German Fast Facts now available

Hi All

Here’s a newly revised German version of the Fast Facts. If anyone would like the InDesign file, please email me – paul@cloudmade.com.

Paul

November 28th, 2009 - Posted by Paul Jarratt | 1 Comments

Heard about the Atlanta Mapathon and want to set up your own? – here’s how

Some suggestion on how to organize a Mapping Party.

You may have recently heard about the Atlanta Mapathon that OpenStreetMap members in Georgia threw on October 16-18 on the BBC Online, AJC or Fox 5 News. This event brought people from all over the city together for a giant weekend mapping party. The Mapathon was a fun way to kickoff the Atlanta Mapping Initiative, a collaborative effort to make Atlanta one of the best represented cities on www.osm.org. Now, following the success of the Atlanta Mapathon, people in communities all over America are joining the international volunteer effort to create a free and open map of the world by organizing their own OpenStreetMap events.

To help newcomers, experienced OpenStreetMap members and community groups join forces to map their cities, we have put together a few pointers on planning a successful mapping party. We hope this information provides some useful tips, helps you avoid some common pitfalls and ensures that your city is also one of the best of OSM.

1. Get acquainted with OSM, pick a date and determine a target area

The first step to planning a mapping event is to sign-up for an OSM account and an account on the OSM wiki page. These two accounts will give you access to edit the map and provide you with a place to post your mapping event, connect with other mappers and see how OSM members in your area are already contributing. Connecting with experienced mappers can show you where work in your local area has focused and where additional work is needed. The information contained on the wiki can also provide you with background knowledge about the project and important terminology and procedural issues.

Next you should pick a date, location and target area for your mapping party. We suggest you work with city and or county officials to determine which, if any, permits are needed and check for competing events planned for the day of your Mapathon. Pick a location to host the Mapathon that is in a safe area with easy access to parking and public transportation. It is also a good idea to look for a place with free internet and meeting space. When you have selected a date, location and target area, post the event on the OSM wiki events page. You should also contact other OSM members in your area to notify them of the event.

2. Team up with local organizations

One of the biggest factors in the success of our Mapathon was the participation of local community and non-profit groups. By teaming up with established organizations you will be able to put more sneakers on the ground the day of your event. These partners can help plan and publicize the event, and bring new perspectives and contributors to the map.

Some great places to look for partners are your local university GIS clubs, municipal GIS departments, hiking and outdoors clubs, community development groups, open source user groups and GIS professional organizations. These groups can help with technical issues, promotion and volunteers.

3. Get sponsors where possible

The more people who attend, the more GPS units you will need. Getting a sponsor for your event such as a local outdoors store, mapping company or university to provide GPS units to mappers is always a good idea. When this is not possible, using walking-papers is always a good option. This allows mappers to record points of interest without a GPS receiver.

4. Secure several meet-up locations

If you get everyone to meet in one place, you’ll only get one piece of your city mapped. Encourage each of the organizations that you are partnering with to lead a base station and promote the locations heavily in any press coverage. Not only will you get better data from mappers if they’re mapping their own neighborhoods, you will get people who are passionate about keeping their section of the map up to date. For the Atlanta Mapathon, we provided kits to each location which included the following:

• Printed Walking Papers of the area around the Mapathon location.

• Garmin eTrex GPS units that could be borrowed by mappers

• Pens and paper for recording data

• Internet access and work-space

• ‘We’re on the Map’ OSM stickers for bars and restaurants to identify points of interest that have already been added to the map.

Securing press coverage

In order to build interest in your Mapathon and get as many people there as you can, getting the word out is vital. Here are a few tips for success:

1. Draft a press release.

For the Atlanta Mapathon, we issued a press release a month prior to the event and followed up with the main regional newspapers, then radio and TV. We chose to target one national online publication with the largest reach possible, for an exclusive story as soon as we had drafted the press release – this happened to be the BBC. This resulted in may other news outlets distributing the story.

We also drafted a release in conjunction with our NGO partners – we obtained quotes from their most senior executives – which helped strengthen the news story.

2. Get the regional press involved

After distributing our press release, we followed up immediately on the phone with the main regional paper for Atlanta and invited a journalist along to the training day to experience how to map ahead of the big Mapathon event. This gave the journalist time to take photos, interview people and write the story ahead of the Mapathon – the article came out the day before the mapping event helping drive traffic to the event.

3. Getting broadcast media to cover the story

Two weeks before the event we reissued the press release to local TV and radio stations and syndicated news organizations such as Associated Press. Tell the producer or reporter who you’ll have available for interview and what their involvement in the event is. Also, make sure you get their cell phone number and provide yours for backup. Ensure that you mention OpenStreetMap.org in any interviews or use some OpenStreetMap pop-up stand or banner as a back-drop.

4. Manage press on location

Ensure you have some experienced mappers and organizations prepped and ready to speak to press. Have 3 bullet points you want to get across and stick to them (these should revolve around: what, when, why and how)

5. Get in Touch

Good luck with your Mapathon. Should you need any advice please contact us at:

Thea Clay: thea@cloudmade.com

Paul Jarratt: paul@cloudmade.com

October 29th, 2009 - Posted by Thea Clay | 0 Comments

Highways Getting Fixed

Last month we set a challenge: Fix duplicate nodes appearing in the most “important” levels of the highway infrastructure. At that time there were 7,414 errors. Today, there are 1,462 – a drop of almost 6,000 or 80% – well done everyone!
(more…)

October 26th, 2009 - Posted by Matt Amos | 0 Comments

The Atlanta Mapathon –Taking it to the Streets!

Last weekend the city of Atlanta, Georgia was taken over by a group of more than 150 OpenStreetMap members who gathered to kick-off the citywide effort to make Atlanta the most digitally mapped city in America. Despite the unseasonably cold weather, the Atlanta Mapathon was fun and productive.

Prior to the event, a feature article covering the Mapathon appeared on the BBC website and quickly became the 3^rd most read story and fourth most forwarded the day it came out. Interviews with Steve Coast about the event also appeared on CNN Radio Network (which has 2,000 affiliates worldwide) and The Atlanta Journal Constitution, the main regional paper in Atlanta.

On Friday, October 16, Paul Jarratt and I meet the Atlanta iPhone & iTouch Developers Meetup Group at the Gordon Biersch Brewery for pizza, beer and a great presentation explaining the cool ways OSM and CloudMade maps can be used in iPhone and other mobile applications. The turn out for this event was fantastic and topics of discussion ranged from reverse geocoding to stylizing maps. I can’t wait to see the innovative ways this amazing group of developers will use the data being collected by mappers.

The next day, marked the first day of widespread mapping. More than 70 volunteers met at 8 locations across Atlanta. Atlanta-Fulton County Public Libraries generously donated space in 8  library branches for mappers to meet. The Mapathon Headquarters, located at Central Library in downtown Atlanta was a hive of activity. Due to the sporadic drizzle and chilly temperatures, mappers popped in and out of the HQ throughout the day. Some mappers even stayed inside to work on importing data for Ga Tech and other local universities. The crucial behind the scenes work done by these volunteers to streamline the imports process will make it easier for individual mappers, universities and small/mid-sized municipal departments to share their data with the community via OSM. Below are a few snapshots taken by OSM members while they roamed the streets of Atlanta recording points of interest, public amenities and other features that make Atlanta special.

The Mapathon continued on Sunday with mapping parties being held at 4 AFPL branches. Attendance was fantastic with over 60 mappers combing the streets of Atlanta looking for cool points of interest to add to the map. Many of the partner organizations who joined OSM to put Atlanta on the map came out with their members to show their support of open data and contribute to the project. These same organizations are now taking the lead in establishing a sustainable mapping community to continue the work that was begun during the Mapathon. You can find out how to join the Atlanta Mapping Initiative by visiting the Atlanta wiki page or registering for the new OpenStreetMap Georgia talk-list.

Press coverage that followed included Fox 5 News in Atlanta which covered the entire weekend event and a feature article on Georgia Public Radio.

If you would like to learn more about throwing a mapping party in your community, please contact Thea Clay at thea@cloudmade.com.

October 21st, 2009 - Posted by Paul Jarratt | 0 Comments

OpenStreetMap Fast Facts

Hi

I recently joined CloudMade as a communications professional and one of the first things I did was to create a two page Fast Facts document that provides a snapshot of OpenStreetMap. I’d like to share this with you to use as you see fit.

It’s been specifically designed for press in mind, who don’t have a lot of time on their hands and want to get up to speed really quickly on what OpenStreetMap is and does. It could however, be used for a number of different purposes by the community, for example as background material for any new partners or members, for events as handouts etc. Please feel free to use the document how you wish.

If anyone has any suggestions about what they’d like to see included in the next revision, please email me and let me know. Likewise, if you’d like the InDesign source file to update the document yourself, please email me and I’ll forward it on to you.

The file name of the document refers to the date when it was created – we’ll be making sure it’s updated regularly and posted out to the community.

Paul – paul@cloudmade.com

October 2nd, 2009 - Posted by Paul Jarratt | 2 Comments

The Atlanta Digital Mapping Initiative – putting Atlanta on the map!

As OpenStreetMap (OSM) continues to gain members from all corners of the world, the CloudMade Community Team is working to strengthen and expand the community of map contributors and groups who support OSM in the US.

One of the projects I am especially excited about is the Atlanta Digital Mapping Initiative, which aims to make Atlanta the most detailed US city on OpenStreetMap within the next six months.

The project was born out of a meeting with Georgia URISA, a non-profit association that promotes the effective and ethical use of spatial information. After learning about the history of OSM, how local businesses, students and civic groups can benefit from open geo data and some of the amazing projects being accomplished in other parts of the world; this g roup of GIS professionals and students became determined to make Atlanta standout as the first major American city to encourage widespread use of OpenStreetMap.

Any experienced mapper can attest that such a large project would be impossible without the help of dedicated partners and volunteers. After a few months of intensive work, what began as a series of conversations about the lack of options available to geo data consumers, grew in to a collaborative initiative to build the map of Atlanta. CloudMade and Georgia URISA are now pleased to be joined by: Georgia 4-H, the GeoGeorgia Initiative, the GeoTech Center, the Technology Association of Georgia, the Georgia GIS Coordinating Committee, the Gainesville State College Geospatial Alliance and dozens of neighborhood associations, community groups, students and private citizens in our effort to put Atlanta on the map.

Reaching our Goals

So far, the Atlanta OpenStreetMap community and their partners in the Atlanta Mapping Initiative have met a number of times to establish a set of goals for the project:

• Make Atlanta, Georgia (inside the perimeter of I 285) the most digitally mapped city in America.

• Form lasting ties with community groups in Atlanta and encourage them to add mapping to their regular activities.

• Obtain open data that can be added to OSM.

To reach our goals, the community will gather open data and work with OSM members, GIS students and partner organizations to upload it to OpenStreetMap. There will also be a series of large mapping parties to add layers of detail and richness to the map and build the OSM community in Georgia. Representatives from the Atlanta OSM community have also joined together to begin the process of bringing some of the oldest and most reputable organization in Georgia into the folds of the local OSM community.

In August the first major milestone was reached when the Georgia GIS Clearinghouse and the GeoGeorgia Initiative facilitated the donation of the Georgia GIS Clearinghouse to OSM. This donation is in addition to the efforts currently underway at Gainesville State College, Georgia Tech and Zoo Atlanta to add their maps to OSM. Similarly, Georgia 4-H Clubs are working to incorporate regular mapping activities into their Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) and Environmental Education (EE) curricula. We are looking forward to see the impact that these young mappers will have to OpenStreetMap over the next year.

The Atlanta Mapathon & Training Session

The first major mapping event in Atlanta, on September 12-13th, was the Mapathon Training Event. More than 50 people joined the Mapathon Planning Team (shown in the photo below) to take part in a training session where attendees learned how to map and received hands-on instruction on using a GPS, recording points of interest and tracks and making edits to OpenStreetMap. On Saturday the group met at Centennial Olympic Park and Sunday at Grant Park near Zoo Atlanta.

The official launch of the Atlanta Digital Mapping Initiative will take place on October 16th -18th with the Citywide Mapathon. During this event, OSM members, students and volunteers from our partner organizations will be hosting community mapping events at Central Library in Downtown Atlanta and 10 other Atlanta-Fulton Public Library branches. For more details about the Mapathon, visit the Atlanta homepage . If you would like to take part in the Mapathon, please register here. If you would like more information about hosting a mapping party in your neighborhood during the Mapathon, please contact Community Ambassador Thea Clay at thea@cloudmade.com.

I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

October 1st, 2009 - Posted by Thea Clay | 0 Comments

Fixing Up Other Roads

At the beginning of the month we started running a map to help people find the duplicate nodes on motorways which needed fixing. Initially there were quite a few in North America, but this has dropped steadily until, on 2009-09-18, they were all cleared up. There’s still a few around, notably some in northern Spain, but they’re largely cleared up. Congratulations to everyone — You’ve completed Level 1!

Level 2 is much, much more challenging. We’ve expanded the search to look for duplicate nodes which are part of the “important” highway infrastructure; motorways, primary roads and trunk roads. And, at the time of writing, there are 7,414 of them. The errors in these roads don’t cause as much trouble on long-distance routes as the ones on motorways, but they cause more on middle- to short-distance routes. It’s pretty difficult to get to a motorway without using a primary or trunk road in most places

Happy fixing!

September 23rd, 2009 - Posted by Matt Amos | 1 Comments

Fixing Up Motorways

OpenStreetMap is not only built by a global community of volunteers, it’s also maintained by those volunteers. But how does a potential maintainer find bits of the map which are broken? As an experiment, we’ve been running a process to find duplicate nodes on motorways around the world. These duplicate nodes mean that, although the motorway looks correct on the map, the two ways making up the motorway aren’t connected and it isn’t possible to route across them. The results of the experiment can be found at Harry’s FunMap page and below:

We’ve been updating the data regularly, usually daily, and collecting the results on the OpenStreetMap wiki page for the “250 Cities” project (an umbrella project for this experiment and various other cool things). What does the data tell us?

Looks like there’ll be none left next weekend! Awesome work everyone!

September 3rd, 2009 - Posted by Matt Amos | 1 Comments

5th Anniversary Party

We’re not really sure how it started, but archaeological evidence suggests that it was approximately five years ago when Steve Coast created the OpenStreetMap project, kicking off the wonderful worldwide mapping collaboration we all know and love. To celebrate this approximate anniversary, it was the OpenStreetMap 5th Anniversary party on Saturday. And this year there was cake! There was cake in Japan, cake in Toronto, and cake in London.  …and then there were more cakes in London:

All in all, a lot of cake was eaten, and we had a great gathering, with key community figures travelling from afar to be there (There was the small matter of the Foundation AGM too, but clearly most of us were there for the cake) It’s always been a global project, but we’re really starting to feel it now, with a multiligual website, multilingual maps (experimental), and a more international team on the foundation board for the coming year. Clearly it was only natural that we party across several continents on OSM’s 5th birthday, and expressed our global ambitions through the medium of cake!

More photos on the wiki page and Steve has posted a video interview with London cakemakers

August 25th, 2009 - Posted by Harry Wood | 1 Comments

Live OpenStreetMap

Have you ever wanted to know who is editing right now on OpenStreetMap? Now you can! Check out this cool map of the world that shows where anyone is editing in real time anywhere on the planet!

July 14th, 2009 - Posted by Hurricane McEwen | 0 Comments