[clug] Open Source Maps

[Andrew Loughhead]

Thanks. A couple of other newish neat OSM related things are: some kind 
of OSM plugin for QGIS (Quantum GIS), and that the Neo FreeRunner can 
collect GPS data, and can display OSM data. I haven't tried either 
unfortunately.


Paul wrote:
> FYI some Garmin routable Maps from OSM data available here
> 
> http://emexes.powweb.com/osm/download.html
> 
> ie if you have a Garmin GPS (mapping) you should be able to install these.
> 
> Paul
> 
> On 8/10/2008 1:00 PM, Andrew Loughhead wrote:
>> Owen wrote:
>>> A couple of years ago I attended a CLUG talk at which the presenter had
>>> roamed the bike paths of Canberra with a GPS and fed the data
>>> into an open source mapping facility which I thought was located in the
>>> UK. It aggregated multiple inputs to come up with an accurate mapping
>>> of routes.
>>>   
>> That may have been me, I think I spoke to CLUG in about October or 
>> November 06. Personally, I am not contributing currently, but there 
>> are at least 3 or 4 very active Canberra mappers, and I think the 
>> current state of the map in Canberra is really good.
>>
>>> Google gave me http://www.openstreetmap.org/ and I wonder if the
>>> presenter at the time is still around and can confirm that URL for me.
>>> (its a bit lacking in detail for Gunghalin)
>>>
>>>   
>> Thats the URL for OpenstreetMap.  If you would like to contribute to 
>> OSM you just need to register on the website. You can then collect GPS 
>> data, convert it to GPX format with gpsbabel, and upload to OSM.  OSM 
>> also has available slightly out of date aerial photography courtesy of 
>> Yahoo.  Between the imagery and GPS data you then essentially just do 
>> heads up digitising to create data representing streets and other 
>> things of interest.  There is a very flexible and freeform attribute 
>> tagging mechanism in OSM, but a set of conventional attributes must be 
>> used to get your data to render on the web map.
>> The editing, ie the heads up digitising and attribute tagging, can be 
>> done in several ways. Chiefly, there is Potlatch, a flash based editor 
>> accessed on the OSM website, and JOSM, a Java based editor which you 
>> run locally.  JOSM works fine on Linux.  Potlatch runs fine too, but I 
>> believe still requires the Macromedia flash plugin, rather than the 
>> open source one.
>> There is an Australian OSM mailing list too with modest levels of 
>> activity, certainly its a good source of help.
>> Finally, I believe it is possible to (painfully) convert OSM data to 
>> be useable by some Garmin GPS units now.  I don't know if that 
>> includes the models that can do turn by turn navigation.
>> cheers
>> Andrew.
>>
>>
>