OpenStreetMap

aharvey's Diary Comments

Diary Comments added by aharvey

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Reliable source of addresses in South Australia

Exactly there is no compatible copyright license for this data therefore it can’t be used in any way for OpenStreetMap. Even CC BY sources need a waiver to be compatible per highfligher74’s link to which sources are compatible.

Changing the proposal process from "For/Against" to "pick you preferred option"

Extend the vote period, ask for more people to vote? I’m not sure it does get tricky when there is almost equal split each way.

Smoothness-Ermittlung über Vibrationsmessung mit Smartphone und Fahrrad

Which app did you use? It would be nice if OSMTracker for Android https://github.com/labexp/osmtracker-android supported logging a vibration value with each GPS location.

Mapillary mapping with my LG 360 camera

@RobJN That’s right the LG360 doesn’t include a GPS, so when using the official LG app it uses a wifi connection to grab the GPS coordinates from the phone and apply these to the photos.

However this was not reliable, often consecutive photos would get the same coordinates or there would be large gaps where the connection was lost, plus it wasted my phone battery by needing to leave bluetooth and wifi on.

So I save a GPS log with “OSMTracker for Android” and then use gpscorrelate-gui to add the geotagging back in to the images, it works much better.

My Bicycle setup for Mapillary

Some tips for the LG 360 (R105)

  1. The default wifi password is 00 followed by the last six digits of the serial number (also shown on the wifi access point name).
  2. To reset the wifi password to the default, “hold down the power button and shutter button for about 4 seconds (there will be a beep)”
Introducing MapRoulette Quick Fixes

The documentation on creating a quick fix challenge is at https://github.com/osmlab/maproulette3/wiki/Creating-Quick-Fix-Challenges

A quick reflection on my Mapillary contributions this year

I had the opposite conclusion about the built in GPS actually. I have a Sony HDR AS300 with inbuilt GPS but since the GPS accuracy is much worse than my phone GPS (which has the advantage of using Google’s wifi data to help get a position especially in the city’s urban canyon), combined with the faster battery drain with GPS enabled, I disable the inbuilt GPS, record a trace on the phone with “OSMTracker for Android” and use the gpscorrelate-gui program later. In hind sight the cheaper Sony AS50 was a better option (which works great).

My Bicycle setup for Mapillary

An update since I posted this, I’ve also tested out mounting the 360 camera on a helmet, which I found works well too. Sample image https://www.mapillary.com/map/im/s4btF9pO_QKG-3WhuUulRw

Pros: * The camera is high enough to still capture a good view (not as high as a pole) * Your’ slightly more incognito compare to riding with a long pole. * Less worry about hitting tree branches

Cons: * Feels heavy on the head, but overall it’s okay.

I was originally worried about the tilt and head turning compared to on a pole, but to be honest most of the time you’re looking forward so I’m yet to see that as an issue.

Improving the Behavior of Search Engine Optimizer (SEO) Companies

For us, the hardest part was trying to block a moving target. Since a new account was added for every single POI they created.

I agree, which is one of the reasons we decided in Australia to just revert straight away. For me this is a big reason to maintain a central blacklist so at least we know which OSM usernames are linked to this kind of SEO spam.

It was a lot of effort to chase down the source of the edits, but I think it was worth it in the end.

I did think about this, but yes it would be a lot of effort. It was great that you were able to have some success doing this!

Improving the Behavior of Search Engine Optimizer (SEO) Companies

Just saw your SOTM US talk. We see the exact same thing here in Australia. Our local community decided we’ll immediately revert the changeset. The changesets all follow he same pattern so we are fairly sure this is the same dodgy SEO company and not the real business owner who maybe just made some mistakes.

I applaud your efforts to try to reform the source of these bad edits, as what we do now is really just a bandaid solution.

I would like to create blacklist of usernames that mappers can add to when they revert these changesets, so it’s easier to keep track, do you think that’s useful? Do you know of a list already?

adding an aerial sphere 360 panorama to the OpenStreetMap

By including the wikidata id on each object (like in this case), you’re then able to upload many photos to wikimedia commons and link to a selection of photos.

You thought OpenStreetMap data uses the WGS84 datum? No it doesn't!

Great write up StephaneP, glad to see this getting more attention in the OSM world, indeed it’s an important problem.

Which solution to quite simply store not just lat,lon, but also time, as in time when those lat/lon coordinates where recorded from the GPS, or time epoch when the imagery was captured?

Then either client side or server side, all those coordinates from different datums could be transformed into a single epoch based on the local transformations and plate shifts.

I think this is called a dynamic datum, but the only real change OSM need to make is storing that time value for each coordinate.

Google Summer of Code 2018 GTFS Integration Tool Summary

I’m interested in checking this out, is there a link to your code?

Dual freq GPS and map alignment

Eventually you’ll run into the issues at https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2017/03/31/osm-plate-tectonics/

New data sources available for Western Australian roads

Shame we didn’t get permission to use the speed limit dataset

Based on the waiver https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:OSM_CCBY_Consent-MainRoadsWA.pdf we can use any CC BY 4.0 licensed dataset from https://catalogue.data.wa.gov.au/organization/main-roads-western-australia

My Bicycle setup for Mapillary

I’ve been corrected at https://forum.mapillary.com/t/picture-s-of-your-bike-camera-setup/1351/6?u=andrewharvey the camera does correct for tilt. But it doesn’t expose this vector so that might explain why my masking of the area below the camera has issues when the camera is tilted going around bends.

Stay tuned for my next review the Sony HDR-AS300.

Announcing my candidacy for OSMF Board Elections 2017

Hi David,

A few questions from me.

increase representation from the AU/NZ/South Pacific Region

What do you see as the main issues we face specific to our region? Do you have any details on local matters which you’d like to take higher to the OSMF level?

and indigenous populations worldwide

I’m very interested to hear about your plans, thoughts or ideas on how we can help encourage indigenous populations to map things important to them. On a local level, http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Multilingual_names#New_Zealand documents name:mi for Māori names, but we are lacking any documentation around native Australian languages.

What do you see OSMF can help with that we can’t do already at a country level?

upcoming challenges of integrating automated mapping with the local-community focus that should always drive OSM contributions

I’m glad to see this on your agenda.

that if anything is taking away, or discouraging, local ownership of the map it is probably not a good idea.

I agreed. The most accurate maps come from the people closest to what they are mapping, both in terms of location and domain knowledge (eg. a sydney taxi driver is going to be able to map taxi points very well) and I think OSM should encourage the people closest to the map objects in both aspects to participate.

My Bicycle setup for Mapillary

The phone mount I used, eventually sheered off from too many bumps in the road, luckily I had it secured via zipties, but just be warned.

My Bicycle setup for Mapillary

@utack I’d like something standalone and reliable, but personally I find the benefits of 360 capture mean I’ll sacrifice image quality and reliability of capture which it’s easier to find in non 360 cameras.

I guess you’d need two, one for the front and one for the back?

Even without a swapable battery, something like http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1-4-Expansion-Screw-Adapter-for-Ricoh-Theta-S-M15-LG-360-Cam-Samsung-Gear-360/262513821205 would raise the LG360 and let you run a USB cable to a power bank to keep it going for the whole day. You still need to power you phone though as unfortunately since the LG360 is so unreliable you need to keep the screen on as sometimes it just stops.

Using Strava traces

You can track progress for iD integration at https://github.com/osmlab/editor-layer-index/issues/294