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OpenStreetMap is the Most Important thing in Geo

gisdoctor.com

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Re: OpenStreetMap is the Most Important thing in Geo

#21

Post by Brakenshire »

c0nsumer wrote: post #5

I do a lot of mountain bike trail mapping work using OpenStreetMap, and it's really bugged me that more public-service mapping projects (eg: MTB Project) don't build on OSM. They all tend to instead build their own mapping set which requires stuff to be re-entered... It's kind of a pain.

Similarly, a lot of charitable organizations that could be releasing data to build on top of the OSM dataset and the tooling that exists, instead create their own data silos. For instance, Sustrans (the cycling charity in the UK), and the Ramblers (the walking/hiking charity in the UK). I get the impression that managers are coming up with ideas for their digital projects without any reference to the technical landscape outside their organization.

I don't know whether there's anything which could be done to help these more corporate charities get on board (for instance to make it easy for them to set up and maintain an official database using OSM tooling, on the basis that the data they gather is publicly available and licensed as open data).

Re: OpenStreetMap is the Most Important thing in Geo

#22

Post by aw3c2 »

Cyph0n wrote: post #15
cossatot wrote: post #14

I'm a big fan of OSM, but I have to say that for my purposes (more geological than anthropocentric), QGIS becoming more functional over the past 5 years has been more important, especially after going independent. Similar to Python overtaking MATLAB in utility and likely eventual adoption, I think QGIS (esp. with improving OSM/python/JS support) will become the new standard for GIS outside of the mega-enterprise/priv…

Yeah, I recently had to use some basic GIS to implement custom reverse geocoding functionality for my college senior project. My workflow looked like this: - Get map data from OSM - Use QGIS for analysis, feature extraction -> export as GeoJSON - Write GeoJSON to MongoDB instance Geolocation "works" out of the box thanks to Mongo's geospatial queries and the MongoDB client for Node. Overall, it was an extremely smoot…

You might like https://plugins.qgis.org/plugins/QuickOSM/

Re: OpenStreetMap is the Most Important thing in Geo

#23

Post by corndoge »

I'm developing a transit mapping application for Android. OpenStreetMap in place of the standard Google Maps components has been far easier, much more hackable, more flexible, and overall much more fun to work with than Google's MapView. As an added bonus the libraries for Android (OSMDroid in particular) have total interop with the Google Maps API. It really has been a pleasure to dev against.

I think OSM is an accomplishment on the significance level of Wikipedia and I'm glad it exists.

Re: OpenStreetMap is the Most Important thing in Geo

#25

Post by maxerickson »

reustle wrote: post #18
vtcraghead wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this is what you're referring to, we're getting there: http://openaddresses.io/

Wow, they've really got Japan covered

OpenAddresses is a separate project from OSM that is aggregating publicly available address data. Japan has a national entity that makes the data available. The sources are all here:

https://github.com/openaddresses/openaddresses

Re: OpenStreetMap is the Most Important thing in Geo

#26

Post by Splines »

privong wrote: post #7
donquichotte wrote: post #3

When I was traveling overland in central Asia, everybody I met was using maps.me with OSM. The maps were of surprisingly good quality and maps.me is superb, allowing the maps for whole countries to be downloaded (ideal if you don't have a data plan) and the route calculation is quick as long as the road grid isn't too dense.

I have been using it in Chile for over a year now and it has been working great. When I arrived, multiple people told me that Google Maps was terrible here, but I have had good luck with OSM.

FWIW Google Maps also has an editor which is useful when you need to help other people find you.

Re: OpenStreetMap is the Most Important thing in Geo

#27

Post by Xylakant »

Brakenshire wrote: post #21
c0nsumer wrote: post #5

I do a lot of mountain bike trail mapping work using OpenStreetMap, and it's really bugged me that more public-service mapping projects (eg: MTB Project) don't build on OSM. They all tend to instead build their own mapping set which requires stuff to be re-entered... It's kind of a pain.

Similarly, a lot of charitable organizations that could be releasing data to build on top of the OSM dataset and the tooling that exists, instead create their own data silos. For instance, Sustrans (the cycling charity in the UK), and the Ramblers (the walking/hiking charity in the UK). I get the impression that managers are coming up with ideas for their digital projects without any reference to the technical landsc…

http://wheelmap.org/, a map for wheelchair accessible places builds on OSM.

Re: OpenStreetMap is the Most Important thing in Geo

#28

Post by cthulhujr »

meatysnapper wrote: post #20

Google maps on the web and on mobile has become such a miserably bad experience that I hope OSM wins big. Google's data is not bad, but the apps are awful.

Just noticed OSM has overhead power lines on their maps. A quick search reveals GM either doesn't have that data or doesn't have any way of displaying it. +1 for OSM in my book.

Re: OpenStreetMap is the Most Important thing in Geo

#29

Post by lnanek2 »

corndoge wrote: post #23

I'm developing a transit mapping application for Android. OpenStreetMap in place of the standard Google Maps components has been far easier, much more hackable, more flexible, and overall much more fun to work with than Google's MapView. As an added bonus the libraries for Android (OSMDroid in particular) have total interop with the Google Maps API. It really has been a pleasure to dev against. I think OSM is an acco…

Android developer here as well. Have found the same. It has saved the day before where the only other option would have been licensing commercial options like skobbler.

I don't think Google actually dog foods their Android Google Maps API, so it tends to be pretty limited.

Re: OpenStreetMap is the Most Important thing in Geo

#30

Post by lnanek2 »

meatysnapper wrote: post #20

Google maps on the web and on mobile has become such a miserably bad experience that I hope OSM wins big. Google's data is not bad, but the apps are awful.

Yeah, user experience on Google Maps app has been atrocious recently. I especially hate when I search and get cards when I want a map with placemarks on it, then try to get to the map and it forgets my search. Some designer sure went all out making it pretty, but they took out most of the functionality.
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