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Weekly OSM Newsletter

19/12/2023-25/12/2023

Community Activities

A group of OpenStreetMap enthusiasts in Asia recently participated in the first public Map-py Wednesday activity. This event was intended to build connections among OSM contributors, provide opportunities for sharing local developments, and promote mutual learning. ‘Map-py Wednesday’ is a nickname coined by a group of mappers who have been meeting online for a couple of months and are enthusiastic about involving the rest of the community.

In a new OpenStreetMap diary entry, Jiri Vlasak (known for the ‘Divide and map. Now.’ project) critiqued the backend codebase of the HOT Tasking Manager, describing it as impossible to maintain. Vlasak explains the complexities and inefficiencies encountered when trying to understand and modify the code, particularly with the task splitting functionality.

Michael Brückner has been recognized as the Volunteer of the Month by the Trufi Association for his foundational contributions and ongoing service as treasurer, handling legal aspects and providing stability to the Association.

Events

The FOSSGIS 2024 conference program has been published, featuring presentations on OpenStreetMap, open data, and routing, to be held at Hamburg University of Technology from 20 to 23 March 2024. Additionally, the State of the Map Europe 2023 team have published the recordings of this year’s conference.

The State of the Map (SotM) 2024 conference in Nairobi, Kenya is offering a travel grant program to promote accessibility and diversity. The grants include full conference tickets and varying lump sums based on the applicant’s location, with grants ranging from EUR 100 to 1200.

OSM Research

A new study has developed a detailed dataset of material stocks in China for the years 2000 and 2020, focusing on geographic distribution and configurations in the built environment. The authors used OpenStreetMap for all the infrastructure data.

Another study from Rowan University, led by Dr. Qian He, showed how climate change is expected to increase the isolation of vulnerable groups in the United States using OSM data and other sources to assess risk.

Physicists at the University of the Philippines have applied network science to improve disaster response strategies in the Philippines using geographic data from Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, and other publicly available sources.

Maps

The Revolution9 Geocode Map Viewer is a tool that allows users to enter latitude and longitude coordinates, which are then converted to Quadkey, Geohash, or Grid Square Code and visualized on a map for easy understanding.

Tobias Zwick is planning to develop an iOS version of StreetComplete and the Roadmap to Nominatim 5 has been published, outlining the plan for a leaner and easier to use version in the future.

Software

Mapbox listed, in its 2023 Year in Review, their new product launches, enhancements to developer tools, and collaborations across industries. Key developments listed include the Search Box API, integration with Snowflake’s cloud platform, and the introduction of 3D mapping as a standard feature.

Releases

Organic Maps reached a significant milestone in 2023, gaining its first million users and introducing new features such as GPX import and a Ruler tool. OsmAnd’s latest update introduces customisable top/bottom panels, new widgets, and a redesigned Local tab.

Did You Know?

• CartoCams is a map of webcams around the world based on OpenStreetMap data.
• The OsmDestinationToSVG tool renders the various destination tags as SVG graphics, making it useful for displaying guideposts and traffic signs graphically.
• You can report sites that are using OpenStreetMap’s map tiles without proper attribution.
• OSM-GPT uses GPT-3 technology and the Overpass API to provide an intuitive user experience for exploring features on OpenStreetMap.
• The show-me-the-way tool shows OSM edits happening on a map in real time.

Other “Geo” Things

The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation has awarded USD 66.4 million to 148 organizations for leveraging artificial intelligence and data science.

Upcoming Events

If you would like to see your event in the newsletter, please put it into the OSM calendar.

This weeklyOSM was produced by MatthiasMatthias, PierZen, Strubbl, TheSwavu, barefootstache, derFred, mcliquid, rtnf. We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

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