National Missing Maps Mapathon 2019 (Brussels, Namur, Ghent, Liège)

Help Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross to facilitate their rescue

It’s time for the 4th National Mapathon which will take place on Wednesday March 27th, Thursday March 28th and Saturday March 30th. It is organized by the National Committee for Geography, in collaboration with OpenStreetMap Belgium and MSF Belgium. Several universities in Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia open their doors for a large collective mapping event. Come contribute - do not miss this opportunity and help Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross to facilitate their work in crisis areas.

National Missing Maps Mapathon 2019 (Brussels, LLN, Leuven, Mons)

Help Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross to facilitate their rescue

It’s time for the 4th National Mapathon which will take place on Wednesday March 27th, Thursday March 28th and Saturday March 30th. It is organized by the National Committee for Geography, in collaboration with OpenStreetMap Belgium and MSF Belgium. Several universities in Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia open their doors for a large collective mapping event. Come contribute - do not miss this opportunity and help Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross to facilitate their work in crisis areas.

How to create a simple map (with a marker) based on OpenStreetMap

Introduction

There are 2 most common open-source JavaScript libraries used to display a map : Leaflet and OpenLayers.

Build a simple map using Leaflet

This tutorial is based on Leaflet Quick Start Guide and uses version 1.4.0 of the library. I suggest you check if there is a more up-to-date version before proceeding.

How to see the map

You can check the map here : https://www.openstreetmap.org/ !

How to use free OpenStreetMap Belgium baselayer

It is quite easy and it’s completely free!
We just ask you to use the required credits/attributions : OpenStreetMap contributors for the data and SPRL GEO-6 BVBA for the tiles hosting.

You can have a look at our baselayer here : https://tile.openstreetmap.be/

Here are 2 examples using the most common open-source JavaScript libraries (Leaflet and OpenLayers).
If you’re not familiar to those libraries, have a look at “How to create a simple map (with a marker) based on OpenStreetMap ?”.

Mapper of the Month: Benoît Fournier (France)

Who are you?

I’m called Benoît Fournier, I live in France together with my family. I work in Paris or the region around it.

How and when did you discover OpenStreetMap?

I’ve discovered OpenStreetMap at the end of 2014: I needed an application on my mobile phone with offline, predownloaded maps. I wanted to have maps without having to use mobile data for cycle and hiking trajects. My search took me to OsmAnd and the OpenStreetMap-project. Slowly but surely, I made my first steps and discovered the elements of the OSM-universe: the data, the editors, the wiki, some map notes, my first message to other contributors, … soon followed by my first contributions, of which a few a bit reckless and contianed the necessary errors!

Open Belgium 2019

Let’s make Belgian knowledge open, usable, used, useful

Open Belgium is an annual Open Knowledge and Open Data conference gathering industry, research, government and citizen stakeholders. In other words, anyone who is interested in Open Knowledge and Open Data is more than welcome!

We aim to bring you up to speed with the latest trends, innovations and best practices by sharing experiences among this wide range of participants. Get inspired by high-level keynote speakers, engaging panel discussions, hands-on and minds-on workshops as well as the interactive exhibition space where a multitude of partners present innovative products, services and research.

The Power of Open in Action: Community Day Open Knowledge Belgium

Open knowledge and open data are very powerful, essential forces for change. The good thing is… you as a citizen can contribute to open projects and contribute to a world where knowledge creates power for the many, not the few.

As a satellite event of the yearly Open Belgium conference (on Monday 4 March in Brussels), Open Knowledge Belgium is organising a community day on Saturday 2 March with talks and workshops on various open topics. This event aims to gather the community behind different open initiatives and is absolutely open to everyone who wants to learn more about open knowledge & open data in general.

Mapper of the Month: Volker Schmidt (Europe)

Volker at Petrified Forest National Park AZ 2016

Who are you ?

I am rather old: born in 1944 in the heart of (Western) Europe, halfway between Strasbourg and Luxembourg, in Germany at 2km from the French border. Let me put it this way: I am a European citizen with, by accident, a German passport. I live, for the second time in my life, in Padova, in northern Italy, about 35km west of Venice. Before retiring I worked, mostly, for the nuclear fusion research programme of the EU as an engineer and manager for large experiment control and data acquisition systems, with a two-year intermezzo in the search for gravitational waves at Caltech in California. My hobbies? My hobbies have changed over time. I had several hiking periods, a pottery period, and now am nearly fully occupied by two interconnected hobbies: (1) slow-cycling (as opposed to racing) from going for a stroll (on the bicycle) for lunch to cycle travel for days or weeks and (2) OSM with an eye on cycling. My nickname? I got that many years back when I started my first job after University in (then West-)Berlin in 1974. I had to invent a user name for our local computer system and constructed “vosch” from the first letters of my name and family name. We were five in the team and all Asterix and Obelix fans. So I added the “-ix”.

Meeting in Louvain-la-Neuve

Let’s meet in Louvain-la-Neuve for the next OpenStreetMap meetup in Brabant Wallon on the 11 February 2018 , 6:30 PM ! Anyone interested in OSM is welcome, from the absolute beginner to the most experienced mapper. Do not hesitate to come if you are just curious about OpenStreetMap and participatory cartography.