Re: [Talk-ca] ON prefix on Ontario highways

2015-02-28 Thread James Ewen
On Sat, Feb 28, 2015 at 9:25 AM, Jonathan Crowe
 wrote:

> But it's safe to say
> that everything else in Ontario can be rendered as a King's Highway, if the
> number is less than 144 or in the 400s. (Secondary routes have higher
> numbers in the 500s and 600s.)
>
> In Quebec, any route number less than 100 or more than 400 is an autoroute;
> everything else gets the standard route shield. In Manitoba, provincial
> roads are numbered 200 and up; anything 199 or lower is a trunk highway.
> Similar rules apply in Alberta, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia:
> the number indicates the class of route and related marker.

Secondary highways disappeared in Alberta in 2000-2001... everything
that used to be a secondary is a primary highway now.

#1 to 216 are the Primary Core Highways...

#500 to 986 are the Primary Local Highways...

Nothing really has changed except the higher number series used to be
under municipal jurisdiction, now it's provincial.

Badging is still the same as before the juggle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Alberta_provincial_highways

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Postal Codes

2014-12-30 Thread James Ewen
On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 7:37 AM, Adam Martin  wrote:

> I was reading over the previous discussions held here regarding the issue of
> obtaining postal codes for use with civic addresses in Canada. I understand
> that, unless specific permission is obtained, there is no way to utilize the
> information stored in the Canada Post database, even if that information is
> manually acquired from the database during a lookup.
>
> Anyway, it would appear that obtaining the information from Canada Post is,
> basically, a dead end. Might I suggest an alternative? Why not a volunteer
> effort? I can't look up a code and reproduce it on the map, but I can surely
> put my own postal code and those of my previous addresses into the map. That
> knowledge has nothing to do with looking it up on their website.

Here's where I have a hard time understanding how postal code
information can ever be used in OSM.

Who created the postal code information? The information can't be
traced back to farmer Brown who lived on this lane in 1642, hence the
road name "Brown Lane".

I believe Canada Post created the database, and defines which areas
are within the bounds of a particular forward sortation area, local
delivery unit. They can change these bounds as necessary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_codes_in_Canada

Since OSM can't use any restricted information sources, and must rely
on non-encumbered information, how can Canada Post postal code
information ever be considered "common knowledge" or "open data"?

If you look up my postal code, and put it on an envelope, when I
receive that letter, and see my postal code, does it suddenly become
public knowledge, and Canada Post loses the right to maintain control?

If I print out a Google Map, and hand you that copy, does the Google
Map data become non-encumbered?

The only way to know the postal code for any specific location is to
have at one point referenced the Canada Post database, either
directly, or indirectly.

Road names, town names etc. can be argued to precede the map databases
in a number of cases, and have a legal right to be used. In current
towns and cities, when the planners make up road names, it could be
thought of that the designers hold the copyright on the road name
database (if asserted).

I don't see where a completely contrived database of information that
is created and controlled by an entity which asserts copyright will
ever be able to be used in an unencumbered manner, no matter how many
times removed from accessing the database the data is derived.

The idea of each person in Canada providing their specific postal code
to an OSM database does not remove the hold which Canada Post asserts.
It would be illegal for one person to copy the database as a whole, so
why would it be legal for >30 million people to copy one piece of the
database and pool that information?

I love the idea of OSM and would like to see all data available and in
use in the OSM database, but I've always had a hard time figuring out
the line of distinction between encumbered and unencumbered
information sources.

James
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Re: [Talk-ca] Confusing CanVec import: Elliot Lake

2014-08-27 Thread James Ewen
On Wed, Aug 27, 2014 at 8:25 PM, Stewart C. Russell  wrote:

>> As a rule I don't remove any existing data, unless the data
>> is duplicated and then I try to pick the best one.
>
> But deleting my tracing of Horne Lake was okay, though?
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/77445326/history

As Andrew stated, existing data usually stays. Obviously a mistake was
made. We're all human.

> You should have bumped the way version, given that there was a lake
> already there with the same name.

So which ever source has the best resolution should be the one that
stays, or perhaps a merge of the best data from both...

OSM is a living entity that changes. Stewart, you've found an area of
concern, and Andrew is responding. You can't get much better than
this.

> But it exactly corresponds to these weird square boundaries that are all
> over the area, like this way: http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/259481614
> - so you broke a lake that was already there.

So have a bit of a look into what CanVec is, and how the data has been
sliced up and provided to OSM for consumption. You'll immediately
understand what all these weird square boundaries are. Look just about
anywhere in Canada where CanVec imports have happened. You'll find
these artifacts all over.

> Can't you run a simplification algorithm for closed polygons to get the
> count down to something sensible?

So, using that logic, should we take your Horne Lake closed polygon
and simplify it down to 20 points? Okay, not entirely sensible, but
then who defines sensible?

Large complicated polygons abound in the OSM database. They just need
to be dealt with appropriately.

>>   Just a thought could the missing data be a result of some user who did
>> not accept the new terms of service
>
> No, the edits were me, or an earlier import from geobase_stevens from 2009.
>
> Please, as Daniel suggested, clean up your mess.

And of course, thank you to both of you for all the work you guys ave
done in adding to the OSM database. Everyone's contributions are
appreciated, but occasionally we bump into each other. This forum
gives us the perfect place to say "Oops, excuse me... sorry!"

-- 
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Re: [Talk-ca] Why does a search for Edmonton show the city out in the country?

2013-11-20 Thread James Ewen
If you look at the history, you'll see that way back in the dark ages
(Nov 2008), I tried creating a way that defined the city limits of
Edmonton. Actually I was creating a way that defined the boundary of
Strathcona County, and part of that way was coincident with the City
of Edmonton boundary. In the process I decided to create the outline
of Edmonton. I was also trying to figure out how to share nodes and
ways between two different entities. (Which to this day, I still don't
really understand.)

This is a remnant of that effort. I would create a way defining the
city limits in an attempt to get it to show up on the map. Someone
would come along and break it, I would try to fix it, someone would
break it, I would try to fix it, etc... I gave up trying to fix it, so
you get what you have now...

Here's another remnant of part of the boundary between Strathcona
County and Lamont County. I see it was just touched a few months ago
by someone deciding that the way needed to be named Strathcona County
when in fact it is not the county, but rather an administrative
boundary between two adjacent entities... but on the brighter side I
see Strathcona County is still intact!
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/50382

There is a city limits boundary (called a county boundary) that looks
like it defines Edmonton properly.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/2564500

If you look at the history for way 28295454 which you are talking
about, you'll see that some dingleberry back in 2008 put a name tag on
the way, which then takes you to the center of that way when pointing
at Edmonton.
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/28295454/history

I just removed the name, type, and area tags from the way. That should
stop nominatim from falsely finding it. Yup, now you get a psuedo node
in the middle of the relation defining the outline of Edmonton, and a
physical node in the reflecting pool at the Legislature with a bunch
of tags on it.

I really would like to have all of the municipal boundaries on the map
of Alberta, but the data is locked up under copyright law. I thought I
found a free source of the data, but when I queried why I couldn't
access the data, I got a response that said "Oops, the note you saw
saying the data is freely available is wrong... so sorry, we'll fix
that!" Interestingly enough, that was a verbal response via telephone.
No automated email response, a real live person!

-- 
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Re: [Talk-ca] Larder Lake, Ontario completely missing

2013-10-02 Thread James Ewen
I understand your reasoning, but there are some flaws in the logic.

On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 6:23 AM, James Mast  wrote:
> 1. I don't have access to the Canvec data that includes the road names.

If one person has access to the data, everyone does. If the data were
not available, no one could import it. You might just not know where
to look.

> 2. I didn't know if somebody was planning an import in that area.

This is reasonable, but then how long have you been waiting for
someone to do something? When we all wait for someone else to do
something, we can wait a long time.

> 3. I tend to stay out of areas that I'm not really failure with in Ontario
> as I've never been that far North in Ontario (Canada Wonderland is about as
> far as I've ever gone).

Yes, it helps to be familiar with areas that you are importing,
however we don't have enough OSM mappers in Canada to be able to have
the luxury of having people familiar with each area importing those
areas.

> So, in other words, I wanted to leave it to somebody that knows the Canvec
> data better as I've never done an import.

And still you have never done an import, so you're safe. The next
place you would like to see added to OSM, you can use the same
reasoning.

I'm not trying to pick on you specifically, but rather just point out
flaws in the rationale behind NOT being a participating member in the
OSM community.

Only your second point is reasonable... making sure you are
coordinated with the rest of the community is a good thing.

We probably have an awful lot of people sitting on their hands saying
"I don't have access to the data", and "Someone else will import it",
and finally "I've never done it before". That's the wrong attitude to
have on a crowd-sourced project like OSM.

Get in there, learn where to get the data (BTW, OSM is not sole
sourced from CanVec), learn how to edit the map, and help everyone
gain access to a better map!

I know I hear a lot of people complain about the quality of OSM maps
in other projects that use OSM maps, and I go through the same
"lecture" with them. If you don't like what you see on the map, get in
there and get your hands dirty.

-- 
James
VE6SRV

And yes, I've been sitting on my hands for a long time as well, so I'm
as guilty as you.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Larder Lake, Ontario completely missing

2013-10-01 Thread James Ewen
On Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 4:15 PM, James Mast  wrote:

> Anybody want to import this town?  It's completely missing in OSM data
> except for {66}.

Why ask someone else to import the town? OSM makes it possible for
everyone and anyone to edit the map. That's one of the main premises
behind the OSM model.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Routing tool for openstreetmap.ca?

2013-04-22 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 7:57 PM, Samuel Longiaru  wrote:

> If your GPS had that, then maybe you wouldn't be fighting with it so much. :)

Or if the database contained road surface information, proper speed
limit data, and other valuable information, then the routing engine
would have a chance at knowing where to send you.

It's a challenge to determine whether the routing engine or the
database is to blame for the routing choices. With OSM, we have access
to the database, and only ourselves to blame if the information
required is not in the database! :)

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Re: [Talk-ca] Routing tool for openstreetmap.ca?

2013-04-22 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 3:33 PM, Samuel Longiaru  wrote:

> It seems to me that the OSRM routing could benefit greatly by a 0.6 penalty 
> for
> unpaved roads as had been suggested a few time before, but they don't seem to
> want to go that way.

Why incur a penalty just because the roadway is unpaved? A better
solution would be to have the ability to request paved roads only when
routing. That way the user could decide whether an unpaved roadway
should be selected or not. I suppose the best solution would be to
allow the user to select whether unpaved roads can be used for
routing, and also allow the user to select the "penalty" to apply for
unpaved.

I fight with my GPS all the time. I tell it to never use unpaved
roads, but it will put me onto them quite often. Then on the other
hand it can try and send me on long detours some times when I know I
want to take that 2 mile shortcut on gravel to save 40 miles on
pavement.

It's pretty tough to teach a computer to be as wishy-washy as a human!

-- 
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Re: [Talk-ca] My Android tablet

2013-04-06 Thread James Ewen
On Sat, Apr 6, 2013 at 1:55 PM, Harald Kliems  wrote:

> thanks for sharing this! It's kind of obvious once you've read it but
> it would have never occured to me to use your technique.

It's called thinking outside the box... (Hee Hee)

-- 
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Re: [Talk-ca] My Android tablet

2013-04-06 Thread James Ewen
On Fri, Apr 5, 2013 at 1:01 PM, John Kerr  wrote:

> Today I tried some mapping with my android tablet. I was trying to trace the
> outline of a building by walking around it with OSMtracker. I have not
> played with my files yet because I did notice one thing while doing this and
> that is I was only accurate to 7 metres. That is not very accurate. So just
> a few minutes ago I downloaded Vespucci for Android and I hope to give it a
> try at the same task.

John, how will Vespucci increase the accuracy of the your Android device?

The accuracy is based on the quality of signals received from the GPS
satellites. Working close to the walls of a building will degrade the
signals available, and cause possibly even more inaccuracy. Changing
the software that is reading the position reported won't make the
reported position more accurate.

One thing you can do to decrease the inaccuracy is to get a clear
unobstructed view of the sky. Moving away from the buildings will do
that for you.

Have a look at these images I just created...

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Extension.png

A visual depiction of how using a sight line along a building face can
help to reduce the position ambiguity of a GPS unit. Standing close to
a building blocks the GPS signal reception, degrading position
accuracy even more than normal. Moving out away from the building gets
a clear sky view, and that combined with the extended length of the
wall can be used to reduce the error of the actual measured item. Draw
lines between the extended points, and use them as guides to draw the
actual building outline.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Outline1.png

Image showing how using GPS positions captured by extending the
sightlines along buildings can then be used to draw the actual
building outline. More GPS locations are required to be captured, but
GPS position ambiguity is reduced due to being clear of the building
obstruction, and also due to the reduction in position error due to
mathematical angular error reduction. The further from the building
the GPS locations are recorded, less error is introduced into the
actual building corner position.

I added a bit to my Wiki page...

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:Ve6srv#Extending_Sightlines_to_Reduce_GPS_Error


This technique will not remove all error, but can reduce the angular
errors when trying to lay out a building outline. You can still have
displacement errors (all measured points can be horizontally displace,
ie. the whole building might be 2 metres north of where it is supposed
to be), but your walls should be closer to true than what you can
achieve by walking the perimeter of the building.

Complex building shapes are harder to plot using this technique, but
you can extrapolate some of the wall locations using this process.

-- 
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Re: [Talk-ca] Callsigns...

2013-03-11 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 5:15 AM, Harald Kliems  wrote:

> As there already is a database available with the relevant
> information, I'd voice my usual objections towards importing this data
> into OSM. The data is not verifiable on the ground (well, I guess it
> theoretically is if you had appropriate measuring equipment, but
> still...)

Since Colin is talking about the broadcasters, it is pretty easy to
have appropriate equipment to verify the frequency... a TV or radio
will do that. You can locate the source with a little more equipment,
like a directional antenna, and some attenuation. You can get the
owner and callsign from listening to the broadcast.

Power levels are a little harder to determine remotely though.

> and probably changes somewhat frequently, making the data in
> OSM difficult to maintain properly.

The local TV and radio stations in my area don't change frequency very
often. Many of the radio stations have been on the same frequency and
callsign for decades. TV frequencies changed recently due to new
regulations, but before that they too were static for many decades.

Even when you get into commercial radio the frequencies and callsigns
don't change often. Changing a frequency on a radio repeater means
changing all the users on that system, a task that isn't undertaken on
a whim. Industry Canada assigns the frequencies to the users, and it
is a bit of a bear to change frequency assignments.

> So I don't see the added benefit
> of having the data in OSM.

It's one of those things where the data is of interest to some people
and not others.

I work in commercial radio, and I have thought about adding radio
towers to the database, with frequency assignments etc. It would be
very handy for my purposes. My employer might not like me posting all
of our frequencies and tower locations though... Not really sure since
Spectrum Direct allows people to look up the information anyway.

It is always difficult to know what information is of benefit to the
OSM database as that is a subjective judgement call. Addresses might
be of little use to some users, yet they still are being added to the
database. Does their inclusion "benefit" the database? What percentage
of potential users need to require the data before it becomes a
benefit?

If the data is not included in the database, then potential users of
the data won't look at the OSM dataset as a source. If however the
data is included in the database, potential new users may be drawn to
the dataset.

It's the old chicken vs. the egg situation, a catch-22.

-- 
James
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Re: [Talk-ca] Callsigns...

2013-03-10 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, Mar 10, 2013 at 5:28 PM, Colin McGregor  wrote:

> This past weekend I did add the tag
> "tower:type communications" to the CN Tower, but I want to add the
> station transmitter information...

Probably the only real issue is finding an unencumbered source of
station transmitter information.

Wikipedia says that the text is available under Creative Commons
Attribution-ShareAlike License, but was the information included there
derived from an open source?

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Re: [Talk-ca] Out of date or incomplete NRCan-CanVec-7.0 data

2013-03-04 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 12:18 AM, Tony Toews  wrote:

> I didn't realize you could dig that much deeper into who did what.

You can get quite a bit of information... what editor are you using?

>>Or you could update it to reflect reality.
>
> Updated.   I probably should've joined the nodes to the wooded area polygon
> or the park so the boundaries are contiguous but I'll figure that out
> another day.  I assumed school yards are part of the residential areas.

You can define the schoolyard to reflect that it is a school yard. You
can also define the ball diamonds etc.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/23212591

>>If you look at the history, the polygon was imported by sammuell from
>>CanVec in an effort to correct data
>
> See that's my problem.  When I take a look at that polygon I don't know if
> it's valid out of date data or someone mucking about or what.  So I'm glad I
> asked.

Even when digging deeper, you might not know what the person was up to
if they didn't put a comment on their changeset. Look at the Brentwood
Park polygon above, and tell me what Sundance was doing... there's no
comment to reflect the changes made.

> Thanks muchly for the detailed explanation.

Oh Tony, we're just scratching the surface so far!

Now you need to go back add the commercial areas, fix all those bad
CanVec building outlines etc... There's always more to do in OSM! :)

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Re: [Talk-ca] Out of date or incomplete NRCan-CanVec-7.0 data

2013-03-03 Thread James Ewen
On Sat, Mar 2, 2013 at 6:38 PM, Tony Toews  wrote:

> I'm just a casual editor who cleans up things I know first hand in a few
> small towns and a small city.So I went to Landmark, Manitoba and saw an
> interesting, irregularly shaped out-of-date/incomplete polygon that was
> added.  I don't recall seeing it when I last visited there several months
> ago but who knows.
>
> Residential Area - Source - NRCan-CanVec-7.0
>
> This appears to display a shaded area on the user viewable map.

Follow the links to dig deeper into the information available.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/106216638

> The problem is that this is very much out of date or incomplete.
> Furthermore, for that village/hamlet it's mostly nonsense.   Main street,
> which is the highway running north/south through Landmark is the
> commercial/industrial road through town although there are houses
> interspersed among the retail and commercial buildings and feed mill.
> Furthermore the residential area goes 1.5 blocks west and a few blocks east.
> So it might as well not even exist.

Or you could update it to reflect reality. It is difficult to ensure
that every landuse is perfectly represented, but it can be done. In
Sherwood Park the residential areas are mapped out, but sometimes the
corner store is sitting in a residential landuse, rather than being in
a commercial landuse area. Should we delete all landuse polygons
because some aren't perfect?

> Now judging on my memories of that village/hamlet it is probably at least
> ten years out of date.

Fix it today and tomorrow it will only be one day out of date. Ten
years from now someone else will be able to complain about it being 10
years out of date! :)

>  Does it serve any useful purpose?

Define "useful purpose". When you zoom out and look at Winnipeg, do
the various coloured areas provide you with any information?

>  Is it safe to delete that polygon or
> will it come back on some re-import in the future.

Would it be better to remove all the inaccurate information from OSM,
or to correct/update the inaccurate information?

If you look at the history, the polygon was imported by sammuell from
CanVec in an effort to correct data provided by vreimer. vreimer was a
very prolific OSM user that touched a great deal of the OSM database.
Much of the information provided by vreimer was looked upon by locals
as being of dubious quality. All attempts to contact vreimer failed,
and when a block was put on the account, vreimer disappeared. During
the licence change, we lost a lot of valid data that vreimer had
touched, and we are still working to replace much of that data to this
day.

So, delete the information, and someone else *may* come by and replace
what you deleted. Update the information, and make a note in the
database as to what you did and why, and others can benefit from your
updates.

Deletion should be reserved for removal of obviously false
information. Out of date, or incorrect information should be updated
or corrected.

We've had some people "create" towns in the middle of nowhere, and
those change sets have been reverted, and removed from the database.
Buildings, roads, or other features that have been demolished, or
otherwise removed from reality obviously should be removed from the
database, but something like the out of date residential area in
Landmark Manitoba should be updated, not removed.


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Re: [Talk-ca] Aerial drones helps geomatics

2013-02-25 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 6:52 AM, Clifford Snow  wrote:

> Aerial drones for OSM is very intriguing. For example mapping new
> construction and areas not covered by Bing images or where only low
> resolution images are available. I wonder the spec would be for a low cost
> drone?

Interestingly enough, on another group that I belong to, our American
friends are being faced with many states attempting to enact
legislation to make it illegal to take pictures, or capture any other
part of the sound, electromagnetic spectrum, or even odours via an
unmanned aerial vehicle. We fly high altitude balloons with cameras
onboard capturing wonderful images of our planet, and if the
legislation goes through in these states, it will become illegal to do
so.

What happens in the USA usually filters over to Canada sooner or later.

-- 
James
VE6SRV

http://bear.sbszoo.com/sable/sable3.htm

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Re: [Talk-ca] Environment Canada Forecast Region boundaries released

2013-01-25 Thread James Ewen
On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 11:45 AM, Pierre Béland  wrote:

> The place for such data might be better placed in a thematic map were this
> layer of information is added over the OSM layer.

Would that thematic data be stored in another database owned by the
user, or a community database?

I have a interest in having access to data such as this along with
other similar "virtual" boundaries. It would make sense to have a
common repository of such information rather than recreating it over
and over again.

Is there such a facility available currently?

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Re: [Talk-ca] Aerial images

2013-01-09 Thread James Ewen
On Wed, Jan 9, 2013 at 12:27 PM, Colin McGregor  wrote:
>
> Has anyone here looked closely at Public Laboratory's balloon kit
> (http://publiclaboratory.org/home) or other sources for getting good
> high resolution aerial images? Reason I ask is that Toronto is well
> served by quality aerial images, but some of the spots outside Toronto
> (that I am interested in) are very poorly served, and well, I was
> wondering if anyone had hands on experience with some of this stuff?

I've flown a number of high altitude balloon projects, with digital
cameras on board. These are free floaters headed to >100,000 ft, not
tethered balloons. We have cameras on board taking images that could
be used for this type of work.

I have not tried stitching images together to georeferenced locations yet.

One of the concerns I have is the distortion involved, and parallax
errors. You need to fly fairly high in order to get a good shot
looking down, and require a decent resolution camera to gather enough
detail. You can set the camera for a medium level zoom to get higher
resolution, but you get smaller areas in the image.

Another issue is ensuring that you are not flying a payload that
endangers air traffic. There are rules governing the maximum size of a
balloon, the maximum payload weight, maximum strength of the tether
line, and maximum altitude before you get into controlled airspace.

For our free flying balloons, we have to stay below 115 cu ft of gas,
and due to that limit, we can only lift about 4 lbs of payload. You
can get some pretty decent cameras with time lapse timers which are
pretty light. If your tether breaks, say goodbye to your camera. If
your balloon bursts, you'll want a parachute. You probably don't want
to drape the tether over power lines either. Lift gas is also a
concern. Helium is in short suppply, and if you do manage to find
someone who will sell to you as a new customer (good luck), you'll be
paying an awful lot. A K tank is probably over $300 now. You can fly
hydrogen with a tank costing about $60, but you need to observe good
safety precautions due to the flammability issue.

Now, given all that, you can still get out there and play...

Another option to look at is flying a kite. You don't have to buy the
expensive balloon and lift gas, but you do have to have sufficient
wind. Search Google for Kite Aerial Photography. There's lots of links
out there. You can achieve the same with a kite as you can with the
balloon.

Another option is to fly an aircraft and take the photos yourself. I
have a PPG that I can fly over an area and take photos manually. Again
there are limitations there. Again, you have to stay out of the
restricted airspace where the big planes fly, a minimum altitude over
a built up area is required, and we're not allowed to take photos for
commercial purposes... OSM isn't commercial though...

Trying to photograph a city using these concepts is probably not a
good idea, but any of them could easily be used to photograph smaller
towns and villages where Google and Bing tend to ignore. I might have
to start overflying the towns around here next year and grabbing
aerial images for OSM!

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Re: [Talk-ca] Fredericton WMS Offset

2013-01-08 Thread James Ewen
On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 2:02 PM, nicholas ingalls
 wrote:

> I have to believe that that the process I used would be correct or else
> sites like geofabrik compare would be in violation of the license. If I had
> used the fredericton data to create a new offset I could see there being a
> problem but this was not the case, the fredericton data was simply used to
> verify the bing imagery.
>
> tl;dr No offset was derived from the Fredericton data, it was simply used to
> check the Bing imagery.

Okay, so if there had been an identifiable offset in the Bing imagery,
what would you have done then? Would you have thrown up your hands and
said "There's no possible way that I can continue!"

If I check my street name spelling against Google Maps, and notice
that there is a spelling mistake in my version, can I delete my name
based on that information?

I can't give a definitive answer, just posing a question. I've always
wondered how we can put names on the roads. People say that they are
using "local knowledge", or they base the information on what they
observe on the street signs. However, given the situation where a new
subdivision is planned, and the roads and street names are drawn on
the planning document, then the builders build the streets, and put up
street signs based on the planning document, then someone reads the
sign before they share that information with others to create that
"common knowledge". If the original planning document is a under a
copyright, how can we map the street names in OSM?


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Re: [Talk-ca] Fredericton WMS Offset

2013-01-08 Thread James Ewen
On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 12:34 PM, nicholas ingalls
 wrote:

> In reference to the orientation problems, I generally orient according to
> gps tracks and I also use the road centre lines from the fredericton open
> data portal to ensure areas are correct. (I know the data hasn't been
> cleared to use, I simply use it to check the bing imagery)

This is the second time in the last little while that a statement like
this has been made...

What is the "official" word on the practice of checking non-approved
data sources, not for inclusion in OSM, but to ensure what is being
included is correct?

I understand the concept, but you are using a derivative of data that
is not allowed.

I can say that I am entering street names from memory, but I'm "Just
checking Google Maps to ensure I'm spelling the name right."

Using non-approved sources to align the Bing imagery is pretty much
the same thing.

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Re: [Talk-ca] GPS inaccuracy

2012-11-23 Thread James Ewen
On Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 11:28 AM, Pierre Béland  wrote:

> And it is suggested to deactivate the option Lock on road.

If you leave the "snap to road" function enabled in the GPS, you can
conceivably be violating copyright law. If the map database in the GPS
is protected under copyright, and you are recording GPS data that is
being "corrected" by the GPS engine to "snap to the road", then you
are copying road location information based on the map data, NOT the
GPS data.

This is equivalent to using Google Maps as a background in Potlatch
and tracing the road network.

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Re: [Talk-ca] GPS inaccuracy

2012-11-22 Thread James Ewen
This isn't just an issue for OSM...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20442487

James
VE6SRV

On Wed, Nov 21, 2012 at 3:35 PM, Daniel Begin  wrote:
> Tom wrote: " I'm getting the feeling that, short of a definitive survey, a
> good map is a matter of careful judgement."
>
> I was involved in map business for almost 30 years and I met just a few
> people that could have said that in such simple terms!
>
> Thank you
> Daniel
>
> -Original Message-
> From: Tom Taylor [mailto:tom.taylor.s...@gmail.com]
> Sent: November-20-12 22:42
> To: talk-ca@openstreetmap.org
> Subject: Re: [Talk-ca] GPS inaccuracy
>
> I redid some of my survey yesterday following Pierre and Bernie's
> suggestions. The results are more reasonable. After averaging, some of
> my points were showing error of +/- 2 m or less.
>
> In working on the new trace, I learned to shift the Bing images as
> necessary. Then I found that some buildings fit Bing while neighbours
> did not. I'm getting the feeling that, short of a definitive survey, a
> good map is a matter of careful judgement.
>
> I suspect at this point I should be writing on the Newbies list rather
> than this one. Thanks for your tolerance to this point. Certainly I'll
> still be monitoring this list.
>
> Tom taylor
>
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>
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Re: [Talk-ca] Internal CanVec conflicts

2012-11-15 Thread James Ewen
A really simple answer that gets lost is this:

Did you make the edits to the best of your ability, and your edits add value to 
the OSM project?

If so, then it was the right thing to do. 

We all bring different levels of ability, and may not do things perfectly 
according to the "experts", but if we do the best we can, and are helping to 
make the map better, that's the goal. 

Someone may come along and make the data you edited even better, but your 
efforts are always appreciated. 

OSM is community project, and the whole community is welcome to help to the 
extent that their skill set allows. You are also welcome to increase your skill 
set through learning by reading and asking questions. 

Welcome to OSM and have fun!




On 2012-11-15, at 7:11 AM, Tom Taylor  wrote:

> I've just performed my first edits, in our neighbourhood. One thing I noticed 
> was that some of the buildings are duplicates. I assume this is part of what 
> you are talking about when you mention internal CanVec conflicts. In the case 
> of a local public school, I deleted one of the copies and dragged the other 
> to match the Bing image. Was that the right thing to do?
> 
> Tom Taylor
> 
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Re: [Talk-ca] Edmonton / Strathcona boundary limits

2012-11-09 Thread James Ewen
On Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 7:20 PM, Paul Norman  wrote:

> In BC everywhere is part of a regional district (our admin_level=6). We
> don't have counties.

We don't have counties in Alberta either... the county act was
repealed in the mid 90's, but a number of the municipalities still use
the term county in their name. Saskatchewan also does not have
counties, but rather rural municipalities. Rural municipalities in
Saskatchewan and Manitoba not only exclude cities, but also towns,
villages and First Nation's reserves as well.

Interestingly, the State of Virginia also excludes cities from their
surrounding counties similar to what Alberta does.

Danville, Virginia is defined at admin level 8, with a corresponding
hole at admin level 6...

http://layers.openstreetmap.fr/?zoom=12&lat=36.58549&lon=-79.37527&layers=B00TFF


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Re: [Talk-ca] Edmonton / Strathcona boundary limits

2012-11-09 Thread James Ewen
On Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 5:50 PM, Pierre Béland  wrote:

> This is a hierarchical system were you first define level 6 boundaries. Then
> you can split level 6 in  many level 8 boundaries.  In such a system, you
> dont leave holes at the upper level when you only have one child.

But for a hierarchy to work, each level above needs to related to the one below.

I live in house number 28 on Curlew Crescent in the urban area of
Sherwood Park in the specialized municipality of Strathcona County in
the province of Alberta, in the country of Canada on the North
American continent on the planet Earth.

Each of those levels is directly related to the one on either side of it.

To do what you suggest for the city of Edmonton would be similar to the below.

Shaw Conference Center, 9797 Jasper Ave Northwest, in the city of
Edmonton, in the county of Edmonton in the province of Alberta, in the
country of Canada on the North American continent on the planet Earth.

The problem there is that there is no county of Edmonton. The city of
Edmonton is the equivalent of a county as far a looking at the map is
concerned.

Here's an accurate description:

Shaw Conference Center, 9797 Jasper Ave Northwest, in the city of
Edmonton, in the province of Alberta, in the country of Canada on the
North American continent on the planet Earth.

> You have examples elsewhere. Paris, France, for example has three relations
> fort levels 6,7,8.
> - level 6 : http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/71525
> - level 7 :  http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/1641193
> - level 8 : http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/7444

I do not know the administrative realities of Paris, France. It may
actually be part of each of these levels.

> For the province of Alberta, administrative limits have to be established
> for both level 6 (county) and level 8 (municipalities).
>
> For Edmonton, since the county contains only one city, I have duplicated the
> relation. The two Edmonton relations, level 6 and level 8 define the same
> area.
> - level=6 http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/2564500
> - level=8 http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/2563550

As above, there is no county of Edmonton. My argument is that creating
a shapefile defining a non-existent county just to put a colour on the
map is "tagging for the renderer".

Any municipality declaring itself a city effectively removes itself
from the surrounding municipal district. The city of Leduc has no
relation to the county of Leduc. The village of Leduc was incorporated
in 1899, then changing to a town in 1905. All that time it was part of
the county of Leduc, but in 1983 when it declared itself a city, it
became an entity separate from the county of Leduc.

There may be places where a city can be part of a county (ie. Spokane,
Washington is part of Spokane County), but that is not the case in
Alberta. I believe Saskatchewan is the same as Alberta where the
cities are not part of the adjoining rural municipalities. I'm not
sure what the status is across the whole of Canada.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Edmonton / Strathcona boundary limits

2012-11-09 Thread James Ewen
Oops, the original message below was supposed to go to the talk-ca
group but I forgot to re-address the message.

I'm not sure that I understand why we would expect to see 100% of the
Canadian land mass covered by shapes at admin level 6 or any other
admin level. Not all of the country is organized and governed at that
level.

Once the areas that do fall under admin level 6 are defined and
displayed, you'll end up with holes where the cities are, but if you
add cities to the map, the holes get filled.

Now if you were talking about admin levels 8 (city/town/village/hamlet
boundaries) and 10 (neighborhoods), I would suggest that these would
overlap, since the neighborhoods are a subset of the city. Cities in
Alberta are not a subset of a municipal district.

BTW, Pierre thank you very much for your help and guidance thus far.
I'm making headway on adding features that I have long wanted to
ensure were part of the map.

James
VE6SRV

On Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 11:02 AM, Pierre Béland  wrote:
> James,
>
> For such matters, it is important that contributors assure coordination and
> use the same rules. This is more a OSM technical problem were OSM has to
> take into account the administrative structure of each province or country.
>
> My understanding is that when you build such a hierarchy of boundaries, you
> should cover all the territory at each level. If there were no level 6 for
> Edmonton, there would be a hole at level 6.
>
> When we look at a map of  boundaries at level 6, we expect all the territory
> to be covered.
> See
> http://layers.openstreetmap.fr/?zoom=5&lat=52.59638&lon=-118.12528&layers=B00FFT
>
> If  Edmonton was not defined at this level, this would create problems.
>
> There were discussions before that we both are note aware off. Some people
> may also know how contributors have addressed this problem in other
> countries. This is why I suggest that this be discussed ont the talk-ca
> list.
>
> Pierre
>
> 
> De : James Ewen 
> À : Pierre Béland 
> Envoyé le : Vendredi 9 novembre 2012 12h20
> Objet : Edmonton / Strathcona boundary limits
>
> On Fri, Nov 9, 2012 at 10:06 AM, Pierre Béland 
> wrote:
>
>> I have duplicated the relation.
>> Now, there are two relations
>> level=6 http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/2564500
>> level=8 http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/2563550
>>
>> My understanding is that there should be a relation for each level. We
>> should not leave any hole at level 6 and cover all the province territory.
>> Making a search throug Nominatim, it still works fine.
>>
>> From this point, you should discuss this on the talk-ca list before trying
>> to make any modification.
>
> Okay, what's the story with this concept?
>
> The City of Edmonton is an entity unto itself. It falls under
> admin_level 8 as per the wiki
> (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Admin_level) as a city. It is not
> part of any other administrative jurisiction (i.e. part of a county or
> other entity) Admin_level 6 defines the boundaries of counties,
> regional municipalities, improvement districts, etc.
>
> Would not having 2 relations, one that defines the city (admin_level
> 8) and another that defines a non-existent entity (admin_level 6) be
> considered tagging for the renderer (just to fill a perceived hole)?
>
> --
> James
> VE6SRV
>

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Re: [Talk-ca] Bing Map of Guelph, Ontario is poor

2012-11-01 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Nov 1, 2012 at 1:46 AM, Paul Norman  wrote:

> Of course someone could always purchase imagery, but that can get pricey.

And you could still be out of luck due to restrictions in the license
of the photography as well.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Demande de vérification, question concernant name=

2012-10-31 Thread James Ewen
On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at 4:18 PM, Daniel Begin  wrote:

> I always tag names as name='name used locally'. If a French/English version
> is used (I mean really used), Then I use name='name used locally',
> name:fr='French name', name:en='English name.

This would seem to make the most sense... In Alberta there are a
number of francophone communities scattered about. The Town of
Beaumont just south of Edmonton is an example.

There's a lot of signage in the town with French language. Most
streets and avenues are numbered, but the named roadways are signed
both ways... ie. Promenade Riechert Dr. I would think that putting
name=Promenade Riechert would be fine, and then have both the english
and french explicit variations in the database.

I may be naive, but the fact that Canada is a bilingual country is a
point of pride for me, and it is something that should be embraced. I
feel handicapped by the fact that I am not multi-lingual. I would love
to be able to communicate in more than one language.

OSM should reflect what is seen on the ground, and have the option to
be able to translate if need be.

When I go to Mexico, I don't complain that the signs aren't in
English, or that the locals don't speak English, but rather I feel
inadequate in that I can't communicate properly myself in the native
language. However, it sure would be nice to be able to pull up an OSM
map and have the option to be able to change all the street names from
Spanish to English.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Suivi OSM / OSM Monitoring

2012-10-29 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 9:14 PM, Paul Norman  wrote:

>> I see that Canada is pretty good at the admin2 (Country) level, and the
>> admin4 level (Regions) except for a few islands in the Hudson and James
>> Bay areas. It looks like BC has had the admin6 (Departments) level
>> imported
>
> Yes - although they're honestly not particularly valuable data. The
> admin_level=6 entities are of much less practical importance than the
> admin_level=8 cities.

I guess that all depends upon your perspective... Using the same
logic, residential roads are of more importance because they are in
the city, as opposed to the primary highways and motorways that
connect the cities as they are out in the boonies.

County boundaries identify administrative edge of an area just as the
city boundaries do. The eastern boundary of the City of Edmonton is
also the western boundary of the Specialized Municipality of
Strathcona County. Try moving that boundary to the east by a couple
miles and you'll see a lot of excrement hitting the fan!

I don't know how it works in the rest of the country, but in Alberta,
once an area declares itself a City, it gets separated from the county
it may have been a part of as far as taxes and other funding are
concerned. The urban node of Sherwood Park was for the longest time
the world's largest hamlet. With a population of 65,000 it could
easily become Alberta's seventh largest city, but to declare itself a
city, it would need to draw an administrative boundary. If that
boundary included the refineries east of Edmonton, then the rest of
Strathcona County would lose a huge tax base, and be left with less
money for administration. If the administrative boundary were drawn to
just include the urban area, then Sherwood Park would be left with a
large residential population used to the service levels available with
a much smaller tax base to support them. Therefore the solution is to
create the Specialized Municipality of Strathcona County that includes
nine hamlets.

So, while admin level=6 may be of little importance to you, there are
a bunch of politicians, and other municipal government administrators
that would argue otherwise.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Suivi OSM / OSM Monitoring

2012-10-29 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Oct 29, 2012 at 7:21 PM, Pierre Béland  wrote:

> Geobase provides various administrative boundaries. See
> http://www.geobase.ca/geobase/en/data/admin/index.html
>
> The municipal boundaries (admin_level=8) are provided by each province.
> Admin_level 6 is also available for Ontario. The Shape files have to be
> converted to OSM.

Are there instructions on how to do that?

> Looking at the history of your Lamont county way, I see that is also part of
> Strathcona county relation. This polygon is also broken. See
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/relation/50382
> A good mess! Many new mappers don't know about relations and don't care when
> asked if they want to delete even if the way is part of a relation.

That's the actual county definition that I was talking about... I only
found part of the way, and not the whole relation.

I still don't know enough about relations and the rest to be able to
get things straightened around properly.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Suivi OSM / OSM Monitoring

2012-10-29 Thread James Ewen
2012/10/29 Pierre Béland :

> Since OSM is a collaborative project, experienced contributors who monitor
> changes to OSM need monitoring tools. There are many like KeepRight,
> Inspector or http://layers.openstreetmap.fr/.

> Contributors may follow edits such as hiking trails or bike lanes, or items
> such as main roads and administrative boundaries, wich are essential to
> tools such as Nominatim or Road travel.

This piqued my interest, especially the layers.openstreetmap.fr link.

Political, geopolitical, territorial, and administrative boundaries
have always been of interest to me in the OSM project. Many years ago
I attempted to trace out the boundary of the county in which I live. I
was at the time trying to figure out how to create a polygon that
shared boundaries with neighboring areas, or road centerlines, etc...
I had one heck of a time trying to get it in there, but I think I
finally succeeded. But then people would come along and wipe out a
segment or two and the county outline was gone. I have given up
chasing after trying to fix the boundary.

Here's part of it that still exists since it is in a rural area where
no one pokes and prods...

http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/23502499

I see that Canada is pretty good at the admin2 (Country) level, and
the admin4 level (Regions) except for a few islands in the Hudson and
James Bay areas. It looks like BC has had the admin6 (Departments)
level imported, but the rest of Canada is blank except for a small
section in north central Manitoba. Is this information available in
the freely available datasets out there? I'd like to get the counties,
municipal districts, improvement districts, special areas, specialized
municipalities, and cities of Alberta imported, I just need to figure
out where to find them.

There are also election boundary layers in OSM. There are a number of
them available. Is there a list of which would be Federal, Provincial,
and Municipal layers? What about boundaries for other things? How
would they get tagged? Of interest to me is the Environment Canada
weather alerting boundaries. It would be nice to be able to include
those boundaries in the OSM dataset. Can you create custom admin
levels?

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Re: [Talk-ca] CanVec imports allowed again?

2012-08-11 Thread James Ewen
On Sat, Jul 21, 2012 at 1:09 AM, Paul Norman  wrote:

> > From: David E. Nelson [mailto:denelso...@yahoo.ca]
> > Subject: [Talk-ca] CanVec imports allowed again?
> >
> > Now that the redaction bot has apparently finished its sweep of Canada,
> > is it safe for CanVec imports to be resumed?  I want to try my hand at
> > importing a few tiles around where I live.
>
> The bot is still running. It shouldn't impact mapping although uploading
> frequently is always a good idea. Imports are still not to be done.

Are we at the point where we can continue mapping in OSM yet?

There's a lot of damaged areas around here that need to be repaired,
but it's a waste of time doing so if the bot is still running.

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Re: [Talk-ca] [Talk-us] SOTM US Portland - Call for participation

2012-08-03 Thread James Ewen
Could have been worse... it might have been held in Springfield!

James
VE6SRV


On Fri, Aug 3, 2012 at 7:04 PM, Bill Ricker  wrote:
>> Do you have a story or project to share at State Of The Map US,
>> Portland Oct 13-14? Now is the time to submit your abstract!
>> ...
>
>
>>
>> See you all in Portland!
>
>
> One assumes you mean the new Portland Oregon not old Portland Maine.
>
> (Is it too much to expect OSM'ers of all people to realize there are more
> than one Portland USA? I've rather given up on normals and non-geo-geek
> geeks, but mappers ...)
>
>
> --
> Bill
> @n1vux bill.n1...@gmail.com
>
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[Talk-ca] Creating a relation

2012-07-08 Thread James Ewen
In Potlatch2, I should be able to click on a way with another way
inside and create a multipolygon relation.

I keep running into situations where it won't work, and I can't see a
reason why it won't work.

Here's a lake:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/170179011
and a couple islands in the lake:
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/170179004
and
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/170179009

What would be making it impossible to create a lake with two islands
with Potlatch2?

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Re: [Talk-ca] Edmonton OSM gathering

2012-07-06 Thread James Ewen
On Fri, Jul 6, 2012 at 8:06 AM, Adam Dunn  wrote:

> If you are willing to sign up for a free account at itoworld.com, you
> can use their tool to analyze which users are making edits to osm in
> certain parts of the world.

Looks like I already had an account there... so many tools, it's hard
to keep track of all of them.

> Sign up for the OSM Mapper service, then
> create an area for Edmonton, then run your analysis. You can view all
> the users who have made edits to Edmonton, and sort them by number of
> nodes/ways.
> Now you can use the OSM internal mailing system to try some outreach
> to these people and see if they want to attend.

Now that is targetted marketing! Not some random website, actual real users.

This I can work with...

Thanks Adam!

I'm supposed to be up that way some time in the future... Maybe we can
create an OSM gathering in YK...

I'll be back in Ft. Smith in the coming weeks... wanna meet halfway?

-- 
James
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Re: [Talk-ca] How did you start in OSM?

2012-07-06 Thread James Ewen
On Fri, Jul 6, 2012 at 5:27 AM, Richard Weait  wrote:

> Do you remember how you first heard of OSM, or first got mapping?

March 2008... not sure how I heard about OSM, I think it was through
something geocache related, maybe a post by someone. I went to the
OpenStreetMap website signed up and started adding roads in my
neighborhood. I went out and drove every road in my neighborhood, came
back uploaded the track from my GPS, and got after it.

First GPS trace upload March 3,2008.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/VE6SRV/traces/80805

Found the wiki and created a page for Strathcona County a couple days
in... still waiting for anyone to find the page and join in on mapping
the area though.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Canada:Alberta:Strathcona_County

There's a bit of a difference in the map from when I started! There
are a couple map captures on the page.

Without the CanVec data, the map would still be looking pretty bleak!

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Re: [Talk-ca] Edmonton OSM gathering

2012-07-05 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 10:27 PM, Dan Charrois  wrote:

> While spreading the word as much as possible certainly can't hurt, I'd
> suggest that at the very least possible events are posted here as well.
> And BTW - I'm in the Edmonton area, and depending on the date/time/etc.
> may be interested in attending myself.

Yup, you are the only one that I know from the area that's on here,
but there may be others lurking that may come out of the woodwork.

What would work out better for you? Weekday evening or a weekend event?

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Re: [Talk-ca] [talk-ca] Merging ways

2012-07-05 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 11:28 AM, Richard Fairhurst  wrote:

> As David said, there isn't, but I'd be happy to look at adding one.

That's like a promise of a Christmas present... now I'm all excited!

> Assuming that (as ever with Potlatch) we go for a 90% solution rather than
> covering every possible combination... am I right in thinking that you'd
> like something that combines two areas, with a shared sequence of nodes,
> into one?

Yup, that sounds about right...

> In other words:
>         A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A
> and
>         H-I-J-C-D-E-K-L-H
> become
>         A-B-C-J-I-H-L-K-E-F-G-A
> (and D is deleted)

Ooh, muh brayn hertz! That was hard on the old noggin' but, yeah!
That's exactly it.

The issue with the Canvec data is that it is processed in tiles, and
any way that crosses a tile boundary ends up getting chopped up.
Linear ways are pretty easy to fix, just select both sections and join
them. Areas are a little more work, as they end up with a common
border. It usually isn't too hard to combine these sections. You
simply need to cut the node at the start of the slice, and delete the
common segment, and then do the same for the other segment. Then
select each remaining segment and join them.

Automating the process would be very nice as it takes a bit to select
the right node, cut it, reselect it, make sure you are on the right
section of the split way, and then delete the segment, times 2.
Selecting both sections of the split area, and having the program find
and remove the common border, and then join the two would be super
cool!

Here's a perfect example, a little pond that is split across a tile boundary...

http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/105928394
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/81343872

Nodes:  
1219746948 (also part of ways 81343872 and 81343872)
1219746952
1219746955
1219746957
1219746959
1219746971
1219746974
1219746978 (also part of way 81343872)
1219746948 (also part of ways 81343872 and 81343872)

Nodes:  
1219746948 (also part of ways 105928394 and 105928394)
1219746978 (also part of way 105928394)
947636778
947636783
947636784
947636785
947636787
947636788
947636789
947636790
947636791
947636792
947636795
1219746948 (also part of ways 105928394 and 105928394)

So we can see that nodes 1219746948 and 1219746978 are the two nodes
that are shared on that common border. Remove the common ways between
those nodes, and merge the remaining sections together.

This is about as simple as it gets. There are other situations where
relations are cut, or multiple segments need to be merged because the
area crosses the boundary multiple times. However, all these
situations get broken down into smaller tasks, where in the end, you
do end up merging two sections together just as above. There may be
more things to do afterwards, but just automating the merge task would
be super!

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Re: [Talk-ca] Edmonton OSM gathering

2012-07-05 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 7:16 AM, Richard Weait  wrote:

> May I suggest that you "just do it", and go ahead and set it up and
> that you reach out through other channels for attendees?
>
> If you set up the event on an event-service, like upcoming.com or
> meetup.com, your event will be seen by _people who are looking for
> events to attend_.  That's awesome, right?  You could help new users
> learn about OSM and make their first edits.
>
> The drawback to advertising your event _only_ on this list, is that
> not all Canadian mappers are on this list.

How many OSM mappers in Edmonton are on upcoming.com, or meetup.com?

Upcoming.com is a website that is for sale, and on meetup.com, I can't
even figure out where OSM might fit in their list. I can't even figure
out how to go about finding anything related to OSM on the site. Aha,
finally figured it out a bit. I see there's an OSM group in Toronto...
now, how do you get people interested in OSM mapping that are members
of the OSM community to now move their focus over to this totally
unrelated site to be notified of things of interest to members of this
site? Seems kind of silly when you say it that way, huh?

> I encourage mappers in other places to host local events as well.
> It's fun and a great way to learn from other mappers.

Yup, it would be good to share ideas and learn from each other, but I
would think that there's a better chance of communicating with people
interested in OSM in Canada here than on some other random site.

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[Talk-ca] Edmonton OSM gathering

2012-07-04 Thread James Ewen
Anyone in the Edmonton area interested in getting together to share ideas?

I'm no expert at editing, and maybe you aren't either, but we might be
able to share some ideas and together figure a few things out.

This need not be any big event, simply a few people with a common
interest getting together to share some ideas.

If you're interested, speak up. If we get at least two interested
people, we can figure out a common location to meet up, sit and have a
chat.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Merging ways

2012-07-03 Thread James Ewen
On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 8:33 PM, David E. Nelson  wrote:

> No.  There is no automated process in Potlatch2 that can do a so-called
> "logical union" of areas at the moment.  The best way to do this right now
> is manually.  You might want to ask the developers of Potlatch2 if they
> can code it up for you.

I guess that truly would be the icing on my cake that I'm eating then!

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Re: [Talk-ca] Merging ways

2012-07-03 Thread James Ewen
So, do dig up an old thread again... is there a way to merge adjoining
areas in Potlatch yet? I got a great answer from Adam Dunn on using
the JOSM "join ways" feature. I'd like to be able to do this in
Potlatch as it is annoying to have to switch to another editor just to
be able to merge these adjoining nodes, and then join the two
adjoining areas into a single common area.

With the ability to import CanVec directly in Potlatch, having the
ability to stitch areas back together right in Potlatch would be nice.

I've been searching OSM help, but haven't found the answer yet. I
might not be using the correct search terms though.

--
James
VE6SRV

On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 11:15 PM, James Ewen  wrote:
> Okay, how do I accomplish this task?
>
> I drew the outline of Wolf Lake by hand quite a while ago. I also
> imported the water features from CanVec as well. Now there are three
> ways defining the lake. One is the way that I drew by hand. The second
> is one imported from Canvec which is a simple outline with the tag
> natural:water. The other half of the lake (split across a CanVec tile
> boundary) is a multipolygon outer relation because there's an island
> in the lake. I have tried removing the ways that define the split in
> the tile, and join the two remaining halves. I can't do that because
> there's a tag conflict. I removed the tags from the natural:water
> side, and tried to join the remaining untagged way to the outer
> relation, but it does not want to stay joined together. One would
> think that you should be able to simply join the untagged way to the
> way defining the outer relation, completing the circular way.
>
> This should be the simple part, I would assume. The situation where
> each half of the lake is an outer relation with inner relations would
> make the process more complex as you would somehow have to make the
> inner relations on one of the outer relations move over to become
> inner relations to the other outer relation, while making only one of
> the outer relations define the whole lake.
>
> Having the CanVec data available is excellent, but stitching areas
> back together where they have been artificially split at a tile
> boundary is a bit of a bear for me. Anyone of the CanVec import
> experts out there have a bit of a tutorial lesson for me?
>
> Wolf Lake (Hand drawn) http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/78288197
> Wolf Lake (Canvec natural:water)
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/81345148
> Wolf Lake (Canvec outer relation)
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/81400283
>
> --
> James
> VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Canvec in Potlatch 2

2012-07-03 Thread James Ewen
On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 7:38 AM, Richard Fairhurst  wrote:

> I've made a little change to Potlatch 2 that will ease the process of
> loading Canvec data.
>
> Potlatch's approach is very much "here is some data that you can use to help
> your mapping", rather than "here is some data you can upload in bulk", and
> the idea is that you load the data as a vector background then "pull
> through" the bits you want.

Sweet! I was tempted to go to the dark side to be able to "import"
CanVec data with Merkaartor or JOSM, but I missed the intuitive
interface that Potlatch provides.

Not only do I have my cake, but I get to eat it as well... I think
there's even icing on it these days!

Thanks for all the work you do making these tools so easy to use and
integrated so well!

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Re: [Talk-ca] Oil Pipeline?

2012-06-26 Thread James Ewen
On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 11:02 AM, Steve Roy  wrote:

> What's the best way to be able to show there is a trail where the pipeline
> is?  Can I just add a highway/trail on top of the existing pipeline? Or?

Does the trail follow exactly over the pipe in the ground? Probably
not, it most likely follows the ROW, with deviations here and there,
so I would be inclined to create a new way showing the trail.

The pipeline shows up when you hit edit because the pipeline is in the
database. You're just looking at a map rendering that doesn't display
pipelines underground. I don't know of one that does personally, but
it would be easy to create one. There's a lot of stuff in the database
that doesn't get rendered on the default Mapnik map style.

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[Talk-ca] Canadian imports: good or bad?

2012-04-15 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, Apr 15, 2012 at 9:38 AM, Stewart C. Russell  wrote:

> Thanks to all who have provided imports. Keep it up. We have a MAP now!

In some areas... there are still vast expanses with little to no
information available in OSM.

Take this area in Saskatchewan for example:

http://osm.org/go/Wk7dy_x--

A pristine area, not sullied by those nasty imports, which chase away
the avid OSM enthusiast looking for pristine areas of blank canvas
upon which to tag their cartographic masterpiece.

CanVec data is available in this area, but no one has taken up the
challenge of manually verifying and vetting the process of moving data
from CanVec to the OSM database.

As Andrew pointed out, it is far less daunting to go in and tweak a
road, add more data points to a shore line, or add a POI to an
existing area than it is to be faced with an absolutely blank screen.
Writer's block morphs into Cartographer's Terror.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Low end smart phones and Open Street Map...

2012-04-09 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 5:34 AM, Colin McGregor  wrote:

> Does anyone know how well (or badly) the low end smart phones (such as
> the Samsung Wave phones) are as GPS track loggers?

I grab tracks with my Blackberry and use them to draw roads on OSM.
The quality of GPS receivers are about even these days. Give the unit
a good view of the sky and it will tell you where you are.

I plug mine into the cigar lighter and toss it on the dash of the
F-250 while driving down the road. It does a decent job of grabbing
location data.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Wind farm access roads that really shouldn't be in OSM

2012-03-20 Thread James Ewen
On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 8:12 AM, Harald Kliems  wrote:

> I can't speak for Gerald, but my point was more about verifiability
> than about "verifiedness". That is, about the question whether a way
> can _in principle_ be verified vs. whether it actually _has_ been
> verified. The latter we will have to live with in large parts of
> Canada; the former I have reservations about. And according to Stewart
> this is a problem for many of the ways in question here.


So if there's a locked gate, and not all OSM mappers can get access,
do we remove the roads from the map? We should look at getting a nice
big graphic to put on the map that says "Here be Dragons!"

Obviously I'm being a little silly...

There are areas that are privately owned, and not accessible to the
general public. The Shell Scotford Refinery is a good example:

http://osm.org/go/WPrCMJzv-

The imagery available for the area is not detailed enough to be able
to draw roads, nor even verify where they are. Imagery that is
available via sources that can't be used for OSM does not show all of
the new expansion area. I have however driven through the area with my
GPS, and tracked the roads (and in some cases projected where the
roads will be once construction has finished).

How many other OSM mappers are going to gain access to the refinery
and map out the roads to ensure the accuracy of my mapping? Do my
edits stand on their own merit?

Now on the other hand, to backup your side of the argument have a look
at this way that I ran into today:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/32377502

If you compare OSM and Google Maps, you can see that both have this
road shown, which looks like part of the national road grid. Google
goes even further to draw more roads in a grid immediately north of
this road.

http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=14&lat=52.58831&lon=-111.2836&layers=B0TFFF

In reality, there's a gate across the road, and it sure looks like a
farmyard in reality. The grid of roads that Google Maps shows is
actually the access roads between pens in an old cattle feedlot.
Someone obviously was copying roads from an aerial photo and didn't
realize what they were looking at.

So, this goes to add additional weight behind the verifiability of
roads in the OSM database.

I wouldn't suggest removing roads that are privately owned from the
database, nor removing roads that are not accessible to the general
public either. What would be preferable would be to have the roads
where access is not available to the public tagged as private, and if
gates are in place, put the gates on the map. This is the type of
ground-truthing that government boys would like to see come back out
of the OSM project.

If there were gates on the map, and the road marked as private, I
wouldn't have tried to use it as a shortcut to save myself a 20 mile
round about road trip.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Wind farm access roads that really shouldn't be in OSM

2012-03-20 Thread James Ewen
On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 12:00 AM, Gerald A  wrote:

> I'm not a big supporter of imports, but if you are going to use them, you
> should use and verify all of them, not just some bits. I'm not sure if there
> is a key/tag for "unverified", but it might be worth looking at.

What's the use of the import then? If you have to go and track every
road, and walk around the shore of every lake, and wander down every
creek, then you'll have GPS data. Most of Canada will be a blank slate
as we do not have enough bodies to capture all of the data manually.

The whole concept of importing data was to help fill in the areas
where there are no OSM mappers.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Wind farm access roads that really shouldn't be in OSM

2012-03-19 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Mar 19, 2012 at 6:07 PM, Stewart C. Russell  wrote:

> But it's not a highway, which implies access. There is no access.

The generic use of the word highway implies public access, but in OSM
parlance, the term highway is used as a key, and the value assigned
indicates the type of way. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Highway
Further to that, the access key can be used designate access
restrictions. http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Access

I can draw the outline of my house, and tag it as building:yes, but
that does not automatically make my house a publicly accessible
structure. It is however still a building.

Mapping the road with a gate on it (if there is a gate restricting
access), and marking the access restriction would allow others to know
that the road exists, and is not accessible to the public.

There are many roads in the foothills of Alberta that are privately
owned, that have access restrictions on them. By mapping these roads,
and the associated restrictions, a person looking to go camping out in
the bush can decide which roads to use to get to the desired area.
Some roads owned by Sustainable Resource Development (Forestry) have
gates that are padlocked to keep the public from driving up to the
Forestry Lookout Towers, which tend to be popular destinations for
people due to the great views afforded. Google Earth shows the roads
in the satellite photos, but it is impossible to see the gates in the
photos. Having OSM maps with gates and access restrictions can make it
less of an annoyance when you drive for hours just to find your
progress to your desired destination blocked.

Here's the Mayberne Tower Road:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/25162913

It's a rough track up to the top of a hill where the Mayberne Forestry
Lookout Tower is located, along with a number of communications
towers. It is very handy to have on the map because I can show my
co-workers the route to our communications tower, and where the locked
gate is located. The road is not necessarily accessible to the public,
but it still is navigable and used by those authorized.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Re : Duplicated ways

2012-02-26 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 1:05 PM, James Ewen  wrote:

> Have a look at how Freemap takes care of rendering multiple layers of
> types of ways...
>
> http://www.free-map.org.uk/freemap/about.html

Here's another site that caters to hiking and biking.

http://hikebikemap.de/?zoom=16&lat=45.63281&lon=-72.12879&layers=BFFFTF

Take a look at the options available under the (+) symbol on the right
side of the screen. The link above has the Lonvia's Hiking symbols
added in.

Here's Lonvia's take on the area as well.

http://hiking.lonvia.de/?zoom=16&lat=45.63054&lon=-72.12227&route=0.87&hill=0.8

The moral of the story is:

Don't change the data to get it to look the way you want, but rather
change the way you look at the data.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Re : Duplicated ways

2012-02-26 Thread James Ewen
2012/2/26 infosbelas-...@yahoo.fr :

> Je m'oppose évidemment à ce que tu effaces ces informations. Ceci aurait
> pour effet de faire disparaitre complètement le sentier de randonnée des
> cartes.

A "virtual" way that is only in place beside the actual way in order
to have a hiking trail appear on a specific map rendering platform
would be what is known as "tagging for the renderer", which is frowned
upon. Showing just one way which depicts the actual location of the
way and tagging it appropriately is the correct action.

While the information in this linked image from Google Streetview
http://g.co/maps/33tg4 is not to be used when mapping, I'm just using
this link as a visual indicator to show that there does not appear to
be two distinct ways where the OSM map is showing that there are...

Accurate information in that database is what should drive the actions
of the mapper, not modified mapping techniques to try and make certain
features appear on a specific map rendering solution.

There is no mention of the map rendering engine/style that would
"effectively make the trail disappear" from the map. Perhaps the use
of a different map rendering engine/style sheet may alleviate some
concerns.

Have a look at how Freemap takes care of rendering multiple layers of
types of ways...

http://www.free-map.org.uk/freemap/about.html

Remember that we are editing the OSM database, not just a single
depiction of the data as displayed when processed by a single map
rendering engine with a specific style sheet.


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Re: [Talk-ca] Closed Road Tagging

2012-02-25 Thread James Ewen
On Sat, Feb 25, 2012 at 3:04 PM, Paul Norman  wrote:

> but is
> it really a primary if it’s closed until further notice?

This a kind of strange comment... why would the classification of a
road change due to whether it is open or closed?

The Trans-Canada highway washed out last spring during heavy rains in
southern Alberta. It was closed until it was repaired. There was to
change in the status of the Trans-Canada across the nation due to the
closure. There are barriers on the highway in the mountains to shut
down the highway during major storms that also don't change the
classification of the highway.

Obviously a 2 year closure is much longer than a couple weeks, but
until the government decides to abandon the roadway, it would still be
a primary highway.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Balloon Mapping

2012-01-30 Thread James Ewen
Here's the link to the regulations about flying kites and markings...

http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/standards/general-recavi-exemption605_20-appa-2260.htm

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Re: [Talk-ca] Balloon Mapping

2012-01-26 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 2:55 PM, Harald Kliems
 wrote:
> It's a neat project. Does anybody know what the rules in regulations about 
> this are in Canada? Same as in the US?

Canadian regulations are close to US regs, but not quite the same.

We regularly fly unmanned non-tethered balloons to 30+ kms with no
real issues. We contact ATC and get a NOTAM issued.

These balloons are very small and tethered, usually at low altitudes.
There are limits on the strength of the tether line, and you'll need
to be aware of the maximum altitudes near airports, etc.

Here's a link to the Canadian Air Regulations, specifically tether
balloons. Look at the index to find more specifics on the type of
flight you'd be running.

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/SOR-96-433/page-175.html#h-768



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[Talk-ca] ODbL compliant remapping

2012-01-12 Thread James Ewen
I'm still a little confused on how a user that does not accept the new
license can simply touch a node or way, and make it so that we have to
completely remove the data and recreate it.

vreimer seems to have touched a great deal of ways across Canada,
which sparked the "banning" of his account quite a while ago. He is
listed as being contacted, but we have never seen a response from this
user, at least that I know of.

I can understand that if the user modified a tag or something, that we
would only need to remove that modification. However I am seeing
things where a way from the GeoBase import has somehow been taken over
by this user. This means we need to strip out the way, and then
completely recreate the way.

Here's the deep diff page:

http://osm.mapki.com/history/way.php?id=51536611

Obviously this way was created by the GeoBase import robot, but
vreimer is shown as the creator.

I traced this rail line from the aerial photos years ago, but vreimer
is the creator of v1...

http://osm.mapki.com/history/way.php?id=51536149

I have to strip out my original work, and retrace the rail line yet
again. If after that, someone that does not agree with the license
comes along and touches it, then it will need to be stripped out
again, and retraced... seems kind of silly that we can't simply
"touch" it again, and reclaim the proper license.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Automated imports of Canvec?

2011-12-15 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 9:05 PM, Steve Singer  wrote:

> If someone were to import a 100% pure canvec data an empty openstreetmap
> instance and render this as a background WMS layer would this then make
> editing/importing canvec data in Potlach easier?  I think tracing a more
> verbose version of canvec might be less error prone for many people than
> importing direct from the .OSM files.

That would be nice to have. One of the difficulties with the Canvec
import is the fact that the Canvec data gave way in deference to
existing OSM data. This means that there are lots of places where we
need to connect the two together (not so hard), or where poorly
aligned ways were kept and better quality Canvec data was left out.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.786&lon=-112.0373&zoom=14&layers=M

Being able to see the Canvec data that was left out would be nice.
Being able to grab the segments that were left out and import them to
replace the poorly aligned ways copied from low resolution images
would be even better.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Automated imports of Canvec?

2011-12-15 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 1:46 PM, Richard Weait  wrote:

> I think that OSM will be "complete, and in maintenance mode" once we
> have a mapper on every block.

And in what dream world do you live? With a population of 34 million,
and an area just under 10 million square kilometres, we've got a long
way to go to have one mapper on every block. Right now if every single
person in Canada contributed to OSM each person would need to look
after more than 0.25 square kilometres of area. We really don't have
that kind of participation level in Canada yet. Even if we did, would
you be willing to wander up to Ellesmere Island and wander about your
assigned chunk of land with your GPS, and gather all the pertinent
data for inclusion in the OSM database?

> Yes.  That's a grand goal.  As more and
> more places approach that grand goal, the local data gets better and
> better.  Few important things can change in the real world without a
> mapper noticing and updating OSM.

Maybe, perhaps if you're lucky you might find a few places where there
might be a congregation of mappers and it may look like there are lots
of helping hands available. For the most part Canada is sparsely
populated. Most of the population lives along the US border.

If your goal is to map out the densely populated portion of the
country and leave the rest a blank slate, then perhaps your goal is
attainable. For the rest of us who do not live in the sardine can, the
task of mapping the rest of that blank slate is a wholly unattainable
goal within our lifetime, the lifetime of our children, their
children, and probably even their children. There are millions of
square km of wilderness that have never been travelled by humans, and
remote sensing is the most cost effective way of mapping the area.
Canvec has that data already in hand. In what world does it make sense
to reinvent the wheel?

Pull in Canvec data in areas where there's no data available, and as
mappers have the time, ability, and inclination, updates and changes
can be made to increase the accuracy of the data included in the OSM
database.

> While data-processing tools have improved with every generation, I
> don't think that "insufficient automation" is the problem.

It sure would help. I'm standing as far away from the fence as I can
on this issue... well onto the build that tool side. I'm probably one
of the "problem children" causing issues importing Canvec data because
I lack the knowledge of how to fix all the errors that are reported by
JOSM. I can't even find out where the errors are to fix them, so I
import and then go back with Potlatch because I know how to get that
program to work.

BTW, I'm not flying to Toronto to go to an OSM gathering to learn how
to run JOSM...

> I'm willing to listen to reason (well, _I_ think I'm reasonable,)

Yes, you are, and you have a lot of valuable insight, and reasoned arguements.

To get some insight into the task at hand, please map out the City of
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. It is in need of additional detail, such
as the city streets. It's only 65 square kilometres, so it's not much
more than your share of Canada to map if we were able to get 5% of the
Canadian population to work on mapping Canada.

> So far we haven't got strong data to support or refute that imports
> harm OSM community vs. imports are better than no data.

I guess we just stop doing anything and see if there's any change.

> How about considering a partial import in some places.

We've done that in Alberta. The roads were imported in areas where
there was nothing before. There's a bunch of work to do to fix where
the import stopped and low resolution tracing was left in place.
That's getting done slowly. In the mean time, there's data on the map,
rather than a blank slate.

I still go out of my way to gather GPS tracks and upload them to OSM.
I make a bunch of detours into the pull offs and rest areas along the
major highways now, to gather information that isn't available in the
Canvec data. I can concentrate on adding detail, rather than having to
try and splash copious quantities of low quality data across the
province to try and get "something" on the map.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Fwd: [OSM-talk] Argh, Canvec imports

2011-11-17 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 5:18 AM, Richard Weait  wrote:

> I do bimonthly runs of the worldwide coastlines
> (http://metro.teczno.com/#coastline), and Canada seems to be a
> recurring source of problems. What the heck is going on up there? I
> consistently see new imports of what seems to be Canvec data screwing
> up coastlines and making for some deeply broken renders:

>From what I hear, it's people changing the tagging in an effort to tag
for the renderer. They are changing tags trying to get the OSM map to
look "right" to them. In doing so, it breaks things. With the
bi-monthly rendering runs, it is possible for people to screw up a lot
of coastline before finding out that they are breaking it instead.

With no hard and fast rules about what "should be done", people are
free to do what they want.

There was just a discussion about how to tag riverbanks and large
lakes as coastline just to get them to render at the lower zoom
levels. That sounds like tagging for a renderer. If I decide that I
want my lake to show up at a specific zoom level, do i change the
tagging to make it coastline instead?

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Re: [Talk-ca] Calgary Area Trail Mapping Project

2011-11-06 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 2:35 PM, Paul Norman  wrote:

> I was looking at the new truck rendering layer at
> http://www.itoworld.com/product/data/ito_map/main?view=160 and ran across an
> import called the Calgary Area Trail Mapping Project. This is, as far as I
> can tell, the only significant use of hgv=* between Vancouver and Toronto.
> Does anyone know anything about it? The hgv=* (and other access) tags on
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/26574987 seem somewhat out of place.
The Calgary Area Trail Mapping Project is tied in with a local 4X4
club from what I recall... I was in communication with one member a
number of years ago. Most of the trails they are adding are for off
highway vehicles, ie. four wheel drives, quads, or smaller more
maneuverable machines.

I ran across some trails from the project when out on a week long
horseback riding camp...

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.0671916007996&lon=-115.968310832977&zoom=14

The roads there are tagged as hgv=no, and are indeed not suitable for
most passenger cars.

The hgv classification possibly being mistaken for High
Ground-clearance Vehicle rather than Heavy Goods Vehicle.

More appropriate would probably be the TRACK, TRACKTYPE and SMOOTHNESS tags.

There's no ACCESS value for OHV (Off Highway Vehicles)

As with many tags, the use of the tags by the author may not be what
the intended us was...
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Re: [Talk-ca] Imported frustrations

2011-10-06 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 12:45 PM, Harald Kliems
 wrote:

> Finding and fixing these errors has been a huge timesuck and not much fun.

Wow, using the tool you just showed me made the job of finding and
correcting the errors in my local community a very quick and easy
task... trying to find duplicate ways is pretty tough just going by
what you can see. Finding unconnected ways is a little easier as they
show up visibly.

I just cleaned up about 20 square miles of area in about 10 minutes.

There's an even bigger issue where the canvec imports stop well shy of
the existing roads, or issues like this:

http://tools.geofabrik.de/osmi/debug.html?view=routing_non_eu&lon=-112.55995&lat=53.71582&zoom=13&opacity=0.98

I was thinking that it might be an idea where instead of dropping the
close match CanVec Imports, that if they were imported, but marked
such that they would be easily found and deleted if not desired, or
the existing road could be deleted, and the CanVec import modified to
make it the new way.

Such as in the case above where the CanVec way was left out of the
import in deference to the existing road, it would be very easy to
just modify the CanVec way to make it part of the database, and delete
the less accurate hand drawn way. It's more of a pain to have to go
and find the CanVec ways again, and import them so you can delete the
hand drawn way.

If there were a way to have the CanVec ways that were determined to be
duplicates shown on a map (kind of like showing roads under
construction), one could easily compare the two ways, and with a
simple edit and delete combination, make the CanVec way the one to
keep, or a simple delete to remove the CanVec way.

Speaking of CanVec imports... anyone going to tackle importing roads
into Saskatchewan some day? It gets pretty bleak on that side of the
border in a hurry!

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.091&lon=-109.473&zoom=9&layers=O

-- 
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[Talk-ca] What should a Canadian style map look like?

2011-09-13 Thread James Ewen
Well for one thing, render forest in something other than dark green.
I started importing forested areas, but stopped as soon as I saw it
rendered. The forest colour overpowered the roads in the area. The
maps become just about useless as a road map when the roads disappear.

My biggest issue with not only OSM, but my GPS navigators is that if I
zoom out far enough to get a view of where I am headed, I'm looking at
a blank screen. If I zoom in to find the roads, I'm looking at an area
about as big as I can see out the windows... not much use.

In our country of wide open spaces, we need to have some of those
minor roads and places shown when looking at large areas.

James
VE6SRV



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Re: [Talk-ca] What should a Canadian style map look like?

2011-09-13 Thread James Ewen
On Tue, Sep 13, 2011 at 9:12 AM, Yves Moisan  wrote:

> One thing that bugs me is that we need to zoom in quite a bit
> to see highway and road numbers.

Then with CanVec import data, you get a highway number on every
segment. CanVec data splits ways at each intersection, no matter how
minor. The map rendering engine needs to be smart enough to reduce the
number of shields or labels to a sane number.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Merging ways

2011-08-22 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 11:41 PM, Adam Dunn  wrote:

> Your data looks good, except for one thing: you tagged the way with
> the name, whereas the proper thing is to tag the relation with the
> name. The way should have no tags in this case (there may be other
> cases where the way would have tags even though is a member of a
> relation, but not in this case).

Ah, yes... Changed that with Potlatch. I'm going to have to figure out
how to do that in JOSM.

How do you zoom out when selecting an area with the slippy map? All I
can do is zoom in. I have to shut down the program to be able to
select another area if it's larger than what I am looking at. That's
really annoying. I've tried every combination of modifier keys I can
think of.


> Where to split is up to you, and how
> large to make a multipoly is up to you, just as long as an individual
> way does not exceed 2000 nodes.
>
> Just to be sure you're aware:
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relation:multipolygon

I had looked at multipolygons before, and had a rudimentary
understanding... I missed the fact that you could define the outlines
of the polygon with multiple segments. Thanks for the nudge.

I had started importing CanVec tiles around Bonnyville, but never
merged the edges as I didn't know how. I also ran into a problem with
Merkaartor not being able to handle more than 5000 nodes at a time.
Perhaps I can get things working with JOSM.

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Re: [Talk-ca] Merging ways

2011-08-21 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 9:14 AM, Adam Dunn  wrote:

> There's two methods to join two areas: you can delete the coincident
> segments and combine the two unclosed polygons (as you have tried), or
> you can use JOSM's "join ways" feature.
>
> What you are doing (the first method) should have worked, and I don't
> know why the two ways "don't want to stay joined together".

Not sure what was going on there, but Potlatch 2 didn't want to play nice.

I watched your videos and decided to give JOSM yet another go... I've
tried twice before and both times gave up in disgust with trying to
figure out the arcane logic behind using JOSM. Perhaps I have learned
a bit over the years using other editors, like Merkaartor, but this
time I had better luck.I still hate using an editor with defined
modes. There are far too many extra button presses to get it to just
do what you want. Just to add a node to an existing way I have to
press A, then click on the node, then hit ESC to stop adding a way.
Why not just shift-click on the way like you do in Potlatch? I found
where you can select having JOSM go to modeless like Potlatch but it
doesn't seem to make any changes.

Anyway, I think I managed to merge a few ways to create a one piece
version of Wolf Lake. I don't think I've buggered anything up, but
time will tell. About a week from now, if Wolf Lake disappears, we'll
know why.

Video tutorials like the ones you made are a great help. Trying to
follow along in a written help file can be pretty tough if you have no
idea what they are telling you to look for, or where to find the
buttons to press. The video help was nice and easy to follow, and I
was able to replicate the instructions given without having to go back
and watch the video again to figure out what you had done.

Thanks for the help Adam!


BTW, what do you do with an entity that has over 1000 nodes? You said
you don't like to make any that big. Do you just arbitrarily cut lakes
or forests into bits? Should I just leave the Canvec tile boundaries
in place if the lake is too big? When you zoom in, the lines show up,
which isn't all that desirable. The only other way to reduce the
number of data points would be to reduce the precision level of the
depiction of the feature, which also is not desirable.

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[Talk-ca] Merging ways

2011-08-20 Thread James Ewen
Okay, how do I accomplish this task?

I drew the outline of Wolf Lake by hand quite a while ago. I also
imported the water features from CanVec as well. Now there are three
ways defining the lake. One is the way that I drew by hand. The second
is one imported from Canvec which is a simple outline with the tag
natural:water. The other half of the lake (split across a CanVec tile
boundary) is a multipolygon outer relation because there's an island
in the lake. I have tried removing the ways that define the split in
the tile, and join the two remaining halves. I can't do that because
there's a tag conflict. I removed the tags from the natural:water
side, and tried to join the remaining untagged way to the outer
relation, but it does not want to stay joined together. One would
think that you should be able to simply join the untagged way to the
way defining the outer relation, completing the circular way.

This should be the simple part, I would assume. The situation where
each half of the lake is an outer relation with inner relations would
make the process more complex as you would somehow have to make the
inner relations on one of the outer relations move over to become
inner relations to the other outer relation, while making only one of
the outer relations define the whole lake.

Having the CanVec data available is excellent, but stitching areas
back together where they have been artificially split at a tile
boundary is a bit of a bear for me. Anyone of the CanVec import
experts out there have a bit of a tutorial lesson for me?

Wolf Lake (Hand drawn) http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/78288197
Wolf Lake (Canvec natural:water)
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/81345148
Wolf Lake (Canvec outer relation)
http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/81400283

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Re: [Talk-ca] Geobase vs Canvec

2011-05-24 Thread James Ewen
On Tue, May 24, 2011 at 6:04 PM, Nakor Osm  wrote:

> I was looking at Canvec data vs Geobase data around Pointe-à-la-Croix, QC
> and Campbellton, NB. Geobase is already there but is missing street names.
> Canvec has street names but all ways are marked surface=unpaved and lanes=-1
> which I guess is false. There are also some inconsistency in highway
> "levels". Which one is more to be trusted?

Put your boots on the ground. Gather local data and verify for
yourself. That's what this OSM project is all about. People getting
out there and gathering data that is available for everyone to use.
CanVec and GeoBase are shortcuts that we have permission to use, but
we should still do our due diligence and ensure the information that
we are importing is accurate by verifying the information with real
world boots on the ground verification.

James
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[Talk-ca] Importing Canvec data, but causing huge issues

2011-04-02 Thread James Ewen
Can anyone shed some light on why I am causing problems when importing
CanVec data?

I am using Merkaartor to import the CanVec OSM tiles located here:

ftp://ftp2.cits.rncan.gc.ca/osm/pub

I used find to select the desired entity (natural:water), and the copy
and paste the features. I then upload the features to the OSM server.

However, this process appears to be creating duplicate nodes like crazy.

http://matt.dev.openstreetmap.org/dupe_nodes/about.html

If you look at some of the uploaded information, you can see that
there are multiple copies of some nodes and ways, and some have
multiple duplicate tags included.

Here's a tight zoom on a lake:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.485292&lon=-112.80943&zoom=18&layers=M

If you add the data overlay, you can see that there are multiple ways
describing this lake.

If you find the multipolygon for natural:wood, you'll see that it has
16 tags indicating that it is part of a relation as inner...

If the source of this problem the CanVec data itself (unlikely),
something Merkaartor is doing (unlikely), or something the wingnut at
the keyboard is doing (likely).

Whatever the source, what can I do to fix the problem short of
stopping working on CanVec to OSM imports?

James
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Re: [Talk-ca] Canvec vs. GPS

2011-03-06 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 6:57 PM, john whelan  wrote:

> Being cynical I'd tend to favour CANVEC they tend to have spent more money
> on their GPS units.

Based on experience I'd go the exact opposite way as Canvec data can
be extremely old and inaccurate.

Today I removed a Canvec way describing the Blackmud Creek from the
database. Dan Charrois had imported the waterway from Canvec, and the
imported way overlapped the existing way. Remnants of that can be seen
here for a short while.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.4262&lon=-113.4888&zoom=14&layers=M

Both renditions can be seen where the creek crosses Ellerslie Road.
Hiigher zoom levels have already been rendered.

Canvec buildings are horrendous:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.42826&lon=-113.49479&zoom=17&layers=M
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.4145&lon=-113.54344&zoom=17&layers=M
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.43157&lon=-113.54426&zoom=17&layers=M

Feet on the ground are the best judge of accuracy.

James
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Re: [Talk-ca] Routing errors, turn restrictions and median crossovers

2011-03-06 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 5:20 AM, Stewart C. Russell  wrote:

> If it's any consolation, Garmin's maps will suggest u-turns in the
> middle of highways too. Every time I want to go to Point Edward, the
> Garmin tells me to pull a U-ey in the middle of the 402.

That's not a u-turn... it's a sharp left!

I think every routing engine figures that a u-turn can only take place
on a non-divided highway. As soon as you have a dual carriageway, then
"rippin' a 180" is fair game. Even so, where that dual carriage way
ends and forms a Y with a single carriageway, my GPS navigator thinks
that's a good place to spin around.

Looking at it from a computer coding point of view, how do you
determine when that little bit of road between the opposing lanes is
no longer a cut in the median, but a street on it's own?

To be fair, most humans these days can't figure out what a cut in the
median is... There are so many idiots out there that think it is legal
to pull across a set of lanes, and stop in the median waiting for a
break in the traffic traveling in the opposite direction. Or even
better boneheads that are signalling for a left hand turn while you
are doing the same facing them that try to go around you to their
right  in the middle of the intersection before completing the left
hand turn. Both of these maneuvers are not only dangerous, but
completely illegal.

I've taken to sitting at dual carriageway intersections waiting to
make a left turn until there are no more oncoming vehicles facing me
with left turn signals on. If I try to drive properly there's a good
chance for a collision or at the very least a bunch of finger action
from the bozo that is breaking the law.

Even the "experts" who design the roadways aren't in the clear... we
have a dual carriageway in Edmonton with a fairly wide median. The
traffic planning experts put an extra set of lights in the middle of
the intersection as well. When making a left hand turn, you have to
stop for the set of lights to cross what used to be the oncoming
lanes. There's room for about 2 passenger cars to make the turn on
each change of lights. A large semi ends up blocking the intersection
because the trailer hasn't cleared the roadway by the time the
steering axle hits the stop line. Put two B-trains opposing each other
and that intersection is done...

I can't recall where that intersection was... I haven't been by it for
years. Had a quick look at the map, but it's not coming to me. Maybe
it has been removed and corrected now.

The traffic planners have resorted to putting in long left hand turn
lanes which put the opposing drivers to the left of the oncoming
vehicles in an effort to keep people from attempting to interlock the
vehicles while making left turns...

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.46537&lon=-113.466058&zoom=18&layers=M

The days of the Uniform Traffic Act are long gone.

James
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Re: [Talk-ca] Secret routing demo.

2011-03-05 Thread James Ewen
Section of highway 2 southbound immediately south of the Anthony
Henday was one way northbound not allowing anyone to leave the city of
Edmonton! Reversed the flow!

James
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Re: [Talk-ca] Secret routing demo.

2011-03-05 Thread James Ewen
Oop, forgot we were supposed to indicate routing errors corrected here...

Southeast of Edmonton, Alberta:

Highway 14/21 interchange node not connected fixed.

Canvec service road removed from highway 14/Anthony Henday interchange.


It would definitely be nice to have this functionality built into the
editing tools. I was running Geofabric in one window, and then having
to find the same spot in another window with Potlatch to be able to
find and correct the source of the error.

James
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Re: [Talk-ca] Secret routing demo.

2011-03-04 Thread James Ewen
On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 9:25 PM, Samuel Longiaru  wrote:

> Thanks Richard.  I tested it on the Trans Canada heading east of Kamloops
> towards Banff.  It was routing through Edmonton. Wha???  Tracked it down to
> a divided section of the TC west of Field where both sides of the highway
> were marked as westbound.  KeepRight didn't pick it up in this case.
> Fixed.  Thanks for the link.  Very quick indeed.

There are more anomalies on the TC-1 east of Golden... anyone familiar
with the area care to fix the problems?

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=51.27396&lon=-116.76355&zoom=16

James
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[Talk-ca] Address interpolation

2011-02-23 Thread James Ewen
What's the procedure when making corrections to roads that have
associated address interpolation ways?

>From what I see, address interpolation ways are just simply ways
sitting beside the road, and have to real relation to the road besides
proximity.

If a road gets moved to a new location, does one create new parallel
ways and tag them as address interpolation ways? What's the standard
offset from the roadway?

Where does one get address numbering information from? For some places
it can be easy, where you start at 1, and work your way up, but what
might the upper limit be? Guessing doesn't work, as can be seen in the
NavTeq and TeleAtlas databases that have my house number around 63 or
so, yet there are only 40 houses on my street, with the last house
being #40. Where there are houses, one can simply read the number off
the house if it is posted, but in areas where no houses yet exist, one
might have to resort to looking at another source document.

James
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Re: [Talk-ca] Aylmer/Hull QC: CanVec import overwriting existing edits

2011-02-20 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, Feb 20, 2011 at 9:41 AM, Richard Weait  wrote:

> I'm a advocate of "not importing."  I like to think that I have
> tempered my default no-imports stance with a realistic compromise of
> the "well-considered, carefully executed, limited scope import, that
> might be a net benefit if everything goes perfectly".  That message
> seems to get diluted when an enthusiastic contributor discovers an
> interesting dataset, and an import script; all they seem to hear is
> "Hey!  Imports!  Cool!  Watch me go1!"  I find that frustrating.

The "not importing" would be a bad thing for OSM... truly gathering
GPS traces and using them to map an area really is importing data.
Even drawing from memory could be considered importing. Of course
that's getting a bit silly.

I think the more accurate wording Richard alludes to is "automatic
blind importing".

Any work that we do on the OSM project really needs to have a set of
eyes that are connected to an intelligent brain go over the data to
ensure the best decisions are being made. Whether the source of the
information is local knowledge, personally collected GPS traces,
non-copyright maps, or government source datasets, it needs to have
someone look at what is being imported to the OSM database to ensure
things are happening in the best interests of OSM as a whole.

The road matcher script that was used to try and find existing roads,
and exclude the duplicates worked fairly well to try and keep from
causing some of the problems seen in Aylmer. I still find places in
Alberta where duplicate roads exist. Usually the culprit is the fact
that the first pass at creating roads for OSM were done by hand from
low resolution imagery. The road matcher script didn't associate the
existing road with the CanVec road, and the CanVec imported road was
placed in the OSM database. It takes manual intervention to correct
this issue.

When using any source data, one has to do due diligence in ensuring
that the information being imported into the database is the best
quality data available. If I were to set my GPS up to capture a trace
with one point every 30 seconds, and then blindly use that trace to
replace a high quality version of a road that already exists in the
OSM database, we'd probably hear the same complaints.

The CanVec data is a huge source for data that is available for import
into OSM, but that just means that we have a lot of data to verify as
we import it into the OSM data.

As Richard has mentioned, we have some powerful tools, we have huge
volumes of data available, but using the tools to import the data in
an ideal way is still an elusive goal. It takes some time and work to
get what we want to happen the way we want it to happen.

James
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Re: [Talk-ca] About OSM communication channels

2011-01-27 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 4:49 PM, Richard Weait  wrote:

> But what about the rest of us reading this list?  How is the list
> working for all of us?  Is there anything that we could or should
> improve about the list?

Other than the usual complaint that the list is set up to reply-to the
individual rather than the list, but then that degrades into the
"You're not using the right email program" garbage...

I just try to remember to fix the screwed up addresses before pressing send.

James
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Re: [Talk-ca] CanVec data to OSM

2011-01-24 Thread James Ewen
Repost of the whole email can be found at the end of this email.

Dan,

This discussion is probably of benefit to more users across the
country, as the GeoBase/Canvec import process is still underway, and
others are dealing with similar issues.

There are literally thousands of "little problems" left behind from
the import process. Any highway that was "close enough" according to
the import script was dropped. Any roadways that joined into the
dropped highway ended up not being joined to the existing highway.
This requires manual intervention to connect all those unconnected
intersections.

GPS traces are fairly accurate these days, but you will find many
people that will argue the opposite. It's up to your interpret the
data you have before you as to how accurate each is in representing
reality.

The whole OSM project is based upon crowd sourcing, and leveraging all
of the local expertise. Eyes on the ground supersedes any remote
monitoring no matter how good it might be. Those local eyes see things
as they are currently, and not as it was when the remote monitoring
(satellite photos or such) were taken.

I pretty sure JOSM can pull up history. I don't use JOSM, so don't
know for sure, but history on each way is available in the database.
Someone familiar with JOSM will be able to jump in.

vreimer has edits in just about every part of Canada, if not the
world. The proliferation of his edits is what brought about suspicion
as to the accuracy of the information being included in the database.
vreimer never had any interaction with anyone in the OSM community
that we know of, and because of that lack of communication, the
account remains in suspension. Just a simple conversation or two on
this reflector would probably reinstate full edit capability to the
account.

By asking the questions you have, and participating in this discussion
would lead most OSM users to believe that you have the right
intentions, and will be doing your best to add to the quality of the
database.

As for the protocol for changing the Google document... I think I just
added my notes after the GeoBase import comments to show that I was
adding more detail beyond the highway import. I don't know if it's
really important to follow an official protocol, it's more about just
letting people know that you're working on an area so that there's no
duplicated work happening... there's not enough of us working to waste
time duplicating work.

James
VE6SRV


On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 7:27 PM, Dan Charrois  wrote:
> Hi James.  Thanks for writing!  It's nice to hear from someone else on the 
> project who lives in the same area!  I'm not sure if this discussion is so 
> local-centric that it is best not carried out on talk-ca, so I'm writing to 
> you directly.  If you think it would benefit by being posted to the mail 
> list, feel free - or let me know, and I can repost it there.
>
 To be sure I wasn't adding duplicate features, I only added the categories
 for features which didn't already exist in the area (waterway=stream,
 natural=wood, etc.).  We already had good road network data for the area,
 which has been available for some time, and has been tweaked since, so I
 definitely didn't want the Canvec data to override that.
>>
>> Actually, keep your eyes open for issues there. Before GeoBase data
>> was available, there were a number of ways that roads got into the
>> database. The initial work was very crude, with major highways just
>> being lines in somewhat the right area. A few of us drove around
>> gathering GPS traces, and brought some of those roads closer to
>> reality. Some of the secondary highways, along with the backroads were
>> traced off low resolution imagery. They can be a little bit out of
>> alignment.
>
> That then explains a lot of what I've found.  When I first started looking in 
> detail at OSM data, I found that there were lots of little "problems" - there 
> were two Highway 651s sitting side by side, for example, where they passed 
> through Legal.  I'd removed one of them, connected side streets that weren't 
> connected, etc.  And even the highway that remained needed to be adjusted 
> about 100 metres from where it was.  Ultimately, GPS traces are about the 
> only good definitive way to narrow down with certainty where the roads 
> absolutely are - I've gotten to driving around lately with the GPS on just to 
> fix roads that I happen to go on.
>
> If the CanVec data itself could be trusted 100%, it would be simple to just 
> replace what exists with the CanVec data, but since existing roads have been 
> in the system for awhile, I figured there might be some user edits that we 
> don't want to lose - I know in the past, I've nudged roads around where need 
> be, and I suspect that others in the area have done the same.  In general, 
> the policy I'm sort of adopting for myself is that if I GPS trace a road and 
> find that it doesn't match what there is, I'm justified in moving it.  But as 

Re: [Talk-ca] CanVec data to OSM

2011-01-24 Thread James Ewen
> On 1/24/11, Dan Charrois  wrote:

>> I did a little test import in my area (083H13), which seemed to work well.

Howdy neighbor! (I'm in 083H11)


>> To be sure I wasn't adding duplicate features, I only added the categories
>> for features which didn't already exist in the area (waterway=stream,
>> natural=wood, etc.).  We already had good road network data for the area,
>> which has been available for some time, and has been tweaked since, so I
>> definitely didn't want the Canvec data to override that.

Actually, keep your eyes open for issues there. Before GeoBase data
was available, there were a number of ways that roads got into the
database. The initial work was very crude, with major highways just
being lines in somewhat the right area. A few of us drove around
gathering GPS traces, and brought some of those roads closer to
reality. Some of the secondary highways, along with the backroads were
traced off low resolution imagery. They can be a little bit out of
alignment.

When User:GeoBaseStevens did the mass import of road data for Alberta,
the routines he used tried to keep from overwriting existing user
contributions. As such, there are some roads out there that can be
quite a bit out from reality, and even more that are closer, but still
not quite right. A few, like a section of highway 43 from Onoway to
Whitecourt has been peeled up, and not replaced. If you are playing in
the area, and notice things missing or out of alignment, feel free to
peel and replace.

During a mass import, it was felt that it was important to not blindly
erase all user input, and replace with GeoBase data. However, if you
are manually looking at the data, and making an informed decision to
replace one set with another, that should be acceptable. Check the
existing ways for tags that might not be in the CanVec data.

Also be aware that there are a lot of errors that were introduced by a
User:vreimer. There are highway label tags on roads that aren't
highways, duplicate label tags, and other errors such as that. Clean
those us as you find them please.


>>  A few situations
>> like natural=water took much more effort since we already had data available
>> for the large lakes, but not smaller ones.  Not wanting to remove the OSM
>> data already in place, and wanting to avoid duplications with the Canvec
>> data, I went through and did a fair bit of manual editing to make sure I was
>> only adding data for new features, not changing existing ones.

Again, the major lakes were probably traced out by a script called
LakeWalker. It used aerial imagery to try and find the edge of lakes.
Due to the quality of imagery available, some lakes weren't quite
accurate. I have poked at some to fix the obvious errors, but most of
that is done using the same low resolution imagery. I've done a bit of
water import (see around Bonnyville), and would use the same criteria
as for replacing roads. If the existing water is less accurate than
what you have, peel and replace.

Most of what was done previously was done with low quality source
data, and it was inserted into the database to simply get "something"
onto the blank screen.

I did some forest imports around Bonnyville, but find that the roads
dissappear into the trees because the grey for roads is not much
different in contrast to the green for the trees. I also ran into an
issue with OSM not liking the number of points I was trying to import
at once as well...


>> Thanks for your help!  I look forward to getting more involved in continuing
>> to add to the OSM resource!

Thanks for joining the OSM community... we need more hands and eyes on
Alberta... there aren't a lot of us poking around the map up here,
especially outside of the big cities.


>> Syzygy Research & Technology
>> Box 83, Legal, AB  T0G 1L0 Canada
>> Phone: 780-961-2213

Hey, aren't you a Pfranc distributor? I've been to your house!

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Purging vreimer

2011-01-15 Thread James Ewen
On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 8:39 PM, Samuel Dyck  wrote:

> I've been looking at replacing much of vriemer's work in manitoba with
> Canvec data. Even replacing one tile is a daunting task, so I thought I'd
> ask the opions of others before I start work staring with Canvec tile
> 062H10. What do people think?

Is all the data from vriemer flawed?

He was a very prolific editor before disappearing after being
contacted and asked to communicate with the OSM community. I run
across entities with his fingerprint all over the place, but I can not
guarantee that there are issues with everything he touched.

If everything that had a vriemer edit on it was damaged, it would be
very easy to clear it all out, but I don't see that in the areas that
I've looked at. Obviously some of the edits were suspect, which is
what triggered the block on his user profile, but there never was a
consensus to remove all edits by that user.

Perhaps what you are seeing in your area is different from what I have observed.

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Pharmacy vs. dispensing pharmacy

2010-12-02 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 7:40 AM, Richard Weait  wrote:

> I've heard from mappers elsewhere, that they have non-dispensing
> pharmacies with off-the-shelf notions, as well as over-the-counter
> medicines.  Apparently dispensing prescription medicines is an
> additional qualification not found in every pharmacy.
>
> So I guess (really, I'm just guessing here) that we don't have places
> where your can get over-the-counter medicine, that does not also
> include prescription medicines.  So other jurisdictions may have two
> levels of pharmacist licenses, one for over the counter, and another
> for prescription.  Or something like that.

Okay, then 7-11 would be a pharmacy as the sell Tylenol, Robitussin,
Dimetap ect. The local gas station would fall into the same category
selling Aspirin.

Goofy people across the pond, huh?

James

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Re: [Talk-ca] How to tag London Drugs?

2010-12-02 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 5:37 AM, Richard Weait  wrote:

> Your suggestion of shop=department_store, plus a POI for
> amenity=pharmacy, sounds ideal.  Remember to add dispensing=yes, to
> the pharmacy POI if they dispense prescriptions.

Just to sate my curiosity, what would a pharmacy sell if it didn't
dispense prescriptions? Would 7-11 be a pharmacy because they sell
Tylenol? I equate dispensing prescriptions implicitly with the term
pharmacy.

James
VE6SRV

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[Talk-ca] Where's the Canvec data hiding these days?

2010-09-24 Thread James Ewen
I've been trying to get to the canvec data for 3 days now using this URL:

ftp://ftp2.cits.rncan.gc.ca/osm/pub

I was pretty sure that you could get into there with a browser and
download the file of choice. I keep getting a webpage not available.

If I ftp from the command prompt to ftp2.rncan.gc.ca, I get and ftp
server that wants a user name and password, so it looks like the URL
points to an ftp server. Perhaps just the web server front end is
dead...

Anyone else able to get canvec osm files?

James
VE6SRV

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[Talk-ca] Where'd it go?

2010-09-03 Thread James Ewen
Okay, I just noticed that some of highway 43 has disappeared.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.8975&lon=-114.9219&zoom=12&layers=M

I went into the area, and into Potlatch. I see a bunch of nodes where
the highway used to run, but no highway.

Pressing "U" for undelete only brings up my original crude version of
the highway before the GeoBase import. The highway was there
previously as I have the tiles that show the highway cached on my
laptop. Why doesn't "U" bring it back? Where did the highway go?
There's a good chunk missing, and GeoBase has it chopped up into many,
many bits, so I wouldn't think that someone accidentally deleted all
those bits.

James

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Re: [Talk-ca] Over-classification of rural roads in Canvec data?

2010-08-15 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 1:11 PM, Tyler Gunn  wrote:

> The one that I'm somewhat mixed on is the classification of all the minor
> roads in rural MB; Canvec has all the all the gray roads in the example
> link above listed as "tertiary".  Given that I know these roads to be
> nothing more than dirt/gravel roads between farm properties I have
> downgraded the lot of them to highway=unclassified.

There are a number of reasons why the rural road grid should be tagged
as tertiary in my mind.

First off the descriptors used in the OSM features pages describe the
system of roads found in the UK primarily. The UK is significantly
smaller in size than Canada, and the road network found in that
country varies considerably from that which can be found in most of
Canada. With that in mind we have to interpolate. Unclassified roads
used to access a farmyard in the UK might be considered a driveway in
Canada.

So, if you put all the 1 and 2 digit roads as primary, and all the
three digit roads as secondary, you come up with a fairly useful map
of the main highways. In the UK, they also have 2 designations above
that that would not be used in your definition.

You also suggest dropping from secondary down to unclassified. Would
there be any tertiary roads in Manitoba?

I look at it from an overall mapping standpoint. When you look at the
UK, viewing the country as a whole, you can see quite a bit of their
major road network. If you were to look at Manitoba at the same zoom
level with primary highways being the highest classification, Manitoba
would be blank.

Primary roads show up at zoom level 7, secondary at 9, tertiary and
unclassified at 10, with tertiary being distinguished differently at
13, at least on the Mapnik rendering.

Being able to tell which roads should be chosen to get between
locations by observing the depiction of the road on the map is of
primary importance to me. If you drive all of the road designations
down to the low end of the scale in Canada, you end up not being able
to distinguish all of the various low grade trails and tracks from
each other.

In Alberta, we have the provincial road grid generally defined as
tertiary. That being the road grid that is laid out along the township
grid system, with Range Roads every mile going east/west, and Township
Roads every 2 miles going north/south. Roads of lesser importance, and
subsequently lower quality (narrower, lower grade pavement) are tagged
as unclassified or residential. These roads would include
subdivisions.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=53.5202&lon=-113.1563&zoom=13&layers=M

The depiction of these roads allows the viewer to make decisions based
on visual cues, keeping to the higher grade roads, which are designed
to be collectors, rather than shortcutting through residential areas
on roads not designed for higher traffic flows.

A lot of this thought process is based on how things would end up
being rendered, but those rendering rules are based on what type of
usage these roads are designed for.

I have a GPS from Italy that uses the rendering rules from Italy for
depicting the map data for Canada. I have both TeleAtlas and Navteq
databases for the unit. Both databases are nearly useless for trying
to find a decent route anywhere. Why? Because of the difference in
road density between Canada and Europe. If I zoom out far enough to
see Edmonton and Fort McMurray, I see no highways. If I zoom in close
enough to see highways, I can see where they go to know if I can get
to my destination via the highway. The distance between towns and
cities in Canada is easily a magnitude greater than in Europe. Cities
in Europe can be minutes apart, whereas they are generally hours apart
in Canada.

Have a poke around Alberta where a great deal of the road grid has
been imported from GeoBase, and see what you think of how the road
network import looks.

We need to be consistent on a national basis...

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Hiking trails - Is bad data better than no data?

2010-07-26 Thread James Ewen
I vehemently oppose including bad data in the OSM database. I only
insert the best possible data available into database.

If your GPS tracks are the best data available, then insert that into
the database. Should better data become available, then that should be
used to increase the accuracy of the trail data.

It's all in the way you look at it!

James
VE6SRV

On 7/26/10, G. Michael Carter  wrote:
> You have my vote.  Just having the inaccurate data will draw more people to
> the trail.  Higher percent chance of getting more gps data for the area.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On 2010-07-25, at 10:57 PM, Darryl Shpak  wrote:
>
>> Hey all,
>>
>> A quick question here, since I'm somewhat out-of-touch with OSM best
>> practices right now. Last week I hiked a couple of trails in a local
>> provincial park, and collected traces with intent to map them. However, I
>> know the data is of questionable quality...on the first trail, I walked
>> one segment twice and there's a significant disparity between the two gps
>> tracks, and on the second trail, my GPS was reporting 20-30m position
>> error at times.
>>
>> Neither of these trails existed in OSM at all (no GPS tracks, no ways).
>> I've uploaded my GPS traces and I'm mapping my trails on the assumption
>> that an inaccurate trace is better than no data at all, but wanted to
>> check with the wider community to see what the general consensus was on
>> this. Is there anything special I should tag the trace or way with to
>> indicate that I know the tracks are a little flaky?
>>
>> Sample trail:
>> http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=49.69252&lon=-95.33649&zoom=16&layers=M
>>
>> - Darryl
>>
>>
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Re: [Talk-ca] Canvec.osm Product - Running!

2010-07-22 Thread James Ewen
Okay, anyone out there know what the extra numbers tacked on the end
of the tile number represent?

083H11.0.0.3.osm

083H11 is the tile number, but what is the 0.0.3 portion? I can't seem
to make any sense as to how they are to be interpreted. They seem to
start in the upper left corner of the tile, but if I'm on 0.3.0,
what's the number of the tile to the left?

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Canvec.osm Product - Running!

2010-07-22 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 5:50 AM, Sam Vekemans
 wrote:

> what nts tiles # are you in/interested in?

Sam, you mentioned the NTS tile number WMS server the other day...
perhaps a URL for it might be of use.

I've been poking at the NTS tiles around Edmonton, and they aren't
lining up with the NTS tile sheet numbers that I am familiar with.

James
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Re: [Talk-ca] Canvec.osm Product - Last Call !!!

2010-06-29 Thread James Ewen
On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 2:27 PM, Bégin, Daniel
 wrote:

> The Canvec.osm Product engine is ready to launch.

Perhaps a little header information on the wiki page that describes
what this product can be used for, and how to make use of it would be
in order.

I'll admit I have been skipping the email bouncing around about this
product. I went to the wiki page to find out what it's all about, and
I'm none the wiser.

James
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Re: [Talk-ca] Fwd: Merkaartor and WMS layers

2010-06-28 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Jun 28, 2010 at 7:21 AM, Bob Dustan  wrote:
> On 06/28/2010 12:35 AM, James Ewen wrote:
>
>> Is that all? Is there anything else you have to do?
>> Do you have to select layers in the Layers window? The layers window
>> gets populated with a tree that has all the available layers.
>>
> I don't think you have to select layers because they are specified in
> the URL.  In other words, the program seems to automatically check for
> you.  For instance, the URL includes "designated_areas" and that layer
> is checked on my system.  However, you can check whichever ones you want.

I went through and checked every box, put in the projection, and last
night got an image. Today without changing anything, it doesn't
work...


>> What about Projection, Tile it, Zoom levels, Image format, and Styles 
>> settings?
>>
> In my case, they are:
>
> Projection: EPSG:4326
> Tile it: unchecked       (I don't know what this is for)
> Zoom levels: 0           (I don't know what this is for)
> Image format: image/png  (same value as in the URL)
> Styles: blank            (I don't know any appropriate values for this)

Yeah, that's what I have, and know as much as you do about the settings.

James
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[Talk-ca] Fwd: Merkaartor and WMS layers

2010-06-27 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 8:31 PM, Bob Dustan  wrote:

> In the WMS servers setup dialogue box, I copy/pasted the desired URL from
> the wiki page (see below) into the Server Url field, typed a name in the
> Name field, and clicked the Add button.  Then I clicked the Ok button to
> dismiss the dialogue box.

Is that all? Is there anything else you have to do?

Do you have to select layers in the Layers window? The layers window
gets populated with a tree that has all the available layers.

What about Projection, Tile it, Zoom levels, Image format, and Styles settings?

> In the Layers pane, you should see a Map layer.  Its title will begin with
> "Map - ".  This is where you choose which WMS layer to display.  Right-click
> on the Map layer.  Then choose "WMS Adapter" and finally choose the WMS
> layer that you set up in the previous step.  All of the custom WMS layers
> appear under "WMS Adapter".  I suggest you start with item 1 below as this
> WMS server is reasonably responsive.

Did all that you have outlined, and get nothing useful for my efforts.



> There is a serious bug with version 0.16 of Merkaartor -- it doesn't display
> the WMS layer.  So make sure you are using 0.16.1

That's what I'm using.

James
VE6SRV

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[Talk-ca] Merkaartor and WMS layers

2010-06-26 Thread James Ewen
Is there anyone using Merkaartor and WMS layers within Canada?

I looked at Merkaartor many months ago, when it was very rudimentary.
It appears now to be much more capable, and I'd like to start playing
with it.

However, the documentation for the program is very much lacking. It's
currently at the stage where you really need to know what you are
doing, and know the details about what you want to do in order to get
things set up properly. That's a little difficult to do when you don't
have the knowledge.

Merkaartor appears to have the ability to add new WMS servers to its
abilities, but there is no documentation about how to set up a new WMS
server.

I grabbed a link from the Toporama website and pasted it into the
Server URL spot on the WMS servers setup page, and if you click on get
capabilities, you get a long list of all the available information
from Toporama. However, when I enable the layer, all I get is a little
grey box.

Anyone know what to do?

While we are at this, is there a list of available WMS servers that
contain Canadian data? This would be a great OSM Wiki page.

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Mapping Private Roads?

2010-06-05 Thread James Ewen
In my opinion, placing the information into the OSM database is not
the issue. The issue is more of being able to gather the data legally.
In areas where the yahoo imagery is of sufficient resolution to allow
tracing, I don't see how any entity could put a case together making
it illegal for OSM to include the data in the database. Knowledge is
not illegal.

Trespassing on private property in order to gather GPS traces on the
other hand could land you in trouble. The data obtained is not
illegal, but rather the manner in which it was obtained is where one
runs up against the legal issue. If the land owner has no objections
to gathering the GPS traces, then there should be no issues.

I have captured and added many ways in private lands, such as
refineries[1], mines[2], oil leases[3], and even Department of
National Defense bombing ranges[4]. My access to these areas was
always with permission from the land owner.

I gather the information, upload and enter the information into the
database, and then use the subsequent maps in my reports for my
employer, and customer.

It works out really nicely, as I can create maps of the area where I
am working, and then produce reports with background maps that no one
else has available. As a bonus, the OSM project gets more information
included in the database, and other uses have access to the same maps.

I've had queries about where I got the maps from, as other co-workers
have looked for maps, and were unable to find them.

James
VE6SRV

[1] 
http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=14&lat=53.80445&lon=-113.09712&layers=B0TF
[2] 
http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=13&lat=53.57742&lon=-117.48367&layers=B0TF
[3] 
http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=12&lat=59.9385&lon=-122.94594&layers=B0TF
[4] 
http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=10&lat=54.85922&lon=-110.59387&layers=B0TF

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Re: [Talk-ca] Lethbridge AB mappers

2010-05-09 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, May 9, 2010 at 7:51 AM, Richard Weait  wrote:

> First:  "Whoop Up Drive"?  Awesome!  Thank you for that smile.

Named after Fort Whoop Up... part of our rich western Canadian
history! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Whoop-Up

> And, could somebody visit this area? Looks like GeoBase was ahead of
> the aerial imagery.  It would be nice to have GPS tracks to
> corroborate.  Also some connectivity repairs are required.

GeoBase matches up with what Google and Yahoo street maps say,
although Google's newly added physical "detail" leaves much to be
desired. Google shows the ploughed fields to be riddled with sloughs
where both Google and Yahoo satellite imagery don't show such.

This is a really good spot to see just how the road matcher script
tries to keep from modifying existing ways in the database. The holes
in the GeoBase import match areas where the old Township Road 84
geometry ran. Using the transparent overlay capability provided at
Sauter.com makes it really interesting and easy to compare different
sources.

http://sautter.com/map/?zoom=15&lat=49.66927&lon=-112.90164&layers=B0TF

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Google copies GeoBase

2010-04-30 Thread James Ewen
On Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 10:19 PM, Gregory  wrote:

> Google Streetview has been in Canada since October 09, images
> from April/May 09.

Make that in SOME areas of Canada. The Google StreetView vehicle drove
by my place at about 3 in the afternoon on the last day of school last
year, but the images showed up around October.

Other areas around here showed up much later. I would assume that the
Crowsnest Pass area just showed up as Simon is pretty observant.

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Vancouver campus data

2010-03-29 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 11:37 AM, Corey Burger  wrote:

> Bicycle racks would certainly be a welcome addition. I look at the
> number around UVic and shudder.
>
> However, who holds copyright on the data? They need to sign off on
> importing it into OSM if it isn't licensed under fairly liberal terms.
> If you don't know then it is likely all rights reserved. Plant Ops may
> not have the ability to do this. Likely you are going to need to clear
> it through Legal, which can add time and headaches.

So this brings up a question for me...

If Gregory were to wander around the campus, and mark the bike racks
on his GPS, and upload that to OSM, it would be completely kosher.

What if Gregory were to plan his outing to collect information by
referencing the copyright information in the campus map. Would that
make his information a derivative work? I would think not.

What if Gregory were to reference the location of the bike racks on
the campus map, and then use the Yahoo Map images to locate the bike
racks, and mark them on OSM. Would that now be a derivative work? This
I don't know...

Just wondering where the line is...

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Data imported from Geobase_Import_2009 and tags

2010-03-29 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 10:18 AM, Richard Weait  wrote:

> I also meant to include an example of boundary relations working!  The
> new maxspeed map[1] shows use of the maxspeed tag.  It you look at the
> lower left of the map window, you'll see "Admin boundary hierarchy
> Toronto(6) / Ontario(4)" Pretty cool.
>
>
> [1] 
> http://maxspeed.osm.lab.rfc822.org/?zoom=16&lat=43.66352&lon=-79.39146&layers=B0T&input=maxspeed

I was going to give you a hard time about keeping this a secret, but I
see that the guy running the site just made it worldwide yesterday.

Now, how do we learn about what we are viewing, and how to make the
magic work? I did a search on maxspeed osm lab, and got a few hits to
pages talking about it, but didn't find a page describing what I'm
looking at.

I tried looking at my own local area, and get nothing but the base
map. Only Alberta is defined as a relation. I'm going to assume that
the admin relation needs to have things associated, such as a base
speed limit. For Alberta, we would probably define a max speed of 80
km/h, which is the default for the rural highway grid (which
encompasses all roads excluding highways). Do you define default speed
limits for different classes of roads.

Show me and I'll shut up... ( like that will happen)

I might be quiet for a little bit though.

Just another thing that I know I don't know.

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Data imported from Geobase_Import_2009 and tags

2010-03-29 Thread James Ewen
On Mon, Mar 29, 2010 at 9:26 AM, Richard Weait  wrote:

> As I understand it, is_in= and addr:city=, addr:state=, tags on nodes
> / ways / and relations are deprecated in favour of a boundaries.

Perhaps a link to a page describing how to define boundaries would be
good for the group.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relation:boundary

I think that's what we are talking about.

Anyone in the Edmonton area an expert? I need some instruction on how
to do all this stuff! The more I learn about OSM, the more confused I
get!

I think I currently have Strathcona County outlined with the left:
right: type of situation.

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Missing highway ramps on OSM map, not missing on Ibycus topo map

2010-03-21 Thread James Ewen
On Sun, Mar 21, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Marc Provencher
 wrote:

> I guess Dale Atkin (Ibycus) is using a different program then for his road
> matching, because these omissions don't seem to show up on the Ibycus map.

Dale just grabbed the GeoBase data. Dale's product predated the
GeoBase import into OSM. Dale was not limited by licensing in the same
way that OSM was. At that time, the GeoBase license was not compatible
with the OSM license. OSM got access to  GeoBase, and the roadmatcher
script was created to allow unique ways from GeoBase to be added to
the OSM database. This was done to ensure that no user entered data
was destroyed. The side effect was that some ways from GeoBase were
left out of the OSM database.

The way to find these missing ways is to observe the OSM database.
Look for missing information. The strength of the OSM community is the
community of OSM. With many sets of eyes, and associated hands, the
last step of the GeoBase import is to find and fix issues where the
OSM database and GeoBase database need to be stitched together.

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Highways in Yukon

2010-03-17 Thread James Ewen
The Dempster should be tagged as a trunk highway from what I read and
understand. It is a very important highway (read only) headed north
out of the Yukon to Inuvik. Even if it has a gravel surface, it is
still the primary route. Top level highways get tagged as trunk.
Limited access highways get the motorway tag.

Tagging as such gives the highway the level of importance that it
should have designated for routing engine decisions and such.

The government designates specific routes as the top level priority
routes in areas. This designation means that the construction of the
road is designed to carry the heavier volume and mas of vehicles. It
also means that the route will receive more maintenance attention,
including pothole patching in the summer, and snow removal in the
winter.

By tagging as a higher importance roadway than others, this will
inform travellers not familiar with the area that this route is
probably the preferred route in the area.

This information will probably be conveyed to the user in a visual
manner, so yes, you would be tagging in a way which would affect the
rendering.

James
VE6SRV

On 3/17/10, Tim Francois  wrote:
> OK, so I came into some free time and completed the tracing of the
> Dempster Highway into OSM. Some points:
>
> 1) I have tagged it as a primary highway. It is, after all, called the
> Dempster Highway. Also, it is the only ground link to Inuvik, thus
> fairly important
> 2) I have tagged the surface as gravel.
> 3) I came across an unfinished Dempster Highway portion in Northern
> Yukon. This was tagged as a tertiary highway, and as part of the
> Trans-Canada Trail (ncn and ncn_ref attributes). I deleted the portions
> for which I had accurate GPS traces, and merged the two somewhere inside
> of NT, changing the highway to primary.
> 4) The entire Dempster Highway is now tagged as a Trans-Canada Trail.
> 5) I've also tagged as bicycle=yes, as a) I saw many cyclists and b) the
> tertiary route I came across also had this!
>
> I'll be adding in further POI's along the route when I can extract my
> diary files, and going on to update the rest of what we travelled in the
> summer.
>
> Question: Is there a Trans-Canada Trail relation I should have used?
> Couldn't find one...
>
> Tim
>
> -Original Message-
> From: James Ewen 
> To: Talk-CA OpenStreetMap 
> Subject: Re: [Talk-ca] Highways in Yukon
> Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:59:25 -0700
>
> On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 7:18 PM, Richard Weait  wrote:
>
>>> One has to think about how the final map is going to be displayed.
>>
>> Now that is a little close to tagging for the renderer.
>
> Yes, but I've been chastised about that statement before... we are not
> tagging incorrectly to simply work around the renderer rules, but
> rather tagging as to road classification importance, which the
> renderer simply renders differently. If the data stored in the OSM
> database is not useful to the user, then it may as well not be
> included.
>
> Back to my GPS... the major roads in the TeleAtlas database cause
> routing problems. The routing routine will take me on a 350 km detour
> just to stay on highways, rather than a 200 km direct route on what it
> considers a major road. These major roads are indistinguishable from
> the highways as far as physical features are concerned. Speed limits
> are also identical.
>
> I'd prefer to have these major roads promoted to the same
> classification as the highways (in fact they are highways of the same
> classification as the others)... as a side effect, the renderer in the
> GPS would end up showing these roads that were previously not visible.
>
> Just because the renderer changes the display doesn't mean that I am
> specifically trying to misrepresent the road for the renderer.
>
> The renderers take the tags we use into account when deciding on how
> to display a way, so it is only appropriate that we also take into
> account how the renderer will display the tags we are deciding to use.
>
> It would be inappropriate to tag a stream as a coastline just to get
> it to show up on a wide area map... it is however appropriate in my
> opinion to tag an important major road (read only road) across a large
> expanse of territory at an appropriate classification level, despite
> what the rendering engines will do with it.
>
> The database and renderers are pretty much married to each other.
> Without the database, the renderers are useless. Without the
> renderers, it's pretty hard to visualize the data.
>
> James
> VE6SRV
>
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[Talk-ca] Trunk highways.

2010-03-13 Thread James Ewen
I was looking at the Canadian tagging page, and saw that they have a
list of ways that should be trunk. One of them is the highway from
Edmonton to Fort McMurray, so I clicked along the way, and turned it
into a trunk rather than just primary. There were also a bunch of
problems, due to some unnamed individual merging ways that shouldn't
have been.

I still need to promote highway 28 to Cold Lake to meet the list of trunk ways.

James
VE6SRV

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[Talk-ca] Buggered up way

2010-03-13 Thread James Ewen
Can someone that knows what they are doing have a look at Lesser Slave Lake?

It looks like it should be a circular way defining a lake, but
something is not right. It is not a circular way. I can't cut it into
pieces either. I think there are multiple ways stacked, but don't know
how to find out. I clicked on the inspector, and it tells me that
there are 79 ways associated with the point I clicked on... There
should only be one.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/45266403

AUUGGG

James
VE6SRV

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Re: [Talk-ca] Highways in Yukon

2010-03-11 Thread James Ewen
On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 7:18 PM, Richard Weait  wrote:

>> One has to think about how the final map is going to be displayed.
>
> Now that is a little close to tagging for the renderer.

Yes, but I've been chastised about that statement before... we are not
tagging incorrectly to simply work around the renderer rules, but
rather tagging as to road classification importance, which the
renderer simply renders differently. If the data stored in the OSM
database is not useful to the user, then it may as well not be
included.

Back to my GPS... the major roads in the TeleAtlas database cause
routing problems. The routing routine will take me on a 350 km detour
just to stay on highways, rather than a 200 km direct route on what it
considers a major road. These major roads are indistinguishable from
the highways as far as physical features are concerned. Speed limits
are also identical.

I'd prefer to have these major roads promoted to the same
classification as the highways (in fact they are highways of the same
classification as the others)... as a side effect, the renderer in the
GPS would end up showing these roads that were previously not visible.

Just because the renderer changes the display doesn't mean that I am
specifically trying to misrepresent the road for the renderer.

The renderers take the tags we use into account when deciding on how
to display a way, so it is only appropriate that we also take into
account how the renderer will display the tags we are deciding to use.

It would be inappropriate to tag a stream as a coastline just to get
it to show up on a wide area map... it is however appropriate in my
opinion to tag an important major road (read only road) across a large
expanse of territory at an appropriate classification level, despite
what the rendering engines will do with it.

The database and renderers are pretty much married to each other.
Without the database, the renderers are useless. Without the
renderers, it's pretty hard to visualize the data.

James
VE6SRV

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