Help to map Ireland with Openstreetmap.org

stereo_steve

Hello all,

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a site called Openstreetmap.org This is a group attempting to map the world. It is achieved by users like you and me recording our journeys and uploading the information to their website. It is similar to Wikipedia in the way that they source the information. It really is impressive what they have achieved so far.

Heathrow Terminal 5 opened this month. Guess which electronic map it was listed on first? Google? Microsoft? Tom Tom? Yahoo ??? It was OpenStreetMap.org. I really think this goes to show the power of what an open source community can do.

Its important to realise that this project is open and is owned by everyone. No one will ever pay for this information and it is freely available for everyone. Never will you have to pay for maps again when you go on holidays! The goal of this project is to be the most accurate map software available. With enough people this shouldn't be a problem especialy considering the other GPS maps commercially available deliberately have many errors in them. So what this project needs is your help!

FAQ

Where can i see these maps?

Here. Zoom in closely and see your local town.

Can I download these maps for free and put them on my GPS device?

Yes! You can download them on the site. I'm not 100% sure but I think that only Garmin GPS devices are currently supported. This should change soon.

How can I help?

There are lots of ways to contribute to the Openstreetmap project. If you have a GPS unit you can use it to collect data and use the online tools to add the data to the collection. If you don't have a GPS unit you can still help. Are the streets near your house listed correctly? Are the local amenities listed? Other ways to help are listed on the Getting Involved page.

You can view their entire FAQ on their site

Mapping Projects

Each country is considered a separate project and the projects are listed here You can see Ireland's current status and areas that need to be worked on.

Conclusion

I really think this is a great project to get involved with. I really hope that this post gets a few people to help out! If it gets a decent enough response, could we possibly sticky this? I hope that in a year or two, the best maps available for GPS will be free ones that we helped to create!

coylemj

All sounds good but what h/w will we load these maps on to i.e. how are we going to use these maps when driving around in our cars?

robinph

You can load generated map segments from their data onto Garmin units, I don't think that other manufactures mapping has been decoded to the same level yet though. Last time I looked at it though I don't think that routability had yet been figured out on user generated map segments though, but that information is collected and stored in the mapping data that the users collect so can be added once someone figures it out.

robinph

Actually seems that there should be autoroutable versions of the OSM maps possible as I just came across some free ones for New Zealand that are for various different Gamrin units made from a similar project:

http://www.gwprojects.org/gps/

I've just not seen any made from the OSM data as yet, but perfecty possible to make you own once you download the relevent sections from their database. I have put together some sections of contour maps for sections of the Alps before based on data downloaded from Nasa, just takes a bit of trial and error and patience to get what you want.

stereo_steve

coylemj wrote: »

All sounds good but what h/w will we load these maps on to i.e. how are we going to use these maps when driving around in our cars?

Well the information is free to distribute. I have no doubt that as it becomes more and more popular that it will be available for more devices.

Here is a post from a couple of days from a programmer that has some mapping software that runs OSM on windows, mac and symbian http://openstreetmap.org/user/Graham%20Asher/diary/1256

I was really hoping that this post would inspire some people to map their local towns and add them to the map. I'll be mapping away anyway!

mackerski

robinph wrote: »

Actually seems that there should be autoroutable versions of the OSM maps possible as I just came across some free ones for New Zealand that are for various different Gamrin units made from a similar project:

The topic of routable Garmin maps is an increasingly hot one in the OSM community, now that the novelty of having the data on Garmins at all is wearing off a little. It would be extremely useful. On a hand-held device, even non-routable maps are great, and the level of detail for many places (including much of Dublin) far surpasses what you'll get from Navteq or TeleAtlas. And to see how quickly a committed community can get maps up to date, have a look at things like the remodelled M50 junctions on OSM.

From a technical perspective, the problem with getting a routable map is twofold, but mostly centres on the secrecy of the data format. A Polish guy worked out enough of it to offer a product of his own to allow user creation of routable maps. As he charges money for it and won't open the source (and clearly that's his right) the OSM community prefers to hope for an open solution more in keeping with its culture. the NZ maps you refer to probably used his engine.

The other obstacle to quality routing is that certain important information of relevance to routing is currently absent from the map data being collected, mainly turn restrictions. These rules can be quite complex, so while there are a number of proposals on the table for how they can be captured, there's not yet any consensus. However, there's ever more routing software out there that will work with OSM data and this is likely to force the pace a little, as is normal with community projects.

Here's a fairly smart (if a little tricky to get started with) routing engine using the OSM data.

mik_da_man

Good Idea - I'm off to finish the cork City map

5h4mr0(k

I was thinking about a cheapish GPS for this sort of thing - can most of them record trip traces? Any are there any that definitely don't?

5h4mr0(k

I did a bit of looking around and found that there's software that you can install on your phone that can connect with bluetooth GPS receivers.

I installed 'TrekBuddy' on my phone (Sony Ericsson K750i) and I got a bluetooth receiver from eBay (about €38). I don't have many maps installed on the phone yet, but it works great with what I have.

The receiver is about the size of a credit card. It can easily get a signal even in your pocket (it's got a lock inside the house).

Considering the price I think it's a great way to start in GPS. Would be great for visiting a new place since you're not having to carry around much extra than the phone that you'd have anyway.