Tag Archives: openstreetmap

Happy Days are here again

Snapped an inaccessible (or inescapable?) terrace during day one of the Den Haag mapping party.

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Dutch OpenStreetMap blog

Since OpenStreetMap received a EUR 12.000 funding from Digitale Pioniers, the Dutch branch has really taken off. I’ve been pretty busy with the promotional side of it, including setting up an http://www.openstreetmap.nl weblog (in Dutch).

FWIW: I tried out WordPress, because of the GeoPress plugin, but I could not get used to WP. So obviously I quickly switched to my blogging platform of choice: Serendipity :)
My geotag plugin works great with OSM btw.

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Interviewed by Radio 1 on OpenStreetMap

Yesterday evening I was interviewed (mp3, entire broadcast or wma, the interview itself ) by the Dutch Radio 1 program Radio Online about the OpenStreetMap work that is being done in the Netherlands!

The press is picking it up nicely, I’m hoping for a lot of new mappers and for free datasets that will lower our todo-list-of-death :)

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Results from Mapping Party Amsterdam

The results of last weekends mapping party try-out in Amsterdam are in. It was great fun, and quite productive, even though we had a slow start and a Sunday with hailstorms.

Jip took some pictures.

Almost forgot to mention that this party was sponsored by Func.!

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OpenStreetMap interview

I was interviewed by Brenno from ICT Roddels on OpenStreetMap in the Netherlands! The interview is at the end of the podcast.

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Maemo Mapper supports OpenStreetMap

Maemo Mapper now supports OpenStreetMap as a map repository. This makes it the first really legal repository, also to be used for off line viewing.

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Join the OpenStreetMap Amsterdam mapping party

For those of you based in the Netherlands and interested in collaborating on creating free (as in speech) maps, consider joining the Amsterdam mapping party on March 17/18th.

We’ll be biking and hiking across the centre of Amsterdam, collecting tracks, which will be followed by creating streets behind a computer. Drinks and work space are provided for by Func.

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Mapping Amsterdam with Open Street Map

I have finally jumped into the whole Open Street Map thing. Currently I am scratching my own Amsterdam itch. Believe it or not, but Amsterdam was virtually non-existent in OSM, so I started the Amsterdam topic.

The data acquisition is fun to do … biking different detours to work and recording every car ride.

To give you an impression of Amsterdam before and after I started (different viewpoints and renderers):

The people behind OSM are acquiring funds in the Netherlands in order to jump start the community here (currently at about 5 users).

Do you feel like helping out on building a free map of the world? In March we’ll do the first Amsterdam mapping party!

update: nl.wikipedia.org entry added :)

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Collaborative cartography, how governments can help

This is what they say at openstreetmap.org:

OpenStreetMap is a project aimed squarely at creating and providing free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. This is because most maps you might think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from all walks of life who would like to use a map for one reason or another.

OpenStreetMap has created a cool online editing interface that allows anyone to upload their GPS tracks and contribute to the map. The data created can then be used in lots of different ways for free – something that isn’t possible with commercial mapping.

In the Netherlands, the government has the ambition to transform into an open government. A government program called OSOSS (Open Standards and Open Source Software for the government) has called the open standards part of the program already a succes. They will now shift focus to only open source software.

How about adding a focus to open content? If government agencies would actively participate in opening up their relevant data, this will result in momentum for open content initiatives such as OpenStreetMap. This in turn will stimulate innovative new uses for the data. And since innovation is the magic word with Dutch policymakers …

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