Re: [OSM-talk] [OSM-dev] Beautiful maps for a travel blog & reviews site

[jamesmikedup...@googlemail.com]

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 4:12 AM, Joe Richards  wrote:
> Unique colours/look and feel - we already have that, but perhaps it's time
> to give up our own map rendering engine and look at Mapnik etc.  We can
> create a tile server, although obviously avoiding so would be desirable if
> it can be done without causing too much impact on any one source server
> (perhaps we can retrieve and cache tiles)

mapnik is going to needs its own server for rendering. no way to put
that on the main server if you have any load. mapnik is very very
hungry.

mike

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[OSM-talk] Beautiful maps for a travel blog & reviews site

[Joe Richards]

In 2001 (before OSM and Google Maps), I cofounded a travel
blogwebsite which featured its own maps (of
your trip locations) as they unwound
as a 'ball of string' across the 'ball of dirt' that is our world.
 Dedication to the project has had its bursts, there is video/photo
uploading and a few bugs and things to fix.

The mapping could be vastly improved and since I've been an active OSM
user/contributor the past few years it's time to roll the sleeves up and
integrate better maps into BallOfDirt.com

The maps on the site are generated using public domain DEM (digital
elevation data) which specifies the altitude coarsely across the globe using
some custom C code that essentially renders blue (water) if the altitude is
less than zero, and then a range of colours above that.  A slight 'shadow'
effect is rendered for pixels that are lower than the ones to their
upper-left neighbours, to give a slightly simple 'relief' map feeling.
 Nowadays SRTM elevation data is more accurate and would allow 'zoomed in'
bits of coastline etc to look less chunky, but perhaps this is the wrong
approach anyway.

Locations (places visited) are added simply from a big import of Geonames
into some nicely normalised tables, with some more custom rendering for the
splines that represent the user's journey as they roam, marking the
cities/places they visit.

The reaindering is done with a nice engine that can distribute the load
across (geographically) across a grid of media generating and caching
servers, cache the result of various layers/actions and understands
processing commands in a nice XML language with fed-in parameters for each
step (e.g. a step for rendering a map, one for scaling it, one for rendering
the lines of the journey's paths, one for producing PNG output etc)

At one stage (many years ago) I toyed and fiddled with getting VMAP0 data
(or VMAP1 or VMAP2) going as a layer for better features such as geographic
boundaries, cities, airports, major roads, swamps etc which looked exciting
and promising but had its own problems.  I wanted to turn rendering of
visible features on and off at various zoom levels (e.g. regions/boundaries
at one level, then rivers and major roads, then minor roads etc).

Since them I'm obviously a big OSM convert and would like to use the lovely
data that is out there and enjoy the continuous improvements, as well as
hopefully get our travellers to feed back useful data and improvements.

So how to go about it?  Here are some of the things that would be good to
achieve

   1. Slippy map - this should be easy.  Our current map has a
   mercator-projection version (not currently enabled on the site) which could
   help it generate tiles as a base layer for a slippy map, *if we go that way*
   2. Unique colours/look and feel - we already have that, but perhaps it's
   time to give up our own map rendering engine and look at Mapnik etc.  We can
   create a tile server, although obviously avoiding so would be desirable if
   it can be done without causing too much impact on any one source server
   (perhaps we can retrieve and cache tiles)
   3. Nice relief maps with SRTM data - something a bit like this type of
   shading too
   http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/images/a/a1/Toposm-example-nhd2.jpgavailable
at
   http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/TopOSM  - I notice TopOSM is not
   global btw
   4. Custom configuration to determine which POIs etc are visible at
   various zoom levels - not radically different from OSM's tiles but probably
   tweaked with different features that are interesting to travellers
   highlighted.  I guess so far it's quite similar to OpenCycleMap
   5. Ability to overlay our own paths/lines over the top.  These are
   currently generated in SVG, then rendered as a transparent (alpha channeled)
   layer over the top of the map.  They could be chopped into tiles easily, as
   long as they cold be transparent overlays
   6. Possibility to search not just from our (imported) Geonames data for
   placenames and features, but also from OSM (live?) database and/or Geonames
   web service, so updates and fixes are handled
   7. Updates to OSM map visible on the site - ideally ASAP but at the most
   within a couple of weeks
   8. Ideally ability to use OAuth to help tweak or add things like POIs
   where one of our users has the relevant info - avoiding a separate sign-up
   process

This is all on Debian/Ubuntu/Apache/Postgres with the main languages used
being PHP and Python, although others are fine.

I could just plough in and start messing around with the tools but I thought
I'd ask first in case there are some big shortcuts, pointers or a bit of
lateral thinking (e.g. whole steps that could be omitted).  What existing
resources/tools/plans can I use here to 'stand on the shoulders of giants'?

Oh and was VMAP* imported into OSM?
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Re: [OSM-talk] Community vs. Licensing

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

Russ Nelson wrote:

Mostly it's about community, which is why
it's here and not on le...@.


Unfortunately in my rebuttal of this I have to discuss legal stuff so 
I'll do it in legal-talk and invite anybody who is interested to read it 
there.


Bye
Frederik

--
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frede...@remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"

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[OSM-talk] Community vs. Licensing

[Russ Nelson]

This isn't about the license, but it's about choosing a license, and
why are we re-licensing.  Mostly it's about community, which is why
it's here and not on le...@.  Earlier, I wrote this, from my
perspective as the head of licensing at the Open Source Initiative:

--

One of the lessons learned from ten years of management of the Open
Source license space is that licenses don't matter; community does.
Yes, people get passionate about licenses, but *really* they're being
passionate about their community.

What is most important to OSM is not the license, but instead the
people.  The data may just as well be in the public domain.  The real
question then becomes: can somebody borrow your data and combine it
with their data faster than you can create it?  My own feeling is that
they cannot, so I am in favor of OSM being relicensed into the public
domain.

However, I have spoken with Steve Coast, founder of the project, and I
know that he is dead-set against public domain OSM data.  Thus, the
second best thing to do, if you're going to threaten to sue
infringers, is a license that clearly spells out what portions of the
data they can use freely, and what uses are considered infringing.
The ODbL does a good job of lining that out, and so I recommend that
you relicense to it.

--

I've re-thought this, and I think that the proper course of action,
which will do the least damage to the community, is to stay with
CC-By-SA.  First, because all the data in OSM is already licensed
under that license.  Second, because it will do minimum damage to the
community (the discussion here is evidence that the community WILL be
badly harmed by relicensing).  Third, because if the worst thing that
happens is that the CC-By-SA turns out to be unenforcible, then the
data will be in the public domain.  For the reasons I listed above,
that's not a bad thing.

Community first, license second.

-- 
--my blog is athttp://blog.russnelson.com
Crynwr supports open source software
521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315-600-8815
Potsdam, NY 13676-3213  | Sheepdog   

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[OSM-talk] Duplicate nodes in the US

[Nakor]

   Hello,

On a regular basis I have to write to some contributors that use 
automatic methods to merge nodes in the US so I though I would copy my 
message here so everyone is aware:


Please do not run automatic merge tools in the US. Doing this you will 
connect entities that should not (e.g. river with road). This is due to 
the source of the imports that have duplicate nodes for different type 
of entities. If you want to fix duplicates in the US you need to review 
your changes one by one.


Also to avoid such mistakes you can use the JOSM validator plugin that 
sorts duplicates by type of ways i.e. highway duplicates, boundary 
duplicates, waterway duplicates, powerline duplicates, 


 Thanks in advance,

N.

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Re: [OSM-talk] Google Maps Misplaces Lincoln Memorial

[John F. Eldredge]

Minor correction to my own post: it turned out to be Glenn (two n's) rather 
than Glen (one n).

---Original Email---
Subject :Re: [OSM-talk] Google Maps Misplaces Lincoln Memorial
>From  :mailto:j...@jfeldredge.com
Date  :Sat Aug 28 22:33:57 America/Chicago 2010


Right-wing talk-show host Glen Beck held a political rally for the Tea Party on 
the steps of the Lincoln Memorial today.  This is the same location as Martin 
Luther King, Jr.'s famous "I have a dream" speech, and is on the 47th 
anniversary of that speech, leading to considerable controversy, in part 
because Glen Beck and the Tea Party are opposed to many of the causes that Dr. 
King promoted.  So, I would not be surprised if it turns out that someone 
hacked Google Maps' database, hoping to reduce the number of Tea Party 
supporters who show up for the rally.

---Original Email---
Subject :[OSM-talk] Google Maps Misplaces Lincoln Memorial
>From  :mailto:nice...@att.net
Date  :Sat Aug 28 22:11:36 America/Chicago 2010


[ Sorry for the partial message...#$%% hotkeys ]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/204373/google_maps_misplaces_lincoln_memorial.html?tk=hp_new


A curious thing has been happening on Google Maps -- the Lincoln Memorial is
being misplaced in favor of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, which is a
good half a mile south of the more famous memorial.
...


 And Nominatim now knows about Obama Drive...

http://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/search?q=obama+drive



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--
John F. Eldredge -- j...@jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to 
think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria
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-- 
John F. Eldredge -- j...@jfeldredge.com
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to 
think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria
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