OpenStreetMap

dcp's Diary

Recent diary entries

What, if anything, should I do about this?

Posted by dcp on 12 August 2016 in English.

Last year while hiking in the Algarve, Portugal, I added a house with its name. Recently, I received this message from an observant contributor:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/message/read/581970

This is the pertinent changeset!

https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/41180155

by user

https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Dreganius

This is his/hers only contribution to OSM!

Bearing in mind that the name of the house was visible from the track I was walking on and that the Bing imagery is far more explicit/detailed than my OSM entry and within the definition of public domain data, then I consider “Dreganius” act to be very petty indeed.

So, what should I do?

  • nothing: What for?

  • reverse the said changeset: Dreganius could consequently do more damage than this petty act.

  • report Dreganius: And have him removed as a contributor. What would we gain?

Observations during a HOT task

Posted by dcp on 14 March 2015 in English.

I recently did a little work (for the first time) on a HOT task 892 in Africa. It was the simple task of adding highways between the settlements. Using Bing imagery we were ask to mark the settlements as landuse=residential and the connections between as highways.

Easy enough you may say and yes it was apart from some poor imagery.

However, paths of about 1 meter width were traced with a higher category even up to highway=unclassified

Tracks of one vehicle width were also traced as highway=unclassified

The highways connecting the settlements were attached to the perimeter of the landuse=residential. Routing would be impossible.

I abided by the HOT instructions and used the landuse=residential but most of the settlements were small homesteads similar to landuse=farmyard. The tag landuse=homestead would have been more appropriate but we don’t have it.

It was also mentioned that locals on the ground would clean up the OSM data after we OSMers left but is that not being a bit unreasonable. These homesteads don’t even have tap water let alone an internet connection.

I shudder to think I would have to use this data for routing!

Request Help / Bitte um Vorschläge

Posted by dcp on 21 July 2014 in English.

Bitte um Vorschläge:

Für meine Deutschkenntnisse bitte ich in Voraus um Entschuldigung.

Sachstand:

Ich wohne in ein Kleinstadt mitten in Deutschland: Ein Stadt von keine Bedeutung, es sei dann, das Sie die Privileg gehabt hast, hier zu wohnen. Rheinbach ist in OSM weitgehend erfasst und braucht nur Pflege! Es kann immer verbessert werden! Soweit wie ich weiß werden in Rheinbach die OSM-Daten von keine Firma, Geschäfte, Stadtverwaltung oder Vereine verwendet.

Außer der amtliche Homepage (http://www.rheinbach.de/cms121/) gibt es eine private Homepage (http://www.rheinbacher.de/).

Letztes Jahr habe ich folgender Email an www.rheinbacher.de geschickt:

======================== Begin Email ===================

Von: myemailadresse@***.de Datum: Montag, 30. Dezember 2013 17:14

An: theiremailadresse@***.de

Betreff: Vorschlag

GoTo http://oeffnungszeiten.ulmapi.de/

Das könnten Sie für Rheinbach auch tun. Daten sind vorhanden und kostenlos als ODbL Lizenz verfügbar. Software ist in GitHub veröffentlicht auch als . ODbL Lizenz (d.h.: kostenlos) Die Öffnungszeiten sind im Open Street Map Projekt. http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=14/50.6267/6.9526 vorhanden.

Siehe auch:

http://map.f4-group.com/#lat=50.6250130&lon=6.9495826&zoom=18&camera.theta=64.817&camera.phi=-44.404

Falls Interesse vorhanden, stehe ich zur Verfügung!

DCP

==================== End Email =======================

Vor zwei Tage habe ich folgenden Email von www.rheinbacher.de erhalten

======================Begin Email =====================

Guten Tag Herr DCP,

manchmal ist es gut, wenn man Mails nicht direkt “entsorgt”! Erinnert habe ich mich oft, habe Ihnen auf die damalige Mail aber nicht sofort geantwortet. Ich war begeistert von der 3D-Stadtansicht von Rheinbach!!! Unser seit 2010 existierendes Stadtportal www.rheinbacher.de entwickelt sich erfreulich. Dies zeigen die ständig steigenden Zugriffszahlen. Nicht nur von Rheinbachern werden wir besucht, sondern auch die umliegenden Kommunen bis nach Bonn und Köln schauen rein.

Gestern hatte ich mit einem der Rheinbacher Geschäftsinhaber und unserem Bürgermeister ein Gespräch. Thema: “Rheinbach hier lebe ich – hier kaufe ich ein!” Idee: virtueller Stadtplan mit den ansässigen Geschäften etc. Nun will ich mal testen, ob dafür openstreetmap nutzbar ist. Falls Sie Beispiele zeigen könnten, die ähnliches umgesetzt haben, würde ich mich freuen.

Für heute wünsche ich ein schönes Wochenende

Viele Grüße aus dem sonnig heißen Rheinbach

Dieter *** web-real www.web-real.de info@web-real.de

========================= End Email =========================

Bewertung:

Es gibt bestimmt massenhaften vorhanden exzellenten Beispiele was man alles machen kann mit OSM Daten.

Maßnahme: Also falls Sie Beispiele kenne bitte ich brauche die dafür betreffenden links.

Bemerkung: Links zur anderen nicht deutsche Sites sind auch erwünscht!

Location: 53359, Rheinbach, Rhein-Sieg-Kreis, North Rhine – Westphalia, Germany

notes

Posted by dcp on 8 October 2013 in English.

I suppose we have all used the new “notes” feature either to clear up something or to point out to other contributors that something is “probably” wrong and should be surveyed. Up to now I have only added notes and not solved any other issues.

Well, today, I decided to do my little bit and try to solve a few “notes”, but I could not: Why?

My equipment comprises a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx for locating, tracking and noting waypoints of OSM pertinent POIs. I have a Samsung Galaxy installed with OSMAnd+, which I use for viewing OSM Data, dictation and picture taking. Nothing out of the ordinary then, you all have similar equipment.

So my first thought was to transfer the notes (coordinates and text) in text form to the Galaxy: I could not find a methode so I gave that up.

Ok, no problem, I thought. I’ll make a text list on paper, i.e. download the coordinates and notes in text form and then enter the coordinates into the Garmin manually: I could not find a methode so I gave that up.

The only methode that I can think of is to write the coordinates and notes manually to a piece of paper. In my case that would have been about 20 notes. I would then have to enter the coordinates of the first “note” into the Garmin and navigate to these said coordinates, solve note 1 and repeat for note 2,3,4…….20.

Needless to say I did not start. I gave up!

Now some of you out there may have a good idea of how to do it. I can’t program so I am looking for a simple solution: i.e. Create waypoints for the Garmin which can be tranferred either using MapSource or EasyGPS. I could then sequentially navigate to each “note”, solve the issue by reading the “note” text from a piece of paper or on my Galaxy:

Anybody got any ideas! How do you go about/solve “note”-problems?

GPSmap 60CSx Request for advice

Posted by dcp on 26 November 2011 in English.

I am presently in Cyprus mapping the E4 Cross-European Rambling Route. Unfortunately my Notebook was defect on arrival so I cannot transfer my tracks to Mapsource and hence to OSM. In addition I did not bring my GPSmap 60CSx documentation with me. So here my request for advice.
The GPSmap 60CSx Track Log is about 90% full.
If I Save this Track Log to the micro-SD, will I be able to retrieve it later and transfer it to Mapsource with no negative effect. I ask for this advice as I have never done it before and I do not want to lose the tracks before adding the data to the OSM databank.
I'll be greatefull for any advice and greetings from sunny Cyprus.

The Best of Bing

Posted by dcp on 14 May 2011 in English.

The Barragem de Alqueva/Embalse de Alqueva (Relation Number 1.464.895):
With a surface of 250 km2, a lakeside of 1.200 km (about 1.000 km on Portuguese territory, the rest in Spain) and a length of about 85 km the "Barragem de Alqueva" is today the biggest artificial lake in Europe.

It would have been impossible to map this object without the help of aerial imagery in the detail that BING gives us. The only other way to have mapped this for OSM would have been by using official data from some other source. It took 4 months to complete.
I do not know how many nodes and ways (and islets) it contains, as I cannot download it in JOSM as a single entity as it is too large. I think I mapped about 100-200 islets and over 10.000 nodes but it is just a guess.
View it in OSM:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=38.4006500244141&lon=-7.27157592773438&zoom=10
Pictorial Map
http://www.alqueva.de/alquevakarte.html
Website in Portugies, German, English
http://www.alqueva.eu/

Portugal, Algarve, The Via Algarviana Trans-Algarve Rambling Route

Posted by dcp on 13 April 2011 in English.

Once again this winter, I travelled to the Algarve to escape our ghastly north European weather.
Last year I mapped a small area west of Albufeira very extensively. It was white space before, just as it is in the most parts of Portugal.
This year I found that the Portuguese have a Trans Algarve rambling route starting at Alcoutim on the border with Spain and ending at Cape St. Vincent on the Atlantic coast. I stumbled on it by chance so I checked in OSM and one OSMer had surveyed a very small stretch of it in the Monchique mountain area.

In the limited time available, I managed to survey only about 70km (total length is about 260km)but I had to walk 140km to achieve this as we only had one car to do the job.
The route is beautiful but cannot be too well known as we met only one managed group of 14 Swiss walkers and about 4 other couples during the whole of our 15 days.
The Via Algarviana (Route GR13) is/will be an extension of the European rambling network.
Now it would be nice if some of the OSM users who also like rambling would continue with the mapping of this Portuguese national rambling route. I just do not know if I will be able to do so at my age.
The relation number is 1516318
and can be seen using the OSM Relation Analyser
http://ra.osmsurround.org/
and
http://osm.lonvia.de/world_hiking.html
The official site is at:
http://www.viaalgarviana.org/ingles/index.html
so if you have not yet planned you vacation: Go to Portugal and have fun.
Words of caution:
It is too hot in Summer.
You have to wade through some small streams so take trekking sandals and boots.
Refreshment underway is almost non-existent.

Via Algaviana: Cross Algave Rambling Route

Posted by dcp on 19 March 2011 in English.

I have been rambling along this route for 2 days now and would like to add a OSM relation to map this wonderful route.
See:
http://www.viaalgarviana.org/ingles/projecto_oquee.html
What I don't know is: Is/Are part(s) already mapped and does a relation number already exist which I should add to.
I don't know how to search the relation data base for a "RELATION-NAME"
It would seem to me that a name related search should be possible:
i.e. Seach for "El Camino de Santiago" (Jakobsweg in German)(Way_of_St._James in English)

See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James

Any ideas
Thanks
dcp

Requesting advice/help: Linking to OSM with track overlays

Posted by dcp on 19 January 2011 in German (Deutsch).

I want to create a website to record my rambling groups' routes.
Linking into OSM is easy but I have yet to find a way to overlay our track onto the OSM map. It would be even better if I could use Bing in this endeavour.
Has anyone done this already? If so please let me know.

dcp

ps I am not an experienced java man. It should be kept simple.

Bing Imagery

Posted by dcp on 25 December 2010 in German (Deutsch).

First of this Bing imagery is great even if outdated!
Second, but more importantly, thanks to all the OSM experts for making it so easy to use.
However, can anyone tell me why many tiles are missing and replaced by an icon; Camera in circle with a diagonal line!
Example: My small town of Rheinbach in Germany. North Rheinbach has Bing imagery, south Rheinbach doesn’t.
N 50.6247 E 6.95

Merry Christmas

dcp