Hello, Openstreetmap community! I’m Brazil Singh, Open Mapping Guru, and I’m excited to share the highlights from my recent training session at Jahangirnagar University. As an Open Mapping Guru under the Open Mapping Hub - Asia Pacific, this experience was both enlightening and thrilling, filled with dynamic discussions, insightful training sessions, and endless fun. Here’s a summary of our amazing day together!

Event Highlights

The session began at 2 PM with a vibrant atmosphere. We were honored to have several distinguished guests who contributed immensely to the event:

Chief Guest: Dr. Sheikh Tawhidul Islam, Professor at the Institute of Remote Sensing and GIS, Jahangirnagar University
Special Guests:
    Md. Munir Mahmud, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Remote Sensing and GIS, Jahangirnagar University
    Sawan Shariar, Regional Ambassador at YouthMappers and President of OSM Bangladesh

Session Details

OpenStreetMap Training:

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Dear diary, today I made my account. I hope this can count for CAS :skull:

Yesterday was a hectic day and I missed a day of mapping. I will try to make it up.

Today I mapped Duhanas which is a big village in Berat with a population of around 1500.

“#100villagesin100days #day37”

I’ve been using StreetComplete for the past few days now. It’s great fun, but I often run into questions where I’m thinking “Well… I don’t know that any of these options are right.” (Or “If Regina wasn’t a uniquely hot mess, then maybe one of these answers would actually work!” I’m looking at you Albert street rail crossing.) The tagging and questionable-edits channels on the osm-world discord have been massive helps.

It isn’t until you start tagging out in the wild that you start coming up with weird questions that you wouldn’t have thought up otherwise. Like:

• Do you mark an intersection as having no marked lanes? (Are they even supposed to have marked lanes if they aren’t turn lanes?)
• Is a concrete block coloured red a form of tactile paving, even if it has no different texture to it from any other block?
• How far does a street light have to be from a bus stop before you can say that bus stop is unlit at night?
• If there are no sidewalks next to a road and there is no way for a pedestrian to walk along the side (like if it’s too much of a slope), are they allowed to walk on the road?
  • (I don’t think I’ve seen a sign telling pedestrians that they aren’t allowed to in these situations here, but I don’t know anyone who would even want to in the places where it happens.)
• Why does Regina have so many pedways over streets cars drive under, and none of them are marked with a maximum height sign?
  • (It’s probably because in those areas, trucks aren’t allowed. But I never even noticed they didn’t have the signs until I thought to look!)

My journey into mapping began in 2012 when I was a college student. I started by mapping my village and later expanded to mapping numerous banks as part of my work in 2016-17. This initial exposure sparked my interest in community mapping.

In 2018, I began contributing to OpenStreetMap (OSM) alongside my volunteer contributions on Wikipedia and Wikidata. This involvement allowed me to bridge the gap between platforms by linking Wikidata entries with OSM and vice versa, enhancing the data quality and interconnectivity between these valuable resources.

Joining the Open Mapping Guru Fellowship has been a transformative experience. The fellowship provided me with access to various tools that have significantly enhanced my mapping activities. The tasks during the program helped me learn and expand my knowledge about mapping in OSM. These tasks ranged from mapping amenities using mobile applications like Every Door and remote mapping using JOSM and mapping and validating using the Tasking Manager.

Through this fellowship, I have not only improved my technical abilities but also deepened my commitment to the OSM community. The Open Mapping Guru Fellowship has been a significant part of my journey, and I’m excited about what lies ahead.

I am grateful to HOT and APHub team for this opportunity to be part of such a dynamic and collaborative environment.

As I continue my mapping journey, I look forward to applying the skills and insights gained from the fellowship to make a meaningful impact on the mapping and open data ecosystems.

It just feels like yesterday that I started OpenStreetMap Calendar, but that’s maybe because the journey has been mostly smooth sailing. I started it sometime in early summer of 2019, made it more useful by the end of that year by adding calendar subscriptions and an API. In 2020, thanks to the Microgrant, I was able to focus a little bit more on it, so it got time zone support and a wiki integration, which then replaced the old wiki-based calendar in December 2020.

Since then I have teased a few features, but not that much has actually happened: There has been the odd improvement here and there, at some point I had to add minimal moderation tools so that spam can be removed without me having to shell into the database, but other than that OSMCAL lives its own life thanks to the users who use it.

Until today, more than 2800 events have been created:

There is an OSM event happening somewhere, almost every day:

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WeeklyOSM informed us recently, that the videos of the recent SOTM FR are now available at https://peertube.openstreetmap.fr/c/sotm_fr_2024/videos.

There are english subtitles that seem to be good enough to get the gist of the video. Which is why I asked ChatGPT to take the RSS feed and create a translated summary so I can pick those that I find most interesting.

I thought this might be interesting for other, so here is the list…

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25 - OSerM: Mapping Stations Today to Improve Them Tomorrow

Summary: This presentation by Guillaume Chauvet discusses the use of OpenStreetMap (OSM) data for mapping and improving train stations. It focuses on how OSM data is utilized within and around stations as part of the deployment of Metropolitan Regional Express Services (SERM) projects.

Link to Video: Watch Here

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29 - Promoting Tourist Areas with OSM: The Experience of L’Abel Destination (Allier)

Summary: Located in the picturesque landscapes of Bourbonnais in Allier, L’Abel Destination used OpenStreetMap to enhance its territory. Within a year, the local tourism office staff trained in OSM, contributing detailed data on heritage sites, health services, shops, and local producers. This collaborative project highlights the process from funding to the final CartoGuide publication.

Link to Video: Watch Here

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28 - Carto Graou: Mapping Under the Trains

Summary: Nicolas Wurtz presents the story and future of “Carto Graou,” an online public railway map. Using polygons, lines, and points similar to LEGO pieces, the project integrates real-time data, opendata, and opensource elements. Initially aimed at enthusiasts, it has become indispensable and even useful for SNCF employees, with OpenStreetMap playing a crucial role in its success.

Link to Video: Watch Here

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65 - Updates on the Simplified Street Plan

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Kinda ditched OSM last year when school ended. Gonna try to finish micro-mapping my neighborhood at the very least. That was my goal from the beginning and it remains so to this day. This time, though, I truly have absolutely nothing better to do.

After that, who knows? No promises… Probably gonna ditch it again when school starts up again x)

There are a couple I walk by every week, both pretty large.

I’ve tagged them natural=beaver_dam ‘cos I found it in some discussion on the wiki somewhere.

Considering so much of Canada is shaped by beaver dams, I think they should get more respect.

(the location for this diary entry is near one of the beaver dams. It was not actually written while near it. If it had been, the beavers would have done their irritated tail-slapping dive to scare me away. It sounds like someone throwing a large rock into deep water.)

I hope the DDoS attack on OSM server was not serious, and they did not manage to do any harm. Many thanks to all the people that worked on solving the issue!

Today i mapped village Fushëz a village located in Elbasan with a population of around 188.

“#100villagesin100days #day36”

The openstreetmap project is the future of free data for resilience to the many problems of development and humanitarian response that we have in our communities. It gives access to a large database produced by enthusiasts, volunteers and people who believe that development or resilience in the face of the crises we face will require the support of such an initiative.

Someone once told me that to be immortal you have to give without expecting anything in return; support voluntary social actions as best you can,

support the initiative by making a donation of any amount, because at the end of the day it’s the gesture and the intention behind the gesture that counts.

http://supporting.openstreetmap.org/donate

or by having an impact on the management and direction of the Openstreetmap Foundation by becoming a member.

https://supporting.openstreetmap.org/#Membership-Categories

I’ve been a volunteer at openstreetmap since 2022 on 28 April and every day I try not only to help the openstreetmap project grow but also to participate in seeking and proposing solutions that could solve the problems we have in Africa, particularly in my country Cameroon, in nutrition, energy, quality education based on our cultures, water and empowering young people to face the challenges of our society. In short, the planning and development of our country

The last couple of days, I’ve been diving into a very sad chapter of Irish history - “industrial schools” which were children’s homes with less than favourable conditions for some of the children.

It stumbled into that rabbit hole, because a friend who went on a spin with me (I don’t drive myself, but I like being dependent on other people that way, because I always learn something from them that I wouldn’t have, if I drove myself) to look for holy wells had mentioned in passing a boys’ cemetery/ burial ground at St. Patrick’s Industrial School near Kilkenny. This school closed at some point after 1965 and the boys were transferred to St. Joseph’s Industrial School within Kilkenny city. St. Joseph’s had been only for girls until then.

I contacted our heritage officer at the local county council trying to find out whether they knew anything about this cemetery (I’m gonna stick with the OSM terminology from now on), but they had no record of it. It was also not marked on the official maps by Ordnance Survey Ireland (or the historical Ordnance Survey maps conducted by the UK government before Ireland’s independence).

Another friend who knew of the location offered to drive out with me and show me. So we went and I took photographs of all the grave markers (Category on Wikimedia), did a bit of mapillary and mapped the area as best I could (osm.org/way/1298817559) 68 boys and one woman (as I found out later, a matron in her 80s) were recorded as having been buried there. I did a little more research on them which you can read here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_names_recorded_at_St_Patrick%27s_Industrial_School_Cemetery,_Kilkenny

When we left, my “driver” mentioned that the nuns who ran the establishment (I hesitate to call it a school) also had a cemetery there, but we were pressed for time, so we didn’t visit it that day.

The next day, I cycled out and found the nuns’ cemetery which I also photographed and mapped as a cemetery.

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Anticipatory action , mapping for landslides and flooding preparedness in the north western provinces of Rwanda

Project Launch with Online Mapping of 50,000 Buildings

The rainy season, from April to June always reminds us that we need to be more than ready, but one would wonder why? We have our brothers and sisters who reside in northern and western provinces who are periodically exposed to the consequences of climate change and experience extreme weather and heavy rain every season. We have resolved to not sit and wait again, so we have decided to take action, Not the heavy one to uplift or relocate every one in high risk but do what we do the best. mapping!
And our story here demonstrates that if we map together, we will overcome the disasters together. especially landslides upstream causing flooding downstream on a periodic frequency.

Saturday 27th April 2024 marked the launch of the Anticipatory action.

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Welcome to the fourteenth OpenStreetMap NextGen development diary.

🔖 You can read other development diaries here:
osm.org/user/NorthCrab/diary/

⭐ This project is open-source — join us today:
https://github.com/openstreetmap-ng/openstreetmap-ng

🛈 This initiative is not affiliated with the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

In case you missed it…

Recently, we showcased Search 2.0: a comprehensive overhaul of the search functionality. For the first time, OSM search is now simple and intuitive to use. It’s a must-see (there’s a video demo too)!

OpenStreetMap-NG Repository Moved

This week we have moved the openstreetmap-ng code repository from Zaczero/openstreetmap-ng to openstreetmap-ng/openstreetmap-ng. All stars, forks, and issues have been transferred automatically. All previous URLs are also redirecting to the new address. If you have previously interacted with the project, there’s nothing you need to do.

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Today i mapped Gradec which is a different Gradec from the one i mapped yesterday.

I have been noticing that we have so many villages with same names in Albania. I might do a list of all the villages who share the same name and map them :P.

“#100villagesin100days #day35”

There are a number of places with ♥ and ❤️, and all their variants, in their names. This wiki guidance notwithstanding, I do think it is appropriate because this is the name of the place on signage, but it definitely makes it hard to search for stuff.

Official documents and urls for these locations mostly just use words, like “heart”, in place of the symbol because it is simpler and technically, or legally, required.

These hearts really are only the tip of the iceberg there are thousands of OSM entities with emojis in their names.

I am inclined to leave the emoji in the name tag but use the name:en tag to expand these emoji to words. Or should i just bring these names into “compliance” as the wiki indicates that emojis should be avoided in names.

Any thoughts on this?

Stuff I hate about sidewalk mapping

I have a certain… love-hate relationship with separte sidewalk mapping. On one hand, they do allow for a more complex mapping like specifying the type of separation between sidewalks and carriageway, easier to specify the surface of sidewalks (especially if the corresponding carriageway is split up), etc. On the other hand, they make routing (potentially) more complex (it’s complicated, actually) which is why I generally see them more useful on busy roads and outside settlements where you don’t expect spontaneous crossings. One thing what really fuels my issues with them, though, is just how careless a lot of users are with them, that one should go and map them however one wants despite the potential problems which can arise.

This is ultimately what I really hate about them: That (typically inexperienced) users go and start mapping sidewalks however they want (that is, draw them as they exist on a map). It’s such a big issue because it actually breaks routing, particularly if you map around blocks which usually only have limited official crossings and in turn a lot of virtual paths have to be created. Some pretty bad ones are such sloppy that they ignore all the warnings in their editor (be it two unconnected but crossing ways, way-building intersections or isolated ways).

All in all, here are my personal faux pas you can make with them (aside from ignoring all the warnings in your editor of choice):

Not detaching ways from the carriageway

This is a classic “just draw sidewalk” phenomenon: Draw the sidewalk but keep the connections from the now carriageway.

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It seems that I forgot to add a Diary Entry yesterday.

Yesterday I mapped the village Renz and the surrounding areas.

Today I started with Demiraj which was fully mapped (Thanks to DenisJu which has done an amazing job mapping Shkodra and the surroundings) so I moved next on the list.

I mapped the village Slatinjë which was really tiny, so I decided to map also Radesh and Gradec.

“#100villagesin100days #day33 #day34”

I am finding shapes and believing that I have discovered a very important pattern not completely mentioned earlier. Using those principals in those pattern shapes many geoglyphs are appearing over and over. Some are of animals and others of what appears to be humans. Most see to use the natural hillsides and valleys and then some modifications to the terrain to bring out the features with the figures. These are not easy to spot, as I have been trying to spot some for quite a while, only recently appearing of which I can’t unsee.

At some point I’ll make some kind of formal presentation but for now I am continuing to lay shapes down.

Incidentally, I am not using any AI or Google Earth enhancers of any kind. Most shapes are not indicated, and some may be part of a previously discovered shape. If I see shapes over shapes, I’ll try to add a second line type.

For years, I’ve been an active contributor to OpenStreetMap (OSM) – starting as a mapper in college (2017) and evolving into a trainer, leading over 30 trainings and reaching more than 1500 people. Recently, I took my commitment to the next level as a Trainer Fellow with Open Mapping Hub Asia Pacific (OMH AP). This 5-month journey wasn’t just about delivering training; it was about wearing a new hat – that of an organizer.

The Guru fellowship involved five trainings, including three online, one in-person (which I’ll delve into), and one where I acted as a support trainer. While every training experience is unique, this in-person workshop held a special place.

The in-person training titled “Map and Chat: Open Mapping Hands-on Workshop for DRR 2024”, held on April 28-29 2024, was designed for bachelor students with diverse backgrounds in Kathmandu, Nepal, in collaboration with Open Mapping Hub Asia-Pacific, Sendai Stakeholders Children and Youth Group, UN Major Group for Children and Youth (UNMGCY) and ALIN Foundation Nepal. The workshop aimed to equip them with hands-on open mapping tools and knowledge for disaster risk reduction (DRR).

Stepping Up: The Organizer’s Hat

While I was accustomed to crafting training materials and schedules, organizing demanded a whole new set of skills. The in-person aspect brought a new layer of complexity of logistics. Suddenly, I was creating Google Forms, counting water bottles and pens, designing posters and certificates, budgeting and managing finances and also analyzing participants’ backgrounds to tailor content effectively (as I usually do as a trainer. Gone were the days of solely focusing on the curriculum.)

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