#OpenStreetmaps

[abbiistabbii]

Quick lists of "Alternative" software/websites I use:

Firefox (as an alternative to Chrome): Especially for the ad blocking capability. Use on both Phone and Computer.

DuckDuckGo (as an alternative to Google): No longer the thing your paranoid uncle uses, now an actually good search engine with the lack of tracking being a plus.

Kubuntu (as an alternative to Windows 11): My current Linux Distro and the best for people leaving Windows for Linux for the first time. Also KDE is Goated now.

LibreOffice (as an alternative to Microsoft Office): Works with MS-office formats and is FOSS, great if you don't trust google but need office software.

GIMP (as an alternative to Photoshop) because fuck Adobe.

Kdenlive (as an alternative to Premiere) because again, fuck Adobe.

OpenStreetMaps (as an alternative to Google maps): Tends to update quicker and is more detailed because everything is done by volunteers on the ground.

Krita (Alternative to ProCreate): Great painting app.

[warumichradfahre]

Skurrile Critical Mass Köln

Kurz vor sechs fing es an zu regnen, der denkbar schlechteste Zeitpunkt für eine Critical Mass, die ja von den Teilnehmenden lebt. Ich selber kam aus Richtung Nordwesten über die Venloer Straße und den Friesenplatz und eben dort erwischte mich das Nass von oben. Anhalten und unterstellen oder schnell die paar Meter noch zum Rudolfplatz? Ich entschied mich für Letzteres und wurde eben (etwas)…

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Grist:

The day I was supposed to join a group of young women to map Gros Islet, an old fishing village on the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia, I got lost. Proann Francis, who was helping lead the expedition, had told me to meet everyone at Care Growell School, which Google Maps informed me was some 8,500 miles away, in Uttar Pradesh, India. “Where?” I asked. She instructed me to wait outside my hotel for a ride because it would be impossible to find the place on my own. An hour later, I found myself standing at the side of a dusty St. Lucian highway as a vintage red Toyota van pulled up. I squeezed in, between Francis and the driver. Behind us, a group of young women sat wearing matching light blue shirts that read “Women Mappers.” 

“We have some heavy mapping to do today!” Francis announced, breaking into a toothy smile, her dark hair pulled back neatly into a bun. 

Most of St. Lucia, which sits at the southern end of an archipelago stretching from Trinidad and Tobago to the Bahamas, is poorly mapped. Aside from strips of sandy white beaches that hug the coastline, the island is draped with dense rainforest. A few green signs hang limp and faded from utility poles like an afterthought, identifying streets named during more than a century of dueling British and French colonial rule. One major road, Micoud Highway, runs like a vein from north to south, carting tourists from the airport to beachfront resorts. Little of this is accurately represented on Google Maps. Almost nobody uses, or has, a conventional address. Locals orient one another with landmarks: the red house on the hill, the cottage next to the church, the park across from Care Growell School.

Our van wound off Micoud Highway into an empty lot beneath the shade of a banana tree. A dog panted, belly up, under the hot November sun. The group had been recruited by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, or HOT, a nonprofit that uses an open-source data platform called OpenStreetMap to create a map of the world that resembles Google’s with one key exception: Anyone can edit it, making it a sort of Wikipedia for cartographers.

The organization has an ambitious goal: Map the world’s unmapped places to help relief workers reach people when the next hurricane, fire, or other crisis strikes. Since its founding in 2010, some 340,000 volunteers around the world have been remotely editing OpenStreetMap to better represent the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, parts of Africa and other regions prone to natural disasters or humanitarian emergencies. In that time, they have mapped more than 2.1 million miles of roads and 156 million buildings. They use aerial imagery captured by drones, aircraft, or satellites to help trace unmarked roads, waterways, buildings, and critical infrastructure. Once this digital chart is more clearly defined, field-mapping expeditions like the one we were taking add the names of every road, house, church, or business represented by gray silhouettes on their paper maps. The effort fine-tunes the places that bigger players like Google Maps get wrong — or don’t get at all.

[theemeraldforesthideout]

Procrastinating planning the second trip, and I shouldn't because solstice is getting closer and closer. It's just... brand new places and places I haven't been for so long. It's going to take a lot more work this time.

[2dreamy]

[요약]OSM 안의 서구와 동양의 관점 차이에 대하여

오픈스트리트맵[OpenStreetMap;OSM] 체제에 내재된 이념 혹은 정체성과 관련하여 OSM 커뮤니티에 글을 하나 올렸습니다. – 오픈스트리맵의 정체성을 무엇이라고 설명할 수 있습니까?(영문) 그리고 그에 대해 어떤 분이 ‘Imagico’라는 이에게 공유를 해 보라고 권해서 링크를 남겼더니 ‘오픈스트리트맵 안의 개인주의 대 집단주의 그리고 아나키즘 대 권위‘라는 글을 써 주셨습니다.꽤 깊이있는 내용이라 제가 번역을 엄두내기는 어려웠고, 그래서 챗지피티에게 요약과 설명을 부탁했더니 아래와 같은 의견을 주었습니다. 제공해주신 링크의 글은 OpenStreetMap(OSM) 내의 문화적 차이, 특히 서구와 동양의 관점 차이를 다루고 있습니다. 글���이는 한국의 OSM 기여자인 dreamy님의 댓글을…

[quatregats]

I have many freak behaviors but one that is definitely towards the top of that list is using online maps like a paper map. By which I mean instead of going to the search bar and typing in a place I just find it by locating it/zooming in

[techniktagebuch]

Ende April 2025

Mehrere Stunden ohne Internet – so geht's

So war das Rausgehen mit der Technik im Juni 2011, so war es im September 2011, so war es 2014, so war es 2015, so war es 2017, so war es im April 2018, so war es im Oktober 2018, so war es im August 2011 und 2020.

Diesmal sind wir drei Tage in den schottischen Highlands, davon voraussichtlich 48 Stunden ohne Handyempfang. Ich nehme eine Powerbank mit 10.000 mAh mit. Ich würde gern mehr mitnehmen, finde die größere mit den 20.000 mAh aber gerade nicht wieder. Deshalb muss ich auch meine mobile Bauchheizung zu Hause lassen.

Mit der Powerbank werde ich mein Handy etwa zwei Mal vollständig aufladen können. Ich weiß nicht so genau, wie oft das im Alltag nötig ist, weil ich das Handy bei jeder Gelegenheit ans Ladekabel anschließe. Wir laden beide unsere Handys im Auto mit dem Zigarettenanzünder-USB-Adapter während der ganzen Fahrt, so dass sie beim Loslaufen voll sind. Vorsichtshalber schalte ich dann den Batteriesparmodus dauerhaft ein. Den Flugmodus noch nicht, weil ich auf dem Hinweg herausfinden möchte, bis wohin der Handyempfang reicht, damit ich weiß, wie weit ich zurücklaufen müsste, um einen Notruf abzusetzen.

Als der Empfang nach den ersten fünf Kilometern verschwindet, schalte ich den Flugmodus ein. Zum Navigieren benutze ich OpenStreetmap, das funktioniert (wenn man vorher das Kartenmaterial für die Region runtergeladen hat) offline.

Hauptsächlich benutze ich das Handy in den 48 Stunden ohne Internet, um nachts im Schlafsack Bücher zu lesen. Das Display habe ich dabei auf "weiße Schrift auf schwarzem Hintergrund" gestellt, das spart Energie. Ich mache es aber nachts auch zu Hause so, weil es weniger grell ist. Kurz vor dem Ende der Mobilfunkversorgung habe ich noch schnell ein E-Book gekauft. Als dieses Buch gelesen ist, suche ich auf dem Gerät nach anderen Büchern. Die aktuell ausgeliehenen Libby-Bücher sind mir zu kompliziert oder nicht interessant genug, und bei zwei frisch ausgeliehenen habe ich vergessen, sie vor dem Verschwinden des Internets zu öffnen, damit sie auch offline verfügbar sind. Aber ein paar Relikte aus der Kindle-Zeit und ein paar gekaufte Kobo-Bücher sind zufällig auf dem Handy, also lese ich die eben noch mal. Ich nehme mir vor, beim nächsten Mal vor dem Verlassen des Internets darauf zu achten, dass genug Offline-Lesestoff vorhanden ist.

Für das Lesen von mehreren Büchern, ein paar Fotos und gelegentliche Blicke auf die OSMand-App brauche ich unerwartet wenig Strom, so dass die Powerbank auf dem Rückweg noch halb voll ist. Aleks geht es genauso, er sagt, seine Powerbank (10.000 mAh) sei eigentlich überdimensioniert und eine kleinere, leichtere für die Berge würde reichen. Jedenfalls an Orten, an denen es kein Internet gibt. Wenn es Internet gäbe, würden wir mehr stromverbrauchende Dinge mit den Handys machen.

Aleks hat eine Stirnlampe dabei, die er besitzt, weil er im Dunkeln mit dem Hund raus muss und dabei beide Hände für das Leinenmanagement braucht. Ich benutze nur die Taschenlampenfunktion meines Handys und kann mich nicht erinnern, wann ich zuletzt eine Stirnlampe benutzt, gebraucht oder vermisst habe. Ich besitze zwei, sie liegen zu Hause und ihre Batterien sind leer. Wenn eine davon aufladbar wäre, würde ich sie vielleicht mitnehmen.

Mein Duolingo-Streak wird für zwei Tage unterbrochen, das lässt sich nicht ändern. Zwei Tage sind aber genau die maximale Zeit, die man dort mit "Streak Freezes" überbrücken kann. Bei Wordfeud verliert man nach 72 Stunden durch Timeout und ich habe nicht daran gedacht, vor dem Losgehen noch schnell in allen Spielen einen Zug zu machen. Aber auf dem Rückweg taucht das Internet in Stunde 71 wieder auf.

(Kathrin Passig)

[dropsofsciencenews]

OpenStreetMap to Stop Cheetah Trafficking

ITA version ESP version

Behind the glamorous social media photos of cheetah cubs lies a dark reality. With fewer than 7,000 individuals in the wild, the cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) is one of the world’s most endangered species, and the illegal trade of live cubs, especially in the Horn of Africa, is devastating its populations. Poachers take cubs from their mothers while they hunt, selling them into the luxury pet market at prices reaching $50,000 per cub. Between 2020 and 2023, this trade increased by 50%, posing a serious threat to the species' survival.

However, a new methodology developed by a research team could finally help monitor and disrupt illegal cheetah trafficking through a three-tiered approach. Scientists are mapping not only the trafficking routes but also previously undocumented cheetah populations, combining prey species distribution models, habitat suitability, and a trafficking network based on OpenStreetMap data.

The first step involves locating cheetah prey, such as gazelles and antelopes, which are essential for their survival. The team used Maxent, a machine learning method, to cross-reference prey presence data with environmental variables like climate and land cover, thus mapping the most suitable areas for cheetah survival. This step identifies key conservation areas and, unfortunately, those most vulnerable to poaching.

Based on these data, researchers developed a Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) specific to cheetahs, highlighting areas where their survival is most probable. This model identifies regions with optimal conditions for stable populations and locates areas at risk of trafficking, enabling targeted interventions.

Finally, a model was created to understand how traffickers move cheetahs from remote origin areas to Arabian Peninsula markets. By integrating OpenStreetMap data on roads, ports, and border crossings, researchers identified the most likely land and sea routes and main transit points. Route optimization tools mapped out trafficking “hotspots,” allowing law enforcement to plan strategic interventions at critical crossing points, such as less monitored ports and borders.

This model is a breakthrough in conservation, as it not only enables mapping and monitoring of trafficking routes but also reveals previously undocumented cheetahs, giving scientists and conservationists a more complete picture of the situation. With this discovery, we finally have a system to protect one of Africa’s most iconic species and provide local communities with a tool to defend their natural resources.

See You Soon and Good Science!

source

[chery1bery1]

Hey there. Since the original map I've shared has been taken by Google for "violation of their terms of services" and someone had shared about an alternative map of the factories. This maps shares the contracts above the pins this time with purple and black ones.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT IT AND BOYCOTT THE FACTORIES

[krukarius]

Quick OSM effective data collection

[thursdayisbetterthanfriday]

OpenStreetMap - An open source online street map

Google Maps is incredibly useful - but did you know there's an open source equivalent? OpenStreetMap has been running for quite some time, and is a community driven replacement for Google, Bing and Apple maps. https://www.openstreetmap.org/

It's accessible via website, but there's also an app version which you can get for your phone which can be used similarly to Google Maps. The sat-nav functions aren't as good as other company-based products, but it does contain very good local-level information.

I've personally used it when hiking, visiting foreign cities in Europe and to create personal maps for tourist attractions, bookshops and good rock collecting spots. You can also download map data which can be used offline even if you don't have mobile signal.

They also have a community stories part of their website dedicated to the people who have used the project: https://www.openstreetmap.org/diary

If you want to support community led, open source, mapping software - do take a look at the funding page at: https://supporting.openstreetmap.org/

[learningbluejaymentality]

Me, a GIS professional in an office: I hate my job. Goes home, does the same job, but unpaid and with a less powerful interface: This is nice

[magicicapra]

(white knuckling my desk while dijkstra's algorithm slinks up slowly behind me, waiting to strike) I Need To Take Pokemon Go Less Seriously

[newkiqx]

I keep seeing this on my dash and I just want to say, for some reason OP just posted some streetview at different coordinates. I don't think the location is funnier so I'm stumped why they would do this?

The shirt says 42.3546N, 71.0654W I found the streetview perspective at 42.3460N, 71.0957W

I thought it was maybe a typo or something but as you can see that's not really possible as all of the digits are different. So it must be intentional

The actual location of the shirt coordinates is in the center of the Boston Common public park, right next to the band stand. Fenway Park stadium is some way to the southwest

BRB gonna wear my shirt that announces I got successfully railed in the street just outside Fenway Park

[2dreamy]

How Should We Understand and Embrace the OpenStreetMap System?

저 역시 처음엔 그랬고, 오픈스트리트맵(OpenStreetMap, 이하 OSM)을 편집하는 많은 분들이 OSM의 정체성에 대해 오해하는 경우가 많아 보입니다. 그래서 제가 이해하고 있는 OSM의 정체성에 대해 말씀드리고자 합니다. (OSM의 ‘이념’이라고 하고 싶지만 그게 공식적으로 혹은 어느 정도 공식 합의된 것인지에 대해 자신이 없어 ‘이념’이라기 보다는 가지고 있고 보이고 있는 ‘정체성’으로 표현을 하겠습니다. 굳이 ‘정체성’이라는 표현이 마음에 안 드시면 ‘이념’, ‘철학’, ‘속성’ 등 제 글에서 핵심이라고 생각되는 표현으로 바꾸어 받아들이시면 되겠습니다. 아울러 OSM에서 공식적으로 표방한 적도 없고 공식적으로 논의한 적도 없는 것으로 알기 때문에 이 글 내용은 순전히 제가 이해한 바를 얘기하는…