It’s been a while since I last wrote about iD’s development and thought it would be a nice idea to make this a more regular thing in addition to the regular online community chats.

Recently, there have been some new features implemented that are worth showcasing, including several great ways that community members are stepping up to contribute to iD.

iD v2.30 release

In his Google Summer of Code project, Mattia Pezzotti has implemented support for street level imagery from Panoramax. Panoramax is a relatively new completely free and open-source alternative to other street level imagery providers such as Mapillary, KartaView or Bing Streetside. It even includes features like a federated system architecture and the possibility to self-host the server software if you need to. Check the project out on panoramax.fr to read more and how to contribute your own pictures.

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Read part 1 here.

I drive through the new RCUT intersection again today, this time making a GPS trace of my movements. I attempted to make each of the possible turns in the configuration. I did have to make one illegal maneuver, as the left turn north from Athens-Boonesboro does not go anywhere, and, while the light is installed and the turn lane unblocked, there are signs indicating that no turn is possible from that lane. The light is (as far as I can tell), in a semi-permanent red arrow state until the side road is developed. Since the turn lane is divided from the main road by a concrete island, the only way out is to make an impermissible left turn or unsafely reverse back into traffic. I chose to make the left turn. Cones or bollards are probably warranted to keep motorists from accessing the left turn lane to nowhere.

Based on this trace, I attempted to align the nodes for the separated left turn and U-turn lanes to the correct positions. Since the lane begins further back from where the dividing island begins, there is some ambiguity on when to split the lane into a separate line; I chose to break it off roughly where the dividing island begins. This makes for a less visually appealing line, but it does semantically indicate where lane changes are still technically possible.

This matches the approach I saw elsewhere on OSM, in Troy, MI. Apple Maps does the same thing (possibly with OSM data), while Bing Maps maps the entire turn lane as separate. Google Maps has a very interesting mix where one direction breaks away at the dividing island, but the other direction breaks away much further back in the turn lane. Google Street-View imagery from November 2021 shows bollards dividing the entire turn lane, so their system must’ve used that as the dividing point . Bing Maps imagery collected in April 2022 do not show these dividers.

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Glad I found this app so I’m able to help out, as my neighborhood is very very much out of date! Many roads are missing and names are missing for many roads on the map…. Now, if I can figure out how to actually get my note to save, or how to name a road, then I’ll be in business!! hahaha.

Introduction

Another little update. I am writing these, usually, on Sundays. Since I am still a new user of OSM I am writing these as a little how are things going. I wanted to share my experiences and ideas with the greater OSM community.

Confused

I am still doing the mapping and having a super hard time in some ways. I have a disability and if the OSM community could make the program more accessible that would be helpful to a lot of folks. I am haaving a really hard time mapping and understanding what the tools do. For instance attributes like car=wheel, just took that out of the air. I am not fully understanding the relationships and how many should be tagged and if there is a standard block of them already made up for new users. If anyone has any ideas on how to understand the relationships more please feel free to let me know.

Disability and Accessibility

I know I just mentioned that I have a challenge and I am curious what the OSM community is reaching out to folks with challenges. Keep in mind I know nothing about what OSM is or has been doing to make this possible. Its a thought I had.

GitHub

No idea what github is and I am not sure if I should use it or not. I would love to learn more about it and what I can use it for and what one cannot use it for.

StreetComplete

I am having a lot of fun doing this. Its simple yet important information. I am super curious about what happens and what the data collected goes towards after a quest is completed. Its simple yet I feel I am contributing in a small simple way.

Conclusion

Its not much but some questions and thoughts this time. Have a wonderful day!

Ask

If anyone knows of any answers to my questions, or thoughts, or people I could reachout to please let me know and feel free to DM me.

Pete Masters called our attention on this new feature for communities on OpenStreetMap, so I decided to give it a try.

First thing to say is that it resulted me very confusing, not only the name -as is told in the comments of the original publication- but the sign up process too. Here are some screen captures to ilustrate the process:

This part was easy but confusing. I had to take a look at the URL to be sure I was not trying to create another OSM user. And I had my OSM user live and open in another tab.

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Lexington, KY is in the process of installing new “RCUT” intersections on Athens-Boonesboro Road 0, to support future development, including a new pro soccer stadium 1 along the corridor near the I-75 interstate access. I am attempting to add the features as they go live. The first section, at Competition Drive went live on 2024-07-22. I have made a first cut at adding it in this edit, basing it off of the map imagery provided by the state transportation cabinet, a drive-through I made, and an existing similar intersection in Troy, MI.

Still todo:

• I think I may still need to add 2 signal heads for the Competition Drive side street.
• I need to drive-through again and record a GPS trace to align the nodes.
• There are still multiple changes that will be made to intersections along this corridor in the coming months.

Strava > OSM

1. Export GPX from Strava ride
2. Upload to GPS Traces
3. Wait
4. Trace over it
5. For multiuse choose “Cycle & Foot Path”

“Where a pathway is designated for pedestrians but is also allowed for bicycles you can use highway=footway and bicycle=yes.” osm.wiki/Tag:highway=footway

About a year ago I wrote about my experiences of mapping in Bonaire. It’s time for an update.

Satellite imagery

One of the challenges I had was adding data without high quality and recent imagery. Luckily, earlier this year the ‘Satellietdataportaal’ (Satellite Data Portal) made high resolution data available for Caribbean Netherlands.¹

License

First things first though: are we allowed to use the aerial photos they publish for improving OpenStreetMap? There is a long thread on the Community forums. Whether it’s allowed or not depends on the agreement the Dutch government has with the satellite data provider.² Luckily, in the topic itself it is discussed that it is allowed to use Pléiades, SuperView and TripleSat.

Geoblock

The downside? You can only use this in The Netherlands. The data is geoblocked. I’ve added a lot of new streets and buildings in Bonaire over the past few weeks, but only other people currently in The Netherlands would be able to validate that I’m mapping actual buildings. The rest of the world would need to wait for a worldwide aerial imagery provider to update their data.

Selecting the satellite data

In the Satellite Data Portal Viewer, after selecting Bonaire from the top left menu, you then need to select a part of the area for which you want to see the satellite data, then it gives you a list of options. Currently for Bonaire there are only three options (as we’re only interested in recent and high resolution satellite data). * Pleiades-NEO January 9, 2023 * Pleiades-NEO April 18, 2023 * Pleiades-NEO June 17, 2023

The January one is generally too cloudy, but the April and June ones are useful. Use the April one if you’re looking at the Western part of Bonaire (Rincon and Washingtong Slagbaai National Park) and use the June one for Kralendijk and all of the east and south.

You can simply click on ‘Select for WMTS’ which fetches you a link.³

Setting the background

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Update for the past 10 days of the mapping challenge.

Today I mapped the last village on the list, so in 71 days i have mapped around 100 villages. Since my initial personal challenge was to map for 100 days, I will continue mapping and add villages to the list. I will finish mapping what is left from the Online Mapping Party for OSM 20th birthday. List of villages is we mapped and what is still to be mapped is here.

Villages mapped during the past 10 days:

1. Vorrozen

2. Levan

3. Pilur

4. Kodër

5. Toç

6. Skrevan

7. Arn i Epërm

8. Lofkend

9. Ogren-Kostrec

10. Lenmushë

11. Rrashtan

12. Raban

13. Skënderbej

14. Kuç

15. Jezull

16. Shpatanj

17. Arrëz

Heyy! I am very excited to share our latest OSM-NG development progress with you. Apologies for the slight delay — I wanted to wrap up some work for this week’s diary.

🔖 You can read other development diaries here:
osm.org/user/NorthCrab/diary/

⭐ This project is open-source — join us today:
https://github.com/openstreetmap-ng/openstreetmap-ng

🛈 This initiative is not affiliated with the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

📹 Video Summary

It’s been a while since our last video showcase, so let’s recap the recent progress in video format. It’ll also give you a better feel of the new exclusive profile backgrounds feature.

⬇ Click below to play ⬇

or click here: https://peertube.monicz.dev/w/5fKNRsq2K8jRyF22zEG5px

Profile Backgrounds

With OpenStreetMap-NG, users can now customize their profile backgrounds, making their personal pages even more personal. It’s time to show off your personality!

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im a new user and i was able to download a first map in pdf, however i change to transport map as i want a clean version of my map to edit on illustrator and i cant download. might use some tutorial or any help is highly appreciated

I did It. Successfully Completed 20 th osm Birthday Celebration Srilanka.

Celebration Date : 11th August 2024

Thank you all Speakers, Presenters and participants for making this 20th osm birthday celebration success. and once again thank you accept my Invitation. #Taichi Furuhashi #Pawan #Janjan Villar Orano #Priscovia #Sangeetha BC #Dibikshiya #Ark Arjun

Thank You So much everyone……

#openstreetmap

#20th birthday celebration Srilanka

#eastern university srilanka

It’s been over two weeks since the last progress report, and it’s time to update on the current status.

Project Progress

The core modules of the project have now been largely finalized, allowing us to enter the latter stage of development. The upcoming work will mainly involve adding new features within the existing framework.

Render

Firstly, the rendering part has been set up, though there are still some details that need polishment, such as styles and elements controlling the rendering. These will be adjusted in sync with the subsequent feature development to ensure that the styling aligns with the editing logic.

API call and XML obj

I’ve developed an OSM API module that wraps some of OSM’s interfaces using Promises and parses the returned XML into a JavaScript object for easier manipulation within the program.

Editor’s status management

Following that is the editing module, which primarily includes the operation logic and global data management.

For the operation logic in map editing, I’ve introduced a state machine, which manages the current state of the editor by listening to mouse and keyboard events. The state machine, referred to as “stateMachine.js” in the code, handles state transitions and data maintenance based on the functions and state relationships provided in the state diagram. Depending on the current state, it determines which actions to trigger and the new state to transition into. The state machine provides hooks that allow other components, such as mouse events in Pixi.js, to track events. Editing operations are carried out during state transitions.

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I was having a conversation with another mapper about the resolution of notes where the resolution of the note requires some local knowledge. These notes that require local knowledge may remain stale for a long period of time. You can read the full conversation here.

However, it is not uncommon that notes are resolved by people that are mainly interested in resolving notes. Anecdotally, based on the fact that I put in a lot of notes, there seems to be just a select few people that are going around resolving notes as their primary OpenStreetMap contribution, or at least a major part of it. I have all the respect in the world for these people. And to Danmer’s point, they don’t have enough help to get all their notes resolved, so leaving them unresolved, because notes only have two resolution options—they’re either open or they’re closed—can be challenging.

If the primary note resolution engine is people that most likely have no local knowledge, it is counterproductive to rely on that corps of people to address these notes that require local knowledge.

I think that we could probably classify notes into three categories:

1. Those that anyone can resolve with just aerial photography and potentially some street-level photography.
2. Notes that require some information that is not available with strictly what is presented to a remote editor, such as local knowledge, or something in the person who wrote the note’s mind.
3. Spam.

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After years of development, I am excited to introduce a proposed feature for OpenStreetMap called Communities. Formerly called Microcosms, this feature is designed to bring mappers together and facilitate collaboration. On the main OSM website, it will be located on the Communities page.

What is Communities?

Communities are groups of mappers who share a common goal or interest. They can be formed around a specific geographic region, such as a city or neighborhood, or centered on a particular theme, like humanitarian mapping. The purpose of Communities is to provide a platform for mapping teams to connect with one another, work together as a team, and organize events.

Key Features

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My Journey as an OM Guru Fellow: Empowering Communities Through Open Mapping

Introduction

In January 2024, I embarked on an exciting journey as part of the OM Guru Fellowship program under the Open Mapping Hub - Asia Pacific. As one of the 50 selected Guru Fellows, I had the opportunity to join the Training Track, focusing on conducting training sessions, webinars, and mapathons for community members. This fellowship aims to foster a sustainable OpenStreetMap (OSM) ecosystem in the Asia-Pacific region by building the capacity of new and experienced mappers alike.

Getting Started

The fellowship began with an orientation, where we learned about the scope of work, our expected roles, and the various activities we would undertake over the next five months. As a Training Track Fellow, I was excited to engage with diverse communities and contribute to the open mapping movement by sharing my knowledge and skills.

Training Sessions and Webinars

During the fellowship, I conducted two online webinars and one in-person training session. These sessions were designed to cater to both beginners and experienced mappers, covering a wide range of topics.

Online Webinars

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Development has quickly progressed through two weeks, and it’s time to write a bi-weekly report.

Project Progress

The project is still in its early development stage, so we are unable to provide a usable prototype at this time.However, our implementation of the rendering part has been basically determined.

After testing, points and paths can be rendered successfully.

Due to the ongoing development of the interfaces for other modules, some functions have not yet been implemented. For instance, highlighting segments of a path instead of selecting the entire path as in the default logic of the iD editor. Also, the rendering of polygons has not been implemented yet because it requires the interface of the editing module.

We plan to divide the project into different components to facilitate future development and maintenance.

Demonstration Effect

… See full entry

Together with LibreLabs Albania and OpenStreetMap Albania, we decided to celebrate the 20th birthday with an Online Mapping Party. We decided to “Map the Balkans”, so we extracted 55 villages from 11 countries, and we will come together on the 10th at 19:00 to celebrate and map.

Blog post from LibreLabs - https://librelabs.cc/blog/openstreetmap-online-mapping-party/

OSMcal - https://osmcal.org/event/3041/

Wiki - osm.wiki/OpenStreetMap_20th_Anniversary_Birthday_party

Anybody who wishes to join is more than welcome!

Happy 20th birthday, OpenStreetMap!

Update on the progress for the last 5 days of mapping.

I have mapped the villages:

Baz

Memaliaj Fshat

Plan

Kujtim

Poçestë

Velahovë

Tharri

Matranxhë

A special thank you again to perenniallylate for mapping Ujëmirë

“#100villagesin100days”