making an impact with openstreetmap
DESCRIPTION
The description can best be viewed at http://netsquared.org/blog/claire-sale/making-impact-openstreetmap-netsquared-c OpenStreetMap was started in 2004 with the grand intention of mapping the world from scratch, free from the copyright encumbrances of conventional maps, restrictions which were holding back the development of geographical information on the internet. Founder Steve Coast had the vision that ordinary people would be their own surveyors, using recently affordable GPS technology and a lot of pedal power. And 300,000 people did just that. The aim was not simply to repeat what others had done commercially, but to effect a change in attitudes from the big players, many of them governments. One of the most conservative was Britain's Ordnance Survey. They charged huge amounts to use maps in online applications making business models non-viable. Ordnance Survey pooh-poohed the idea that ordinary people could collectively produce anything comparable to their efforts over a hundred years. At conferences they would hold up maps of London showing theirs compared with OSM. The first time, there was just a skeleton on OSM. But each time after that there was less and less difference. Using GPS, bikes, cameras and foot leather, OSM now has the level of detail in many places to rival and in some cases exceed what Ordnance Survey can provide, in just six years. And change it has produced. In April 2010, the British Government released Ordnance Survey data to 1:10,000 scale and less on much the same terms as OSM. Many maps were freed from the tight embrace of Government. Result! In some ways this was an amazing achievement, a vindication of OSMs goals. But in some ways it was also a bit of a let down: why would we finish our map now? I joined OSM six months or so after mapping started in earnest, in September 2006. Increasingly frustrated by the difficulty of publishing maps in Cambridge Cycling Campaign's newsletter, I set out to make an alternative. It took three months, and along with Chester was one of the first cities in the UK to be mapped to street and point-of-interest level. Since then, with others, I've mapped most of our County and elsewhere. But while in Cambridge our maps are a matter of cost and convenience, in some parts of the world maps may be a matter of life and death. These are often the places where maps are least adequate. The Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) was set up to see how people could help. Mikel Maron is the inspiring and inspired mapper behind this effort. Using often remote sources, they mapped Bagdhad during the war and Gaza at the time of the Israeli incursions. The project is best known for its work during the Haiti earthquake in 2009, where timely crowd-sourcing most definitely saved lives. Perhaps the most inspiring project is, however, the mapping the shanty city of Kibera on the edge of Nairobi, Kenya, at the time a blank on every commercial offering yet home to a million people.TRANSCRIPT
Copyright © OpenStreetMap and contributors, licensed CCbySA2.0
A grand project to map the world
Using volunteer resources
Free from the restrictionsimposed by conventional maps
Technology
Community
License
Founded by Steve CoastServers and primitive
softwareI joined. Cambridge desert.First OSM conferenceTIGER dataHaiti earthquakeOrdnance Survey releasedCambridgeshire 98% “done”
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
What’s the problem?
All to do with copyright
Can’t reproduce a map
Can’t access raw data
The ‘derived work’ problem
The license
Terms of use central to project
CCbySA2.0
OdBL1.0
Freedom to do what you want
But you must share…
… and attribute
How is it done?
Burn rubber
Sanitise and connect data
Upload data
Use data
The technology
Affordable, accurate GPS
Collect a journey
Make notes about features
Combine them in an editor
Upload to OSM
The technology
Satellite, aerial photography
Reference existing map(walking papers)
Data sets
API
RESTful
Upload/download XML files
Via conventional HTTP
Remote database
Using the data
Data model: vectors, not rasters(points and lines, not pictures)
To make a picture, render the vectorsDifferent renderings for different
applicationsNot just pictures• Tactile• Voice• Routing (CycleStreets)
Node: point location on planet
Way: ordered sequence of nodes
Relation: abstract group ways/nodes
Tags: properties of node/way/relation
area: closed loop of nodes
Simple data model
Node: post box, junction
Way: linear features – roads, rivers
Relation: bus route, turn restrictions
unique ID
Tags: “this is a B-road B1302 called `High Street’.” highway=secondary; ref=B1302; name=High Street
area: car parks, buildings, parks
Simple data model
http://www.openstreetmap.org/edit?lat=52.184511&lon=0.209995&zoom=18
Community
300,000 mappers
~10% active in any month
Collective endeavour
“Surprising ways”
Enabling and promoting change
Pushed Government into open data
Projects involving disability
Humanitarian OSM Team (‘HOT’)
Open geo-data in the UK
Ordnance Survey only game in town…OS pooh-pooh the idea the “ordinary people” could make maps…OS starts to get nervous…Govt announces open OS…It happens…LA’s no longer have to pay…
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
First they ignore you,then they laugh at you,
then they fight you,then you win.
(Ghandi)
(Still not solved the derivation problem)
A couple of thingsI’ve been ableto do locallywith OpenStreetMap
Cambridgeshire County Council, licensed CCbySA2.0
Cambridgeshire County Council, licensed CCbySA2.0
Maps for disability
Blind and partially sighted: renderings
Wheelchair accessibility: the data
Limited commercial imperative
Limited data
Costly to source DIY maps
Tactile maps
Amenities, kerbs, pavements
Copyright © OpenStreetMap and contributors, licensed CCbySA2.0
Humanitarian OSM Team
Set up to respond to crises
Largely initiative of Mikel Maron
Now constituted
Phot
o: H
arry
Woo
d CC
bySA
Baghdad: experiment
Copyright © OpenStreetMap and contributors, licensed CCbySA2.0
Gaza: relief organisations
Copyright © OpenStreetMap and contributors, licensed CCbySA2.0
Haiti: emergency
Copyright © OpenStreetMap and contributors, licensed CCbySA2.0
Haiti: emergency
Kibera: community project
Copyright © OpenStreetMap and contributors, licensed CCbySA2.0
For me…
Brings together interests in one place
• Cycling• Photography• Design• Cartography• Technology
For the world…
Brings togethertechnology – community – license
to make maps that allowinnovation in unexpected ways
Puts maps in the handsof ordinary people
Democratises accessto information
