Rick Turoczy at Silicon Florist says Portland has always had an interesting geolocation contingent here in town—with companies like Platial, gatherings like WhereCampPDX, and mobile apps like Ice Condor. So what better town to help with the OpenStreetMap project?
Mapping Parties are outdoor experiences for the whole family that let you explore the great outdoors.
At an OpenStreetMap Mapping Party you will:
- Discover how you can use OpenStreetMap’s map data and maps
- Learn how to use your GPS to help create new, better maps (Don’t have a GPS? We’ll provide one!)
- Meet other people who share your passions
OpenStreetMap (wiki) creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways.
OpenStreetMap is a collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. Maps are created using data from portable GPS devices, aerial photography, other free sources or simply from local knowledge.
On-line OpenStreet Raster Maps
| Map | Theme | Area |
|---|---|---|
| OpenStreetMap | general, cyclists, debugging | Worldwide |
| OpenSeaMap | nautical map | seas, oceans and waterways |
| OpenStreetBrowser | features highlighting | Europe |
| FreeMap | walkers | parts of the UK |
| Topo | walkers and riders | Austria, Germany, Switzerland |
| OpenCycleMap | cyclists | Worldwide |
| Yournavigation | routing | Worldwide |
| OpenRouteService | routing | Europe |
| OpenPisteMap | skiing | some European and USA resorts[18] |
| CloudMade | general, mobile and various other custom styles | Worldwide |
| OSM Mapper | Debugging maps by Ito World Ltd |
OpenStreetMap was inspired by sites such as Wikipedia — the map display features a prominent ‘Edit’ tab and a full revision history is maintained. Images and the vector dataset are available for download under a Creative Commons ShareAlike licence.
Meanwhile, Google’s open source Android 1.5 OS, features a number of major enhancements, including video recording and playback, faster camera and GPS performance, and support for home screen widgets.
C/Net reviews six applications for Google’s 1.5 Android operating system, some of which have have never been released on this platform. WeatherBug Elite adds additional layers of climactic information to its existing freeware app, Lonely Planet’s city guides show points of interest pop up on a camera’s-eye view of the streets in front of you, Imeem for Android will run in the background, streaming songs while you do other things on the phone, EA’s mobile division announced a collection of games that will be available for Android 1.5 and DataViz’s Documents To Go app will include new support for viewing PowerPoint and PDF files.
Tech Republic has 10 reasons why open source makes sense on smart phones. Android apps are likely to show up on around a dozen devices in the next few months, say industry observers.
The 3rd Annual International OpenStreetMap Conference will be held July 10th – 12th, 2009, in Amsterdam.
