Friday, September 1, 2017

on hurricane harvey, maps, and you

are you into maps?

the storm is gone, but relief and recovery will take years, and americans far away still need help.

in addition to donating to reputable charities, would you like to do some hands-on work that helps, but can't get to houston, or at this point don't want to get in the way? here's a way you can help remotely.

in short, you can get online and contribute your time and effort creating and verifying basemap data for the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project.


what is OSM? well, think of it as the wikipedia of maps. it started back in 2004 with the goal of using crowdsourcing to map the entire world. at first it was interested in mainly in mapping streets, but in recent years has grown to map a whole lot more, whether it be mapping trees within parks, locations of places to get a coffee, or even mapping departments within retail stores.


...and just like wikipedia, anyone can edit it, and the crowd verifies to keep it correct. in the end, it's a living, breathing map, and changing every day---just like the world around us.

one of the most productive uses of OSM in recent years has been "humanitarian mapping". the 2010 earthquake tragedy that struck in haiti was its true coming-of-age as a valuable tool. actual data on this varies, but let's just say the OSM team on the ground and remotely transformed haiti from a country that was mostly not mapped, to one that was, and in great detail.

and that ever growing OSM basemap was used by first responders, non-profit organizations, command center briefings, media support, the general public, and many, many other uses.

interested? want to at least check it out, and maybe get involved?

1) first, go to OSM and click "Sign Up" to create a new account

2) click "Edit", then "Edit with iD", then "Start the Walkthrough" in order to learn how to use the editing tools. it will hand-hold you through the steps. i think you'll find it very easy and straightforward. the tutorial takes maybe 10-15 minutes to get thru.

3) go to tasks.openstreetmap.us, choose a task that needs work, and follow the instructions

apparently lots of work needs to be done with getting buildings added to the map; you can just use your mouse to draw them by tracing on top of satellite photos. there's also a lot of verification work to check stuff that others did, not just with buildings, but also streets, parks, and the location of public safety facilities.

i've been editing OSM maps on and off for years, and just picked up a task and did some work on it yesterday. there's a long labor day weekend coming up. great opportunity to put in some hours.

if you want to try it, and have ANY questions with this stuff, or get stuck or whatever, contact me directly, or comment below and i can help you.











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