[YLUG] Openstreetmap mapping event - activities

[Matthew Gates]

1. Missing street names (no GPS required)

Just today I found that there is a really nifty tool which highlights roads 
without names, here: http://tinyurl.com/58mfyn

The reason there is no name might be that the original mapper might have 
missed a street sign, omitted it in error when entering data, or maybe the 
photo of the street sign wasn't legible.  These road names should be filled 
in.

Acceptable methods include going and finding a street sign, filling in from 
prior knowledge (taxi drivers would be really useful here!), or getting the 
name from a non-copyrighted source, like an out of copyright map, or 
something like that.  Names must not be copied from maps which are under 
copyright.


2. Complete cycle route (possibly no GPS required)

There are a few missing national cycle network sections in York.  The OSM 
cycle map is here: http://tinyurl.com/5aj4u6 

You can zoom in to York using the mouse wheel or drag a zoom box using 
shift-draw.  

It would be good to finish route of number 66, which has missing sections.  
I don't know if it does connect up to route 65, but it seems likely.  I now 
that I have neglected the cycle routes a bit.

Much of this work is just find out which paths/roads the cycle network route 
takes.  For this no GPS is required, just a print out of the existing OSM 
map.  


3. Unmapped areas

As mentioned before, there are still some large chunks of the road network 
to do.  There are also area mapping tasks which I have not yet done much 
work on.  This includes parks, cemeteries, nature reserves and so on.  The 
basic idea is to trace the outline of these areas.  



4. Road names review (no GPS required)

If you know the names of streets in your area, and it has already been 
mapped, please look at the map at high zoom so that the street names are 
printed, and check they are right.  There are quite a few chances for 
mistakes to creep in, so some sort of review would be great.

You can check names against out-of-copyright maps, but must not refer to 
copyrighted maps for this task (besides, who says other maps do not contain 
mistakes? The best way is to go and look at the sign).


5. Maplint

There's a thing called maplint which highlights parts of the map where there 
are possible errors in the way the data has been added to the map.  This 
includes thinks like nodes being tagged as features which are not known 
about by the map renderer.  See the yellow blobs here: 
http://tinyurl.com/6a56xf

What to do here is to load up JOSM, download the map data for that area and 
look to see what is wrong with the map data.  This might be a but confusing 
if you've not used JOSM before.


6. Report map bugs

Mistakes on the map can be reported using the openstreetbugs site: 
http://tinyurl.com/5qyhpw

If you know of a new road layout which is not yet on the map, or can see 
there is a mistake on the map, like an omitted one way section, or a one 
way which is backwards, or anything else which is not right, go to that 
site and add a bug report.


7. Points of interest (no GPS required)

So far, I have been adding road, pubs, post boxes, telephone boxes, 
recycling points, churches, hotels, public toilets, some car parks, the odd 
cash machine and a few misc tourist attractions to the map.

There are many other features which I have not yet added.  Conspicuously 
absent are bus stops, restaurants.  The list goes on... think of something 
which can be mapped, and it becomes an item on the todo list.

In areas where the road network is already in place, it should be possible 
to record the position of points of interest without needing a GPS 
(although a GPS is helpful).

Choose a category and go map all of them in York  :-) 

Bus stops are a good one - find out roughly where a route goes, print out 
the OSM map of the route, buy yourself a day ticket and mark the positions 
of all the stops on a route.  I think you'd have to concentrate really hard 
to get them all, but it could work.


Matthew

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