OpenStreetMap

FTA's Diary Comments

Diary Comments added by FTA

Post When Comment
Pokemon Go trash

Hi,

I think there’s some great discussion in the comments here. We have a major deficit of mappers in the US and the younger generation is a great group to try and keep on board. They are active, have great memories, and have a lot of free time.

Many of these users have added real and useful data–they just stray at some point and add fake data, so my intention is to steer them back in the right direction. If they continue to add fake data after being told not to, then that’s where blocks can be useful (possibly equivalent to a spray water bottle in the cat analogy).

I’ll also dispel a few notions possibly implied here.

You happened to catch the tail end of my DWG work for one evening where I had commented but not reverted. I had been reverting other fake edits that evening prior to this comment.

My commenting process is not automated, where something is never reviewed after I comment. In fact, this changeset was in my followup queue for the next time I had a block of my personal time to volunteer to the DWG, which was this afternoon. So please don’t conflate friendliness in the changeset comment with ignorance or an oversight.

It’s often the case the DWG gives mappers some time to respond before reverting.

Cheers, Ethan aka FTA

Expanding the OSM Community

Simon and SOSM, that is great to hear you have been doing this for a while! Part of my initial suspicion I believe was likely the result of reading that diary entry at some point in the past year or so.

It’s definitely anecdotal but most of the times that I have reached out, the user has been very receptive and absolutely had questions that I was able to answer or clarifications that I could resolve. Did my initial contact push them to continue editing and be active? I’d like to think so, but that’s optimism at best. If nothing else, I would think that friendly exchange at least gave them a positive image of OSM and possibly convince them to “recommend us to a friend or family member” (as all those business retention surveys say).

My main hope is to help organize this in countries that don’t have such a program already in place towards greeting people and following up when they have questions. The workflows presented are a great way to tackle this issue and I think will continue to inspire the mission. That said, I think some of the upfront effort investment to get this kicked off and organized in other countries (the US, for example) could be mediated with a tool that aggregates this information and provides a ticket-like infrastructure to check off who has been contacted (so that they don’t get spammed) and help make that nearby person connection.

1111 Changesets!

Hahahaha this is great!

A year's difference, locally

Very wonderful! I am from a small rural town, and so I was in a similar situation in my town being much more up to date than the commercial maps when I originally focused on it in OSM. Keep up the good work! There’s something so satisfying about seeing the before/after pictures after doing all that work.

house numbers with a leading zero

I am glad to see that OSM DOES retain the leading 0 :)

'We Fit' FAIL, Google FAIL, OpenStreetMap WIN

Great new article finds! I remember an article a few years ago about some island I think in the Pacific Ocean that many of the big maps listed was there but OSM didn’t…and that’s because it didn’t actually exist.

First thoughts

I too switched to OSM a few years ago from GMM. Editing here is so much easier…especially if you download JOSM and edit on your computer. Better than having to wait for the browser to load every time you select a new node or way. I’d continue editing with what keeps you most interested. I bounce around between railroads, golf courses, roads, and random villages in Asia. I think your dispatcher experience will provide unique information and awareness of features in the area. I’m in the Wisconsin area and would be glad to help if you have questions/need advice. Just send me a message!

Dutton Park Cemetery

Hi Shaun,

That’s great work! Two questions for you…

  1. Do you like the TwoNav software? I’ve used OSMTracker in the past, but am always up to trying new apps.

  2. Have you considered uploading the GPS traces to be included in our database, too? The link to do so is here.

Regards,

FTA aka Ethan

MapBBCode: free maps for everyone

This is great!

Constant (re)mapping

I wonder how much cell data this app eats through. I imagine the major carriers don’t let that data go free that verifies the location of the tower and associated IP addresses.

The TIGER versus OpenStreetMap Battle Grid, improved!

Thanks for posting the Battle Grid…this is something I will have to check out more often. I edit in mostly rural places and am saddened that some of these places haven’t even been touched since the original TIGER import. The typical TIGER import artifacts always seem to pop up (like the V shape right near a road intersection or many many nodes in one little area) in these places. I will start removing the tiger:reviewed=no tag whenever I line up ways now to help with these efforts of comparison.

My first map edit

Never heard about OpenGeoFiction…I might give this a shot when I am tired of mapping in the real world. I do wonder if any maps exist of real fictional worlds (pardon the oxymoron), like Tolkein’s or Martin’s.

Looking for android gpx logger for POI collecting

I’ve had good luck with OSMtracker as well. It has the capability for voice recording AND picture taking if you desire. I’m sure with a little programming they can set it up where you activate recording via a bluetooth button. I do know whenever you click the voice record button, it records for a few seconds and then stops after an amount of time you set in the settings, so that eliminates a second button click.

osm2pgsql command lines

I lol’ed, as I have felt this pain numerous times before.

How to efficently fix an accidential moved area

Thanks for the plug about the changeset manager! I’ve had a situation or two where I have needed to use something like this but couldn’t find an addon. Now I know :)

GPS Traces

Thanks all for the comments! I’ve decided for the sake of determining proper speed limits, I will keep most of my traces public, as they are in-city. However, I will definitely have to check out some of the tools mentioned.

Love!

Thanks all for the comments and tips! The kind of alignment issues I am talking about is I guess a small one (see below:

I have gone ahead and aligned them as best as I can with the aerial footage. These are moves of maybe a metre or two, not miles. Best!