Diary

Why street level imagery matters and why it should be open All around the world, people are making a digital twin of the world. They might want to know where the shops are, need data to train a driverless car algorithm, or want to know where the traffic signs are. This work is done by private companies, by government and by volunteers in crowdsourcing projects. Sometimes, this can be done by using satellite imagery. Sometimes going outside is needed. But very often, street level imagery is wh...

Lots of conversation happens in our chat room. The volume is so high, it’s hard to keep up. And it’s easy to forget about issues that were raised. So Tim started making this weekly summary. Have a look at our channels page for more info about joining the chat or other ways to reach us.

Lots of conversation happens in our chat room. The volume is so high, it’s hard to keep up. And it’s easy to forget about issues that were raised. So Tim started making this weekly summary. Have a look at our channels page for more info about joining the chat or other ways to reach us.

Lots of conversation happens in our chat room. The volume is so high, it’s hard to keep up. And it’s easy to forget about issues that were raised. So Tim started making this weekly summary. Have a look at our channels page for more info about joining the chat or other ways to reach us.

At OpenStreetMap Belgium, we want to be the first to map new things. That’s not just because we like doing that, but also to offer the best service to our data users. And it has an implication for local government too.

The story begins in February 2017 at FOSDEM (https://fosdem.org/) in Brussels; a cheerful Albanian delegation arrives on the Brussels ground. Among these Albanians, Anisa Kuci and Redon Skikuli, members of OSM Albania; since they are on Belgian soil, they decide to contact OSM Belgium and yaaay, some of us also attend the FOSDEM. First contact around a Belgian beer, our new Albanian friends announce that they are organizing an open-source conference at their home in Tirana in May: OSCAL (Open...

The best way to collect data for OpenStreetMap is by surveying an area. With surveying, we mean walking or driving around and taking notes of the features or objects you encounter. For newcomers it might be difficult to start with their first survey. There are as many methods as there are mappers, but it might help to get started when you have read at least one workflow. That is why I wrote this article. I will also explain how you can prepare your survey with data from external sources.

Last Sunday 12 December, we had our first real OSM Belgium hackday! The plan was mainly to work on the GRB import. A dozen volunteers made it to Brussels and participated. In Flanders, 1944 of our contributors have already mapped 1.4 million buildings. Most of that by hand, from aerial imagery. But recently the Flemish government released the ‘GRB (NL)’ as open data. This data contains over 4 million buildings, and they are drawn to centimeter level precision. So we want to improve the g...

What happens when you allow everyone to map the world, as they see fit, no questions asked?