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Hi, my name is James Crawford, and I’m running for the OpenStreetMap US board.

About me

I’m a regular editor from Auburn, Alabama. I mainly contribute by editing TIGER road data, importing from external sources, POI surveying, street level imagery coverage, and backcountry trail details. I’ve been active on OSM for over 2 years, and I love keeping in touch with the US community about mapping efforts across the country, and I like seeing community leaders that are active in public forums, and are willing to mingle with their mapping peers.

My current priorities for OSM are as follows:

1: Encouraging the coordination of importing high quality data from external datasets. There are numerous datasets from government agencies in the United States with permissible licensing for use with OpenStreetMap. These datasets provide useful information about a variety of objects mapped in OpenStreetMap, and save huge amounts of time over having mappers collect the data redundantly. It is important to be in touch with the community when coordinating data imports, and it is important to be in touch with government agencies so that we can be more aware of available data that is free to use.

2: Prioritizing focus towards what OSM is useful for. OpenStreetMap defeats commercial competitors in the predictable niche- where there is a demand for geospatial data but no lucrative monetary return. Trails and public land data make a good example. Outdoor enthusiasts have a demand for accurate and low cost map data, but large scale commercial map providers have no commercial incentive to allocate resources towards maintaining this kind of data.

I’m a big fan of outreach, and I’m not a fan of the idea of serving on the board without having meaningful communication with the community. I manage a local community myself, and I love keeping in touch about mapping activities!

Thanks for the consideration,

-James

Posted by Pieter Vander Vennet on 6 February 2023 in English. Last updated on 19 November 2025.

Edit (november 2025): Bing Maps Builder was abandoned in july 2024 - one year and a half after publishing the post below. In the meantime, I’d like to do a shoutout to an article about Visual Studio Code which expresses the same fear of community fracture that I feared for OSM.

Edit: A small update happened after publishing this article - you can read it here: osm.org/user/Pieter%20Vander%20Vennet/diary/400992

OpenStreetMap is in trouble

It is a long-standing tradition that every now and then, a member of the OpenStreetMap-community posts that OSM is in trouble. Often times, these essays complain about some trivial things which are, in the end, not that important. For example, they complain that we didn’t implement Bézier curves yet (we don’t need them), or that the data model is stale (it isn’t, new tagging appears every day), that the main OSM.org website doesn’t have some feature and isn’t on par with Google Maps (that’s by intent) or that AI will make the entire manual mapping space obsolete, in “just another ten years time”.

However, most of these things miss the crucial point of what OSM is: a community; a group of people that are working together on mapping the world in an Open Data way and building related tools with Open Source. Our strength is the unison in this goal, even though everyone pursues this differently, through different technological means and for different motivations. Motivations range from the most mundane reasons up till political activism. And that’s fine. All this activity and diversity strengthens us as a global community.

However, recently, a new participant has entered the ecosystem with parasitic intents. It tries to capture away precisely what makes OSM strong: the contributors.

The means to this end is called ‘Bing Map Builder’.

A bit of history

See full entry

Hello, there!

Hello, everyone! Welcome to my first OSM diary entry! I’m Charmyne Mamador, project lead at Ausome Maps, a She Leads and She Inspires grant-funded project and co-founder of GeoLadies PH.

She leads and She inspires

Together with a number of awesome women all over Asia and the Pacific I went through the 6-month She Leads and She Inspires program. The program covered topics from how to build teams, leadership, solution formulation, and project management .

This program culminated with a project proposal and a chance for 10 projects to be funded. Ausome Maps was one of the proposals selected to be funded. For me, it was a dream come true. I first presented the idea for the Ausome Maps initiative almost 4 years ago at a Geoladies PH meetup. I even created some preliminary screens on how I envisioned the data viewer will look like. Since then, I was waiting for an opportunity to make it happen.

Now, through the She Leads and She Inspires program I finally was able to take this initiative closer to reality.

Pista ng Mapa for me

I was always an admirer of the open data and mapping community. Everyone is genuine and passionate towards the cause that they are working on. These passion-driven (as well as purpose-driven) individuals makes Pista ng Mapa a go-to annual conference for students, professionals, and enthusiasts to learn about new mapping technology, techniques, and relevant projects.

Pista ng Mapa is a conference that is truly close to my heart. It was where the first GeoLadies PH workshop was held! Here was where I also tried to bring my human-centered design expertise into mapping by doing a Human-centered Design (HCD) mapping workshop.

And now, Pista ng Mapa 2022 is where Ausome Maps was officially launched to the public.

Journey to Bicol

The journey from my hometown in Oriental Mindoro to Manila was already long. However, I’m already used to that.

See full entry

Location: Em's Barrio East, Legazpi, Albay, Bicol Region, 4500, Philippines
Posted by @Garam on 6 February 2023 in Korean (한국어).

오래간만에 왔더니 사람이 많이 늘어난 것이 눈에 띕니다.

예전에는 한국어 일기는 혼자만 작성했었고 한창 포켓몬고가 유행하던 때에는 동네에 포켓스톱을 만들어 달라는 글이 간혹 올라오던 곳이었는데 활발해진 게 보기 좋고 더불어 과거에 서양 중심적인 툴 내에서 제가 하던 고민들도 여럿 보이네요.

한국 지역의 태그와 관련해서 과거에 정리했던 위키 문서가 묻혀 있는 듯하여 다시 올려 놓습니다. osm.wiki/Korea_tagging

오늘도 즐거운 편집 되시기 바랍니다.

Posted by watmildon on 6 February 2023 in English. Last updated on 8 February 2023.

About me

A photograph of the mountains near Gold Bar Washington. A range of rocky peaks are in the distance with nearer hills covered in green trees. A river winds it's way through the middle of the photo

I started mapping in June 2020 as a way to find parks and trails near my home in Redmond, Washington. My daughter loves adventures and provides huge motivation. I am a software engineer by trade and from that bring my passion for great tools. I love being able to work with others on a project that is expansive, vivid, and important.

My mapping

See full entry

Hello and thank you for reading why I’m interested in continuing my service on the OpenStreetMap U.S. board for one more term!

This organization, under the excellent leadership of Maggie Cawley, has been making great strides in supporting our community and open geospatial data. I have been involved in a number of these efforts and would love to have one more appointment to follow through on these projects and help steer OSM U.S. on its path.

Specifically, I’ve been leading the Trails Working Group, a collaboration of OSM mappers, data users and land managers, towards building a better system for trail data that protects our environment and keeps people safe and informed. The Trails Stewardship Initiative is a project I’m passionate about. I am excited to see where it leads OSM U.S. in cooperating with entities that use our data. I am also highly interested in academic connections, such as the opportunity we had to work with data science students at the University of Virginia to help build a tool that will identify where the map is underrepresented. I am also part of the TeachOSM Education Working Group, which is focused on building materials that help teachers bring OSM to their students. OpenHistoricalMap is another space where I see immense growth potential for connections to students given all the data that can be created on that platform.

In last year’s election cycle, I mentioned the following priorities for building connections in the OSM U.S. community and they still hold true:

  1. Education Connections – expanding the awareness of OSM among students as something to which they can contribute as well as use as a data source
  2. Community Connections – encouraging local groups to engage in OSM to help address their community needs
  3. Professional Connections – opening communication with government entities to create symbiotic relationships with OSM

See full entry

Начал записывать углублённый курс лекций по JOSM. Для начала выпустил три большие лекции по работе с геометрическими объектами в редакторе JOSM.

1) JOSM. Лекция по работе с геометрией объектов, часть 1 [1ч45мин] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGDZWOhPEAs

  • Типы геометрических объектов OSM
  • Режимы рисования
  • Сходство и отличия разных режимов рисования
  • Способы выделения объектов (массово, поштучно, перечнем, поиском), которые предоставляются базовым JOSM и плагином Utilsplugin2
  • Инструменты рисования, которые предоставляются базовым JOSM, а так же плагинами Fastdraw, Building Tools и Improve Way.

2) JOSM. Лекция по работе с геометрией объектов, часть 2 [1ч11мин] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxWha-FcqZc

  • Разрезание линии сразу в нескольких местах
  • Разрезание замкнутых линий (почему требуется не меньше двух точек, можно ли обойти этот запрет и для чего он нужен)
  • Рисование кругов по двум точкам, по трём, рисование дуг по трём точкам. (И почему сегментов у круга получается именно столько, а не иначе, как сделать если хочется больше/меньше.)
  • Добавление промежуточных точек на существующие фигуры без изменения их формы.
  • Добавление точки перекрестка на пересечение двух линий (и для чего это нужно)
  • Несколько дополнительных возможностей плагина Building Tools
  • “Замена геометрии” и опасность этого инструмента
  • Два инструмента для лоскутного зонирования без мультиполигонов (и для чего такое может понадобиться).

3) JOSM. Инструмент Поиск со сложными запросами [26мин] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E9yea1FuTs

  • Как работать с инструментом Поиск на примере “ищем в городе все подъезды многоэтажек, для которых не указан диапазон квартир”.
  • Как работать с инструментом Фильтр, используя запрос, сконструированный при помощи инструмента Поиск.

See full entry

Posted by hdevine825 on 5 February 2023 in English.

I’m Harrison Devine, and I am running for the OpenStreetMap US board. I edit on OSM and OHM as hdevine825. I have come to OSM through a confluence of my love of maps and open projects.

I got my first start in OSM contributing a few changesets to a HOT project in 2014. I never engaged with the community during this brief stint, and I think that is one reason I did not get more involved. Fast forward to 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, I dove into editing Wikipedia. As I got into Wikipedia, I discovered a passion for cataloging information and contributing to open projects. Then in late 2021 I got back into editing OSM and quickly got involved with the local mapping community.

I’m located in Brooklyn, NY where the map is already densely populated. That has led me to mapping smaller details of sidewalks, tactile paving on curbs, and benches in parks. My largest contributions have been in mapping sidewalks around Brooklyn. I also work on welcoming new mappers and connecting them to the community through the OSM US Slack and giving feedback and resources for their mapping.

Professionally, I work in non-profit accounting. In this role, I work with multiple organizations overseeing their finance function. Often I am the person presenting financial statements to the non-profits’ boards. This has given me considerable experience with compliance and best practices that I hope to contribute to OSM US.

See full entry

Posted by LegzDev on 4 February 2023 in Spanish (Español). Last updated on 5 February 2023.

Educacion primaria y secundaria básica:

Circulo infantil, Jardin de niños (0 a 5 años):

Primaria (Preescolar a 6to grado):

Secundaria Básica (7mo a 9no grado):

After having been involved with the organization of the last few global State of the Map (SotM) conferences, I recently got asked if I could provide some information about the technical side of how hybrid events work to one of the organizers of a future local SotM conference. While writing down some of these details, I figured that this might be of general interest, hence this diary post which also contains various aspects about hybrid events based on our hybrid SotM 2022.

The post will try to cover the last three global SotMs and thus not only technical aspects of a hybrid conference: SotM 2020 was originally planned to take place in Cape Town, South Africa, but had to be moved to a purely online format for well-known reasons. Still for the same reasons, SotM 2021 was planned as an online conference from the beginning. And finally, SotM 2022 in Firenze was our first hybrid conference.

Please note that all views, opinions and experiences expressed in this post are mine and not necessarily shared by the SotM Organizing Committee or other SotM Organizing Committee members. The post is also mostly based on my personal memory only, so I certainly missed or wasn’t aware of many aspects and details, especially in all the areas where I wasn’t involved at all. It also concentrates on the technical side of things and how we did them, not so much on e.g. more social aspects or why we did something in the specific way we did it.

Organization and planning

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Following the Global State of the Map in Italy, the Inaugural State of the Map Nigeria came to be this time with Mr Victor Sunday as the Chair.

The conference was organized by Unique Mappers Network Team and saw attendees from various states of Nigeria, from Hong Kong, Tanzania, Brazil, Zimbabwe just to mention a few. I was in for Quality Assurance and Volunteer Lead alongside Kaue de Moraes Vestena. It was great learning especially from the Nigerian Community how they are using FOSS, contributing to OSM and all. It was an honor launching this hybrid conference and paving way for many to come.

My gratitude goes to Mr Victor Sunday for also trusting my capability in this, the Unique Mappers Team at large and to the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT unSummit) for sponsoring me. So Mr Victor asked me again to give closing remarks like I did in Italy, if it’s now a calling I don’t even know. I am thrilled to be part of the Unique Mappers Network as an Intern – this also adds to the space. I am more than grateful.

Posted by pedrito1414 on 2 February 2023 in English.

Sharing with you again some of the things that Ruben and I have been excited about, and some of what’s coming up, in the HOT community and across the humanitarian open mapping movement.

Things that have excited us this week…

Congrats to the HOT training working group who had an impressive 52 participants at the advanced JOSM training last weekend!

Chisom Okwuchi shared a lovely OSM diary of her experiences as a Community Working Group mentorship lead

… and, the organising group for the mentorship program is now planning for the next phase and will be looking for mentors and mentees in the next few months!

Shout out to Kraan46, one of HOT’s global validators, who has now validated on 360 days out of the last year — an impressive feat and huge contribution!

Contribution timeline for Kraan46

Contribution timeline for Kraan46!

Kudos to OSM Uganda, who have established a new MOU with the Terego district on integrating OSM learning into schools.

See full entry

Posted by Jemimah Mukisa on 2 February 2023 in English. Last updated on 3 February 2023.

Upon getting the news of being awarded a scholarship to attend and participate in the State of the Map Tanzania 2023, I was so excited to travel since it was my first time to visit Tanzania. I thank God that I made it to the conference which commenced on the 20th-23rd of January.

My highlights from the first day were from the Resilience Academy I was amazed by the tremendous work they do to impact the society through collaboration and partnerships to train young people with skills and knowledge to achieve the country’s sustainable development goals. My evening was sparked when I toured around the neighborhood I noticed that the transport system was properly planned with easy access and convenience.

The lightning talks were very insightful as people shared their experiences in OpenStreetMap and how they have been able to grow their communities. I realized that Tanzania has a wide network of mappers whereby they have established and promoted youth mapping chapters within their universities as compared to my country therefore I learned that more effort to grow our community here in Uganda is key in order to achieve the designed goals for the country with the use of OpenStreetMap.

I got a chance to participate in the Advanced QGIS training with the trainers Ian Coady and Steve Penson who did an amazing job teaching us the course exhaustively. I learnt a lot and I plan to use the knowledge to advance in my career. I was also given an opportunity to present the application of photomapping in OpenStreetMap with the use of Mapillary. https://youtu.be/OgoRLDUNhHQ

Meeting the Geochicas (women in Geospatial) was enlightening, we got to share experiences and the way forward to expand the number of women in this sector. The conference gathered many people from different parts of the world. Interacting and engaging with them broadened my thinking scope from their experiences in OpenStreetMap and beyond. I made so many friends and am grateful for having them join my network.

See full entry

Location: University Residential Houses, Kijitonyama, Kinondoni Municipal, Dar es-Salaam, Coastal Zone, 25195, Tanzania
Posted by ElvioMendes on 1 February 2023 in English.

I am looking for a way of making an API call and obtain a list of routes that started within a given location and ended within a given location:

Inputs or columns from data table

Input variable the departure place: Lat range and Long range Input variable for arrival place: Lat range and Long range Input variable (range) for the duration of the trip Filtering per vehicle type, avoid certain routes per multiple variables….. Timespan for the search (data start and date end).

Output:

List of all the trips existing for the above, including :

date and times polyline format if possible Name of roads, turn left/right Speeds on the streets (optional)

Does anyone know if at all possible?

Location: Penge, London Borough of Bromley, Greater London, England, SE20 7TN, United Kingdom