Russ Nelson on 9 Mar 2009 13:10:59 -0700


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

[PLUG] OpenStreetMap mapping party this weekend


Hi.  I'm hosting, with Robert Cheetham, an OpenStreetMap mapping party  
this weekend in Philadelphia, at the Intermezzo Cafe, Saturday and  
Sunday, from 11AM to 4PM.  OpenStreetMap is Open Data, and Open Data  
is the left hand to Open Source's right hand.  OpenStreetMap is a big  
pile of lat/lon points, lines connecting them, and relationships  
between the lines, PLUS metadata associated with each type of object.   
A point might be a bus stop; a line a path, road, border, or building,  
and a relationship a non-exclusive set of ways (e.g. a bus route).   
All of this data is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution  
Share-Alike license, so it's as open as any code under the GPL.

Trouble is ... the data, while already usable for mapping, and  
routing, needs to be better.  That's where you come in.  We host a  
mapping party to get like-minded people together, have some fun, do  
some GPS mapping (I have a set to loan out), and learn how to use the  
editing tools to add them to the database.  If you have a laptop, you  
might want to install GPSBabel.org on it, and grab a copy of  
Merkaartor (Qt/C++) or JOSM (JAVA).

Sounds like fun to you?  It sounds like fun to me!  So come out this  
weekend, learn more about the project, meet some people who love maps  
as much as you, and we'll have a great time.

The full details:  http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Philadelphia

Please RSVP; either to me directly, on the opensteetmap wiki page, or  
via the Meetup link on that page.  Thanks, and I hope to see you there!

--
Russ Nelson - http://community.cloudmade.com/blog - http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/User:RussNelson
russ@cloudmade.com - http://openstreetmap.org/user/RussNelson

___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug