Tag Archive for 'OpenStreetMap'

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The OpenStreetMap Shapefiles

Published on September 21, 2008 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

Yesterday, after reading the post about routeable OSM data, I discovered the download section of CloudMade. By country they offer OSM data in various file formats. Shapefile is one of them. I downloaded the Austrian OSM data as Shapefile (still, after decades, the unbeaten #1 file format when it comes to geodata interoperability btw). There are 3 filesets included: highways, POI and natural.

After loading them into QGIS and having a quick look at the data, I must say that I’m impressed by the data quality and level of detail. Recently I proposed that our public national mapping agency should support projects like OpenStreetMap and provide parts of their road network data to the OSM community. Hereby I take this proposal back, I should’ve had a look at recent OSM updates first. The OSM road network data is, after some initial checks, better than what I’ve seen so far from our national mapping agency for general mapping purposes.

Dear mapping agency,
I’m afraid some of your departments are obsolete by now. You simply missed the train. The community has taken over your job and does it with friendlier, and probably more sustainable, licensing.

What I’ve to figure out now is a simple process how to send data edits on the Shapefile back to the OSM database. There is a good chance that we, while using the data in projects, will work on and maybe improve attributes or features. A smart tool to bridge desktop GIS and the OSM database would be very helpful here.

Another thing is to create more awareness about CC licensing and what community based work means. I’m quite often confronted with share-unfriendly attitudes like “pull down what you can get but don’t give anything in return”. There is very little understanding that sharing your work and data, base data to build individual projects on, creates a bigger benefit for all parties. I guess it’s a relic of times where geodata has been the most precious treasure you had to hide…

DIY map

Published on July 17, 2008 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , .

The problem: friends live in an area which is not covered by any map – it’s not in the local street map, Google map or any navigation system. Every time they give away the address, they have to explain where it exactly is and how to get there.

The area is old, but it was formerly used for garden plots only. As it happens often in Vienna, people started building small houses in their garden plots, then small houses start growing and transform the area into a (legal) residential area for permanent living with all necessary infrastructure provided.

Maybe their street doesn’t appear on a map because it’s a small and not a new area. Landuse slowly has changed over the past years, streets and pathways have been there for a long time but weren’t always publicly accessible. Maybe that’s the reason this area is still not in the radar of the big 2 street mapping companies: the area isn’t flagged as “recently developed, please map”.

The solution:

I showed them how to map their street in OpenStreetMap, with the result that they finally can point visitors to a nice map when asked where it is and how to get there. Mapping in OpenStreetMap through the browser interface is very easy and they will probably map their neighborhood too since it’s a totally blind spot on maps.

Yet another mapping API

Published on May 29, 2008 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , .

CloudMade, the professional service around OpenStreetMap, is offering a pre-alpha web and mobile maps API to developers.

The interesting thing about the CloudMade API is easy access to OpenStreetMap data. Compared to commercial map data used in other APIs, like TeleAtlas or NAVTEQ maps, OpenStreetMap shows addtional features like footpaths, bike lanes or tramway tracks in urban areas. Not a crucial feature, right, but here OpenStreetMap is closer to traditional city maps, maps made for pedestrians, than others are. it’s surely an interesting aspect for providing tourism or travel mapping services. Nokia maps go into that direction too and provide special features like pedestrians navigation for instance.

Another point for OpenStreetMap is its appealing cartography. Since it’s possible to export and download OpenStreetMap as vector data, I wonder if the CloudMade API provides methods for manipulating and customizing visual attributes of the map, like colors or stroke widths. That would really make a difference compared to other mapping APIs. Service providers or developers could almost draw their own maps, make their mapping service visually different from others or just highlight map elements they want to emphasize.


View Larger Map

Thanks to the export feature of OpenStreetMap’s web interface, I started using it as background map on my GPS device. A lot of places are still missing, some places aren’t as accurate as in other maps, but it’s pretty easy to cut a map slice out of OpenStreetMap’s web interface and load it onto a GPS device (instructions). [via Nick]

Got ideas?

Published on March 17, 2008 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , .

These are very exciting news: CloudMade, a commercial service based on the collaborative mapping project OpenStreetMap, got funded and now they announced “a year of mapping”, an open call for ideas to improve OpenStreetMap.

The grants (£100 – £1000+) are probably aimed to enthusiats rather than companies, but they will make life for everyone involved in OSM easier and help to spread the project. Application sounds very easy and uncomplicated:

To apply, email grants@cloudmade.com

Congratulations to CoudMade & OSM!

One year later

Published on November 27, 2007 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

I totally missed that it’s allowed in OpenStreetMap to derive vector data from aerial imagery provided by Yahoo! Maps. Apparently already since December 2006.

Last weekend, when we checked Vienna on OSM, we started wondering how come that it’s suddenly so rich on details. Did we miss a local GPS boom or mapping party?

The last time, it was summer, I collected and edited some tracks in my neighborhood for OSM, Vienna was poorly covered. Some major roads showed up and only a few neighborhoods were mapped more detailed (including parks, cemeteries or water areas for instance).

I didn’t know then that I can actually use the aerial imagery to refine my tracks and relied on the data my GPS unit returned. Reception and therefore accuracy in dense urban areas and narrow streets isn’t the best as you can imagine. Some of my tracks were way off and it was quite a hassle to put them in JOSM to a valid street network together.

However, the boost the Yahoo! aerial imagery gave OSM is impressive. Most parts of the central Viennese districts are already well covered. No wonder, it’s very easy to edit without the need of previously generated GPS tracks, directly via the browser interface.

High resolution aerial imagery + collaborative mapping tools = the real public geodata!

(With some help of the good old Gründerzeit raster, which makes mapping this city pretty straightforward I guess)

TomTom buys Tele Atlas

Published on July 23, 2007 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

According to this press release the dutch navigation solution provider TomTom is bidding for Tele Atlas, a global digital mapping company and major data supplier for navigational devices.

What’s next?

TomTom competitors ban Tele Atlas, Garmin acquires Navteq and Openstreetmap fills the gap?