The humanitarian OpenStreetMap Community Working Group has taken the decision to revisit our scope and purpose.

We want to better serve…

• OSM communities in places vulnerable to humanitarian crisis or experiencing multidimensional poverty
• Communities or orgs that use (or want to use) OSM for social impact
• People that want to show solidarity with these communities through collaboration and support.

…and be less focused on the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) specifically.

In order to work out how to evolve, we would like to invite interested people to join us in one hour workshops to try and understand what scope, principles and objectives will serve this new purpose. We would love to have a diversity of people and perspectives inform this work.

The insights from these workshops will be used to inform a draft of the working group’s new terms of reference, which will be published in advance for consultation.

… See full entry

The 60m wide x 70m long front facing geoglyph of the Sun God is oriented close to northeast to southwest. This representation shows a stern jawline and stern mouth, two piercing eyes, and prominent nose lays on a moderate slope. The artwork has shoulder length hair and feather headdress like crown. The face depicts high cheekbones. There is no references to a torso arms or legs. The head faces straight forward, with little understanding on how it related to other nearby geoglyphs.

To the left of this geoglyph (5m) is a 25m x 25m geoglyph, It seems to be oriented in the same direction as the geoglyph of Sun God, but how its related is not clear.

The Geoglyph of the Groove Bill, 210m long x 100m wide is of a flying bird heading pointing in the westerly direction. The etching shows a side view of a body, and extended wing is propped over its body, with a long tail fluttering behind. Situated on a land surface of moderate slope along with many other geoglyphs might suggest this flying bird depiction might be part of an story. Other geoglyphs near this animal image, might or might not be necessarily related.

The OpenStreetMap Community Index is designed to show people what community groups there are within OpenStreetMap, in any part of the world. If I look near me I see a local pub meeting (sadly on hold during the pandemic), some country-level resources, and then international resources.

On a couple of occasions I’ve seen things that are missing or need updating, and this diary entry is designed to complement the existing documentation to describe what needs to be done to fix that.

Creating a local copy

In my case I already have a fork of https://github.com/osmlab/osm-community-index at https://github.com/SomeoneElseOSM/osm-community-index. There’s a “fork” button in the top right of Github’s UI that allows you to do this.

Next, I’ll create a local branch to work on. The default branch at https://github.com/SomeoneElseOSM/osm-community-index is “main” and the UI will say “This branch is even with osmlab:main.” because (in your case) you’ve only just created it. In github’s branch selector just type the name of the new branch to create. In this case I created “add_forum_at_world_level”, because I noticed that there wasn’t a link to the OSM Forum at the international level, although there are many links to country-level forums from the community index.

Next, “git clone” your repository wherever it is you want to work. I’m working on a completely new virtual machine to do this, so I have to take a slight detour first - see “setting up ssh access to github” below. Once that’s done:

mkdir ~/src
cd ~/src
git clone git@github.com:SomeoneElseOSM/osm-community-index.git
git checkout add_forum_at_world_level

Note that I’ve used a version of “git clone” that is designed to work with ssh. Github is (rightly) moving away from password-based verification and will send you a warning email if you try and use a password during the transfer period.

… See full entry

The geoglyph of the emu 75m wide by 150m long and oriented north to south on a moderate sloped terrain depicts an emu feeding from the ground. The bird is facing the viewer but also turned towards the east. There are suggestions of heavy feathering for the animal, but the current sat image is unclear if suggestions of repeated coloration changes that might be representative of long plumes of feathers were intentional for the animal. Look along of the animal’s head, neck and back. The artist rendition of the animal gives it ergonomic stature and gives the feeling this animal is a survivor. It is unknown at this time whether or not this image is related to other nearby geoglyphs. The three toed, long legs, body, long neck head and beak are etched wonderfully. It is unclear if the animal is related to the other nearby geoglyphs and exactly if there is additional stories to be told regarding this artwork.

One huge question I have about time used in tracing Nazca lines and its shapes, is the lack of certain geometries, one would expect. Very often, long distances of perfectly straight lines, with long acute angles are common, as with lots of evidence where two lines starting rather close to each other might meet many meters away to a single point.

What seems rare is having multiple lines being the same exact length, and perfect right angles. Angles that are 90 degrees or that angles of 30 or 45 degrees, perfect circles, semi circles and/or use of tangents are never seen or given much importance. The uses of golden sections, and those proportions, never seem to be given much importance. Curves and tangents from other shapes and curves are occasionally shown, plus those that relate to a specific shape or object might be well represented. significant geometric importance. One also would expect to see more use of Pi, but without true perfect squares, rectangles or circles, any calculation using Pi is also not given any special importance. There also doesn’t seem to be much whole number equally divided segmented distances. While occasionally a line might bisect, its for more organic than just that therefore not based on any grid pattern.

… See full entry

Dear all,

Today, v5.3.1 of the OpenStreetMap Carto stylesheet (the default stylesheet on the OSM website) has been released. There are no visual changes in this release.

Changes include - Natural Earth URL changed to directly point at the NACIS CDN - Added an option to the external data loader to grant SELECT permissions on the tables

For a full list of commits, see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/compare/v5.3.0…v5.3.1

As always, we welcome any bug reports at https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues

During the OpenStreetMap x Wikidata monthly meetup, we decide the person who abuse the data from Facebook MapwithAI project, the user whose account starts with c, his contribution of road data that has not been touched will all be removed. MapwithAI have trouble recognized dry creek as road, or recognized high-voltage power line as road. Manual judge by human mappers is still needed.

Despite complains from OpenStreetMap mappers, there are Rudy Map users or foreign hikers in Taiwan complain about strange mountain road that seems appears from no where. It is time that OpenStreetMap communities should interfere, otherwise that will be huge amount of low quality data import into OpenStreetMap.

We have to observate that person if he will be upset and revert back his edit. If this is the case, it is time that Data Working Group to deal with.

Resources of OpenStreetMap Foundation (OMSF), OSMF Local Chapters (LC): the question and status of paid services.

In the context of the community consultations phase of OpenStreetMap Uganda (see email 1), Poland (see email 2) and Japan (see email 3) Local Chapter LC applications, I shared my thoughts about paid services as a means of resources for OSMF and LCs. I have been invited to start a discussion of its own about this topic, hence this note.

I orginally developped this topics as well as others in the context of the MapUganda application which read as an email (see email 4) and a diary note (5) .

Since I think it makes sense to also discuss the status of paid services as a resource for OSMF and LC generally outside of a specific context, I am producing below the section on this topic extracted from my MapUganda-related email/note (4,5).

== Email extract - start ==

We shall first look back at OSMF and LC and remind ourselves of the early ages of the OSM project when its ecosystem was nascent and review some of the strengths that lead to its current affirmation.

Frederik’s question (see email 6) brings us with the non written rule or the jurisprudence behind the practices under which OSMF and LC from “developed” countries have been functioning resources-wise so far: banning paid services from their resources.

This is true at OSMF and this is equally true in given LC like OSMFR where this banning of “paid services” from the actual resources of the association is collectively restated year after year at its AGM.

… See full entry

Over the past few months HOT has been working in partnership with NESTA Collective Intelligence grants and 510 at the Netherlands Red Cross to implement an experiment to test the efficiency and efficacy of AI assistance on remote mapping of buildings.

The experiment is designed to compare the results of traditional remote mapping workflows (editing in ID Editor) with emerging AI assisted workflows (editing with RapID). To do this, we will be conducting mapping experiments of two locations (Uganda and US), with two different levels of mappers (beginner and advanced) using the two different remote mapping workflows (RapID and ID).

To this end, we are looking to run four experimental groups with > 50 people each, as follows: Beginner Mapathon - Uganda data Beginner Mapathon - US data Advanced Mapathon - Uganda data Advanced Mapathon - US data

Each mapathon will be a total of two hours, with participants being randomly assigned to map building footprints with either ID or RapID prior to beginning their mapping. Data will be gathered on the existence of map features, completeness of mapped features and similarity of map features, when compared with an OSM reference dataset.

For the mapathons we will be using convenience sampling from our networks by generating a public call for participants.

You can sign up to participate in the experiment here >

Kindness,

bo

A geoglyph of a Flying Pelican 125m x 100m depicts the bird heading west.
The shape reveals a pelican diving for food, revealing a side view of a head, eye, pouch like beak, wings, tail, body and two feet. There is a long geoglyph of a single 125m line that suggests under the pelican that there is the ocean surface.. In regards to details provided by the artist and seen from satellite, the pelican’s pouch appears properly scored, with a hook at the very tip of its beak.

The survey now offers 18 languages (Arabic, Chinese (Traditional; Taiwan), English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kurdish (Sorani), Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese).

As of today (3 February) the survey has received 2381 full responses and 962 incomplete responses, for a total of 3,343 responses. A total of 3,875 tokens have been requested.

Responses are predictably tapering off from the peak of 461 on 23 January (the day after a banner went up on osm.org), but remain relatively high with over 100 responses daily. The survey will remain open until February 14th, so if you have not taken it yet, please give the OSM Foundation five to ten minutes of your time to share your opinions!

50m x 50m placeholder

deleted Parrot with Spots.

This 20m x 50m geoglyph depiction of a standing monkey has his head turn to the west. He is oriented in the north to south and admist groups of Nazca lines on this flat topography. It is completely unclear what he is doing or what the artist intended monkey to be representing.
In the westerly direction of which the monkey was viewing, 3000m away is where Rio Nazca intersects a stream. (Suggesting a village location)

The humanitarian OpenStreetMap community working group is looking for interesting panellists for a webinar mini-series on Colonialism in Open Data and Mapping. Do you have any suggestions?

This is the explainer for the webinar:

“And while maps may be missing from digital platforms and social networks, we are still here.”- David Garcia, 2020

Maps and digital data have played crucial roles in humanitarian aid eg. disaster response. Although it is of best interest to help local communities through generating data and features on the map, humanitarian actors and mappers should take note that we are not only mapping features (houses, roads, waterways, etc), but also mapping the land, oceans, and communities who live and are stewards of that space. With this webinar, we want to examine and discuss this balance (community <> digital information), decolonising open data and open mapping, and representation and power in humanitarian mapping, among others.

There will be two events in this series that hopefully accommodate interested people in different timezones : 26 Feb 2021 at 06:00 & 16:00 UTC.

Our panel so far for the 06:00 UTC event are:

• David Garcia
• Imma Mwanja
• Feye Andal (moderator)

And, for the 16:00 UTC event:

• Trudy Hope
• La Sele
• Heather Leson (moderator)

We are looking for one more panellist for each event. If you would like to suggest someone, please feel free to get in touch via the comments or the community-wg slack channel or via email at pete.masters @ hotosm.org

For more info on the webinars that the WG organises, there is a wiki page, here.

For more info on the working group, there is a wiki page, here.

Yesterday I replaced diplomatic=consulate_general by diplomatic=consulate with consulate=consulate_general over 400 objects (266 nodes, 131 ways and 3 relations) all over the World (see osm.org/changeset/98531944).

With the release 4 days ago of the v5.3.0 of openstreetmap-carto (see https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md) “amenity=embassy is no longer rendered, and office=diplomatic with diplomatic=embassy or diplomatic=consulate is instead (#4168)”. Therefore the diplomatic=consulate tag becomes very important.

As we “don’t tag for the renderer”, don’t consider this news as an argument but as a bonus in my motivation for doing the switch.

Let me detail the reasons why I did it:

• The tag consulate=consulate_general is approved (see osm.wiki/Tag%3Aconsulate%3Dconsulate_general)

• The tag diplomatic=consulate_general isn’t approved (see osm.wiki/Tag:diplomatic%3Dconsulate_general)

• The main “diplomatic” wiki page (see osm.wiki/Key:diplomatic#Values) recommand to use consulate=consulate_general

• De facto, the consulate=consulate_general tag was way more used than the diplomatic=consulate_general one (500+ > 300+ as displayed yesterday at https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/tags/consulate=consulate_general)

• Earlier in the day I made several edits to run some tests, step by step. At one point I made the switch only in France. I then realised that:

  • Both tags are well interpreted by OpenDiplomaticMap (see https://anders.hamburg/osm/diplomatic)

  • iD editor is only supporting the consulate tag and not the diplomatic one

  • To the better of my knowledge, no other project is impacted

I also would like to highlight that this tag is a minor one: it’s only a complementary tag giving more details with office=diplomatic.

Feel free to give me any feedback about this move.

… See full entry

The geoglyph of the alligator attacking a swimming man 100m wide x 40m long is oriented east (head) to west (tail) on moderately sloped land. It appears to be chasing a person trying to swim away approximately 15m from its mouth also oriented east to west.

The artwork indicates the alligator with a slightly open mouth targeting the swimmer that is directly in front of him.

I mostly just map footpaths and pedestrian amenities because often these get overlooked. Usually just stay around Christchurch.

Aside from imports, about 99% of the features mapped in Fortuna were mapped by me. It’s an interesting feeling.

It feels like the local map is a personal creative project. Like building a model train…that, uh, helps other people navigate and travel.

The most difficult part is deciding what’s important – what counts as “progress.” One of the big problems I’ve fixed is mapping errors that make Osmand spaz out when you’re traveling along the 101 or Main Street.

I’m gravitating toward focusing on having correct lanes, turn lanes, nearby buildings, and nearby driveways along the most important roads. Then slowly focusing on less important roads as I make progress.

And osmose error hunting. That’s always fun!

New Users in Washington State

2020 saw 746 new users in Washington State make their first edit. Down just slightly from the previous two years. Anecdotally it appears that we had fewer SEO edits than in past years.

Welcome Message

Welcome messages were sent to 696 of those new mappers, up from last year. Only 26 people replied at least once to the welcome message. I should note that the welcome message doesn’t ask for a reply. Of the new users, 84 replied to changeset comments. A total of 1784 changeset comments were made on the new users edits. Not all of these changeset comments required a reply. Tips were left on 351 changesets.

Edit Quality

I tried to review all of their edits before I send out the Welcome message. Some days when I had other more pressing chores the reviews were just a quick check. In some cases I left a Tip: in the changeset comment on better mapping practices. If the edit was harmful I either reverted or fixed their edit. Harmful could mean that the new mapper unintentionally dragged a node or disconnect a road.  There were eight cases of vandalism which were all reverted.

TIPS

As mentioned above, I left 351 tips. Below are the most common tips left.

… See full entry