from Tanzania, Mohammed Ali, Mamman from Abuja, Letwin from Zimbabwe and our wonderful women wing lead Chisom whom I’ve been eager to meet all along. It was like a reunion for unique mappers in general. To all the LOCs Light, Promise, Victor, Chinenye, Joana, you were all amazing and made a rewarding team. Thanks to all our sponsors and contributors to a successful inaugural state of the map 2022. Thanks everybody and Happy New year in minutes.

◈ 대량 작성 : 성남시, 군산시, 대구 남구, 인천, 광주, 부산 해운대, 구미, 제천, 춘천, 천안 남부, 대전

◈ 2개이상 작성 : 원주, 전주, 해남, 순천, 부산충렬사앞, 대구북구, 영주, 평창, 평택, 안성, 시흥

◈ 하나씩 : 서천, 담양, 영암, 강진, 서대구, 영천, 김천, 옥천, 괴산, 예천, 안동, 정선

COMMUNITY WORKING GROUP MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME

Ever felt cold shivers down your spine because of a particular challenge but at the same time you want to face it head on? This was exactly how I felt when Arnalie asked ‘Would you be available to facilitate for your group, Chisom?’ in her sweet subtle voice during one of our Mentorship review meetings.

I was shocked to my bones and I literally had goose pimples all over, I didn’t see it coming. It would be my first time handling such a role and my group members are all experienced persons in the geospatial sector. All I wanted to do was scream ‘Nooo!’ out of fear and uncertainty but at the same time, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and challenge myself for a change, so, after a little silence while battling with these thoughts in my head, I responded ‘Yes, I’d love to’. After accepting the role, I was encouraged and she told me I could always reach out to her if I need her assistance.

After the meeting, I received a message of my expected duties as a facilitator and all I could say was ‘Lord, help me’.

Gradually, I started initiating conversations on the group slack page (which was one of my responsibilities) and on the 7th November, 2022 we held our first group meet where I was the official facilitator. As the time for the meeting drew near, I got more anxious, I could only hope to get it right.

Fast forward to the meeting and every other meeting and discussion we had as a group via Google Meet and on the slack page, all of which turned out great and smooth, all thanks to my awesome group members; Laxmi Goparaju, Anuradha Rajanayake, Antonin Haas and Charles Chilufya. They were all supportive, never withholding any of their great ideas to ensure we succeeded as a team and together, we were able to deliver our legacy project in good time. I grew more confident with each meeting.

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This year I mapped my first POI with a Punycode website: a Japanese cafe/ice cream shop in Brooklyn called Amai Bā (node/9795586991).

The website is https://www.xn–amaib-jwa.com. This was posted via QR code, taped to the shop window before the cafe opened. I’ve been hoping it would reappear on the permanent signage, but nothing so far – possibly because the website is still an empty placeholder.

Punycode https://www.xn–amaib-jwa.com is the agreed standard RFC 3492 way to encode https://www.amaibā.com. This is necessary because the Unicode character ā (a with macron, used mostly in rominisation of non-Latin writing systems) is not part of the letter/digit/hyphen character set supported by DNS, making amaibā.com an Internationalized domain name. Under the hood, xn–amaib-jwa.com is the “real” domain name, but most modern browsers are configured to show the site as amaibā.com.

… See full entry