News from the world of OpenStreetMap No. 472 (07/30/2019 - 05.08.2019)

How to carve OSM data into a slade plate - by Harald Hartmann ¹ | Foto Harald Hartmann | Map data OpenStreetmap contributors

Mapping

• Discussions continue (on Twitter , on the mailing list ) around the online editor from Facebook - RapiD'a . If you want to seriously immerse yourself in this topic, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with the last thread on the mailing list, as it understands the pros and cons. A relatively objective analysis was made on the MapRoom blog.
• The tagging scheme for complex crosses has been approved . Need help translating the WikiOSM article into other languages.
• Voting has begun for the introduction of the following new tags: staff_count:doctors , staff_count:nurses , insurance:health and healthcare:equipment .
• Thomas Straupis inquired about the “Tagging” mailing list: what will be higher in the hierarchy of roads - a country road or an office road? As expected, the opinions were very different.

Community

• Roland Olbricht published (automatic translation ) the Overpass API User Guide . Despite the fact that it is still under development, such important chapters as “Introduction”, “Selection of spatial data” and “Search for objects” are ready. Roland is waiting for feedback. You can contact him directly, on the mailing list or in the GitHub problem tracking system.
• Harald Hartmann wrote an article (automatic translation ) on how to cut a card on a slate. He tells how to take data from OpenStreetMap and convert it to a format that can be used when programming a CNC machine , which then will actually cut the desired object.
• User Cepesko provoked a lively discussion about whether the Bavarian Spessart Nature Park exists. (automatic translation )
• Once again, Ilya Zverev organizes the election process for the OSM Awards. Not so long ago, he announced that it was already possible to vote .

Developments

• At the FOSS4G 2019 conference, which will be held in Bucharest from August 26 to 30, the non-profit organization GeoForAll plans to hold its meeting (08/28/2019 from 18:00 to 19:30 Bucharest), where plans for the future will be discussed. At a similar meeting a year ago, participants from all over the world discussed how to promote the ideas of “openness” in the fields of science and education.

Humanitarian OSM

• Felix Delattre talked about how the work is underway to update the "Task Manager" from HOT. In February and March, they studied user behavior in various programs. As a result, HOT decided to integrate the “Task Manager” into the online editor iD, which should simplify the work of cartographers, as well as facilitate reference support. It is assumed that now cartographers will be able to report on the completion of a task directly from the iD editor. In turn, integration will allow loading in iD such sets of tags that are most suitable for a particular territory or are necessary within the framework of a specific humanitarian organization project.

We pass to OSM

• The Spanish airline Air Europa uses OSM to display its flights , and also informs passengers about where the data comes from ;-). Julio Costa Zambelli adds on Twitter that Flightpath3D is a provider of map applications for more than fifty airlines.
• Raul Perez from Spain tweeted that thanks to his efforts, the OpenStreetMap is now used as the base map in the WordPress plugin “The Event Calendar”. In his blog, he told ( translation ) how exactly he did it. At the moment, no one has left feedback on this decision and has not checked whether it works.
• A large Russian service for booking hotels, Ostrovok.ru, began to use a card with its own style based on OSM, but did not properly indicate attribution.

Licenses

• Nuno Caldeira ironically lamented that neither Mapbox nor Facebook followed the OpenStreetMap attribution rules .
• Takayuki Ishino drew attention to the ongoing discussion in the Japanese cartographic community about proposed changes to the list data sources that can be used in OpenStreetMap. The main question is: is it possible to use data from official websites that provide primary information. The answer, apparently, depends on how many elements you manage to copy before the owners of the website restrict the use of information from it. (automatic translation )

Programming

• Jason Manoludis spoke about his progress in developing a 3D render of road signs for the OSM2World converter, which generates 3D models of the world based on OpenStreetMap data. He finally created a catalog of road signs, which now allows OSM2World to define and configure materials only through a configuration file, without the need for their presence in Materials.java.
• The information stored in the Wikidata project (Wikimedia project to create a repository of structured knowledge) can help improve the calculation of importance scores in Nominatim, which in turn will allow you to get more relevant geocoding results. User tchaddad, who is currently working on a project in the framework of the Google Summer of Code project , talks about the structure and work with Wikidata using the Eiffel Tower as an example, and also shares his thoughts on how Wikidata can help Nominatim.

Releases

• OsmAnd has released a new version of its OsmAnd Tracker app. The Tracker app allows users to share their location via Telegram. The new version has a “live track” function, which shows in real time the movement of your contacts on the OsmAnd map.

Do you know ...

• ... about the various ref tags at public transport stops? Typically, a local operator is specified in ref , for example, ref:IFOPT is an international unique identifier (in continental Europe). If different platforms (in the bus, tram, metro or train station) have numbers or letters for marking, then this can be marked as local_ref .
• ... how to note the visibility of the trail? There is a tag for this - trail_visibility . This property does not depend on other properties of the trail, such as width, smoothness, surface. Because, for example, the trail that runs along the surface of the Salt Lake may look like an asphalt road and be wide and smooth, but it will be very difficult to see.
• ... about the lightning card ? In real time, thunderstorms flash on a map based on OSM.
• ... that the Regional Environmental Protection Agency, a service of the Azores Regional Government in Portugal, has developed a website called “ On My Island ” where citizens can report environmental incidents (pollution, abandoned waste, noise, fauna and flora disappearances). Geolocation is performed using OSM data. Attribution is correct.

Other geo events

• Azavea made an online map that compared the contours of buildings from the Microsoft Bing dataset with OpenStreetMap.
• Mapbox is clearly dumping , offering guaranteed email support for only $ 50 per month. Paul Ramsey on Twitter suggests that Mapbox is now donating revenue to increase market share. There are several more versions of such a bold move.
• In 1969, two companies were born, which then began to develop one of the most effective technologies used today. These are Intergraph, now Hexagon (originally called M&S Computing), and Environmental Systems Research Institute - better known now as Esri. An article in two parts by Joe Francica was published in the Directions Magazine, in which he describes the history of the development of commercial GIS in the period from 1969-1994 . and 1994-2019
• The use of deep and machine learning in cartography is becoming increasingly popular. Benjamin Herfort reported on his experiment, in which two data sets were combined, one of which was obtained using the MapSwipe service, and the other through an in-depth study of satellite images and the OpenStreetMap map. As a result of applying the combined method, maps were compiled that were more accurate than the crowdsourcing version. According to their estimates, almost 80% of the work was done automatically.
• According to Space in Africa, in March this year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the Australian government joined the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley charities to help fund the Africa Data Cube project. The Data Cube project, developed by Geoscience Australia, is an open source cloud platform for processing and analyzing Earth observation data.
• The Polish company TatukGIS has launched its own server with OSM tiles, which is available for free if their software is used. Four types of tiles are available: standard and with relief, each of which in turn can contain the names of objects in either English (international) or local.
• In the German city of Wuppertal , the outboard train (also called Schwebebahn) again started operating , which was closed almost 9 months ago. For 7.10 € you can buy a ticket valid for one day and make an air flight on the back of the “steel dragon” along the Wupper River.

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Communication of Russian OpenStreetMap participants is in the Telegram chat room and on the forum . There are also groups on social networks VKontakte , Facebook , but they mainly publish news.

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Previous issues: 471 , 470 , 469 , 468 , 467