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Prototype toolkit for sustainable urban design at the speed of thought. (by SustainableUrbanDesign)
The reason that I haven't pursued a gamification approach with https://mapcomplete.osm.be is twofold:
- I'm focusing on other usability issues (and features) first
In addition to StreetComplete which others have mentioned, one of the lightning talks at FOSDEM this year was about a project called CoffeOSM, which allows you to scan your receipt from a coffee shop and add the shop to OSM.[0] It's still just a proof of concept, but hopefully it develops into something more as it's a very cool idea IMO.
[0] https://gitlab.com/netvandal/coffeosm
Yes, I agree that data balkanization represents a significant hindrance for further development of openstreetmap. Fifteen or so years ago I was experimenting with importing DEM files from the US into Blender for landscaping, and finding the data was frustrating. Sometimes the data was available at a state website, other times at a federal website, sometimes also available on the website of that mapping program. Surveys within a given geopolitical constraint would be found on the website of whichever department provided the funding. I understanding that, even if ignoring legal realities, merging this data into a single "ground" (heh) truth would be a herculean task, scientifically. But there was no common database or delivery method. Some departments would link to FTP sites, other would provide arcgis downloads via an interactive web tool. I'd have to depend on user-maintained blog posts to even find the data. And the best data was always locked away behind secure portals that I couldn't get access to.
Nowadays openstreetmap is running into the same problem at the municipality level. In the US, if I understand correctly, geographic data is under copyright to whichever governing entity and not eligible for import into openstreetmap.
Take for example the excellent app Every Door (https://github.com/Zverik/every_door) with a focus on easily adding building information. In the US, openstreetmap has no address information. Either that or very little address information - but none in my area. So it'd be easy for me to add building nodes with house numbers but I won't be doing that. Not only is it a massive commitment, but the data is already available at openaddresses.io. The catch? It's "probably" license-compatible with openstreetmap. Before merging, all that data would have to be reviewed by a team of lawyers. That's not something a software developer can help with.
In existing threads here, a top complaint about OsmAnd is that lack of address information. Try planning a route without addresses, and without constantly switching to Google Maps to convert address to coordinates. Not very user friendly! Opensupermaps (https://github.com/pnoll1/osmand_map_creation) is a user-maintained merge of openstreetmaps and openaddresses.io, but it doesn't integrate with OsmAnd's data update system.
And that's how data balkanization is breaking openstreetmap, right now.
Yes, I agree that data balkanization represents a significant hindrance for further development of openstreetmap. Fifteen or so years ago I was experimenting with importing DEM files from the US into Blender for landscaping, and finding the data was frustrating. Sometimes the data was available at a state website, other times at a federal website, sometimes also available on the website of that mapping program. Surveys within a given geopolitical constraint would be found on the website of whichever department provided the funding. I understanding that, even if ignoring legal realities, merging this data into a single "ground" (heh) truth would be a herculean task, scientifically. But there was no common database or delivery method. Some departments would link to FTP sites, other would provide arcgis downloads via an interactive web tool. I'd have to depend on user-maintained blog posts to even find the data. And the best data was always locked away behind secure portals that I couldn't get access to.
Nowadays openstreetmap is running into the same problem at the municipality level. In the US, if I understand correctly, geographic data is under copyright to whichever governing entity and not eligible for import into openstreetmap.
Take for example the excellent app Every Door (https://github.com/Zverik/every_door) with a focus on easily adding building information. In the US, openstreetmap has no address information. Either that or very little address information - but none in my area. So it'd be easy for me to add building nodes with house numbers but I won't be doing that. Not only is it a massive commitment, but the data is already available at openaddresses.io. The catch? It's "probably" license-compatible with openstreetmap. Before merging, all that data would have to be reviewed by a team of lawyers. That's not something a software developer can help with.
In existing threads here, a top complaint about OsmAnd is that lack of address information. Try planning a route without addresses, and without constantly switching to Google Maps to convert address to coordinates. Not very user friendly! Opensupermaps (https://github.com/pnoll1/osmand_map_creation) is a user-maintained merge of openstreetmaps and openaddresses.io, but it doesn't integrate with OsmAnd's data update system.
And that's how data balkanization is breaking openstreetmap, right now.
Woah, your vision sounds very similar to the goals of an open-source web app I started building a few years ago. The idea was inspired by Cities Skylines but I started with a 2D approach since everything is much simpler than with 3D. The idea was to help urban planners fill sustainability gaps in their cities by showing which areas needed access to amenities like bus stops, daycare, grocery stores, and schools. The approach, as mentioned is to overlay buffers surrounding existing amenities, dissolve those buffers, and find gaps. There can even be an interactive component to show the impact of placing an amenity in a neighborhood, like those emojis that radiate outward when placing a public service in Cities Skylines. The inverse problem can easily be accommodated with the app, helping people find desirable neighborhoods for their next home.
I'd be glad to jumpstart the open-source project if I can find any contributors to help build the project.
https://github.com/SustainableUrbanDesign/app
Related posts
- Every Door 4.0 is released with improved GPS and Mapbox Imagery!
- Every Door 4.0 is released with improved GPS and Mapbox Imagery
- If you haven't already, check out the new addresses overlay in StreetComplete v48; it's awesome!
- Every Door – OpenStreetMap editor for POIs and entrances
- Mapping 306 bike racks in Chicago