What is it? How Useful is it?

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is an attempt to create free geographic data for the whole world. The important point here is that the data is free, not just the map images. Editing is done in a wiki-like manner, which allows OSM to respond very quickly to change. After the Haiti earthquake earlier this year, OSM had updated maps within a couple of days, showing damaged buildings, blocked roads, refugee camps etc. This data was converted into maps for GPS receivers, allowing aid workers to navigate much more easily.

In March, Roy Van Keulen, TomTom’s VP of ecommerce, told PC Pro, "There are services like OpenStreetMap, and it’s good, but sometimes there’s not a bridge when it told you there would be." In fact, in at least one instance, the opposite is true. In November 2009, floods rendered bridges in Workington (Cumbria) impassable. Within a day, OSM’s map had been updated to show the bridges as being inaccessible. In April 2010, the army opened a temporary bridge, and on the day it was opened, OSM was updated to show it as being usable. TomTom’s web site still tried to route people over the damaged bridges, and didn’t show the temporary bridge at all.

Like TomTom, OSM isn’t perfect. Despite what Mr Van Keulen seems to think, the problem isn’t that OSM will tell there is a bridge where there isn’t one. The real problem is that OSM doesn’t know about all the bridges, roads etc that do exist. It’s improving all the time, though, and at the start of May 2010, OSM had all UK motorways and B roads, about 90% of A roads, and 70% of other roads. OSM doesn’t just know about roads, though – it also knows about almost all UK hospitals, and 20% of pharmacies.

Not Just a Pretty Map

As I said in the introduction, OSM isn’t just a map – it’s geographic data. This is an important distinction, because having access to the raw data allows developers and users to use it for unexpected things. If your only access is an API, then you can’t do anything that the API doesn’t cater for, which effectively means you can’t do anything that the API writers didn’t think of.

OSM data is used for many different things. I wrote a web site called Healthwhere which allows a user to find a pharmacy or hospital close to them. It’s specifically designed to be just as usable on my phone’s 2″ screen as on my desktop’s 19″ screen.

OpenCycleMap is a map designed for cyclists. As such, it shows cycle routes much more prominently than motorways, since they’re far more useful for cyclists. This is only possible because OSM’s raw data is available. It wouldn’t be feasible to take a standard road map and make the cycle routes much more obvious than the motorways.

HaptoRender is a project to create tactile maps, that can be read using fingers, designed for use by the blind. A tactile map based on OSM data was made in May, 2009, and displayed at that year’s OSM conference.

Collecting Data

Most OSM data is collected using a hand-held GPS, whilst driving, walking or cycling. The GPS is set to record a track, which is then uploaded to OSM’s servers and used to trace the roads, paths etc.

If you are interested in buying a GPS, the GPS Reviews wiki page has reviews of many different models.

As many phones now have GPS’s built in, software has been developed to make use of these.

For iPhone users, there is Mapzen, an app for collecting points of interest (restaurants, pharmacies, etc).

For the Android, there is AndNav2 and Vespucci.

The OSM wiki has a page listing apps for other phones.

You Don’t Need a GPS!

Using a GPS is the preferred way to collect data, partly because you can collect all sorts of extra data while walking around (opening times, location of litter bins, etc). However, if you don’t own and don’t want to buy a GPS, you can still help improve the map.

OpenStreetBugs is a web site that makes it easy to report bugs in the map. Simply mark the location and add a description of what is wrong.

Walking Papers is a site that allows you to print out a map of an area. You then annotate it with notes, scan & upload it, and use it as a reference to update OSM. If you don’t have a scanner, you can post the map to them and they will scan and upload it for you.

Healthwhere can update and add details to pharmacies and hospitals.

Ordnance Survey OpenData is a collection of data from the UK’s Ordnance Survey mapping agency that has been released under an OSM-compatible licence. OSM editors support tracing from this data.

Finally, out-of-copyright maps such as those at NPE Map can be used, though you should only trace features that you know haven’t changed.

Editing the Map

To edit OSM, you must first register. Once you have an account, there are several options.

Potlatch is the online editor, accessed by clicking the Edit tab on the OSM web site. It’s designed to be simple to use, but requires Flash (the latest version of Gnash should work).

I wrote an article for the StaffsLUG web site entitled "Add a Road to OpenStreetMap in 5 Minutes", which describes how to register and use Potlatch to add one or more roads. The whole process can be done in under five minutes.

JOSM is an off-line editor. Once run, you can download data, edit it, then upload the changes.

There are other options available, but Potlatch and JOSM are the primary editors. Whichever method you use, the Map Features wiki page is a useful reference. Users are free to use any tag, but those described on Map Features are more likely to appear on the map and be recognised by software that uses OSM data.

Register with OpenStreetMap

To edit OSM, you need a free account. Go to the OpenStreetMap web site, and click the “sign up” link in the top-right. Enter an e-mail address, display name and password. When you receive the activation e-mail, follow the directions to activate your account.

Find Your Local Area

The OpenStreetMap web site has a search box to the left of the map. Use this to search for your local area, using either your postcode or town name. Once your area is displayed in the map, click the “Edit” tab above the map, then enter your login details.

Start the Online Editor

Potlatch (OSM’s online editor) will now be visible in your browser. Click the tick in the bottom-left to open the options dialogue. Select “UK: OS StreetView” from the drop-down box at the top of the dialogue box. The other options can be left as they are, or altered to your preference. [screenshot]

Add a Road

A road in OSM is defined as a series of connected points, called nodes. To add a new road, click on the map at one end of the road, then click at each node in turn. Double-click to mark the end node. If you make a mistake, press Delete to delete the last node. If you need to cancel the entire road, click Esc. If the road joins onto another road, make sure that the final node is on the road it joins (Potlatch will highlight the other road when the cursor is over it).

Add Tags

Now you need to add information about the road. This is done by adding tags, each of which has a name and a value. Potlatch has presets for most types of road. Under the main map view, there is a drop-down list where the type of road can be selected. Select the appropriate type, and Potlatch will display a number of tags, some of which will be already filled in. Fill in the details for any that have blank values.

Since the road has been traced from Ordnance Survey StreetView, and they require attribution, it is important to add a “source” tag. To do this, click on the + icon at the bottom right. A new tag will appear. In the left-hand box, replace the word “key” with “source”, and add “OS_OpenData_StreetView” in the right-hand box.

Add More Roads

You have now added a road to OSM. You can repeat the above two steps to add more roads. When you are finished, click “Save” in the bottom-right corner. Add a short description of your changes, then click “OK” to save the changes. Note that your changes may not appear in the main map immediately, and they may appear at some zoom levels sooner than others.

Further Reading

This article deliberately concentrates on a very specific task. If you would like to do more, the following links should be a good start:

• Potlatch Primer has more general information on how to use Potlatch
• Potlatch video tutorial
• Frequently Asked Questions about Potlatch
• OpenStreetMap Beginners Guide covers all areas of OpenStreetMap, not just editing.

Ogg Camp

Briefly, most schools I know of have two distinct networks, curriculum and administrative. Mine follows this model. There is a great deal of freedom for schools in how they deliver educational ICT and MIS systems.

The initial driver for introduction of GNU/Linux was the way the school organised the reservation of facilities like ICT rooms for other faculties’ lessons.  An Excel spreadsheet was used and shared on a MS file server for common access by teaching and support staff. This was inadequate for a number of reasons, not least because only one member of staff could edit the document at one time. No money was available; that and my predisposition to Open Source meant that it was always going to be a FOSS solution!

My familiarity with and the support for the Ubuntu distribution of GNU/Linux meant that the latest “long term support” version of the Ubuntu Server was the distro of choice. A little searching of the internet revealed MRBS (Meeting Room Booking System), a web application (to run in the school intranet) coded in PHP using a MySQL database and running on Apache web server. Crucially, it can “play nice” in a Microsoft network via open LDAP which meant users could log in to MRBS with their Windows domain login credentials. No need to maintain a separate database or file of user logins. The ability to install and configure LAMP software (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) as an option during the installation of Ubuntu Server, meant that the software environment MRBS needed was ready. There is great support for MRBS on the ‘net via an active mailing list which is archived and searchable. Pleasingly, the staff embraced the new system and it was extended for use in booking portable multimedia equipment and other resources.

Initially the system ran on a former curriculum system PIII desktop machine, beefed up with as much RAM as I could cram in and additional hard drives however a server became available after an upgrade and I migrated the services to that.

With that extra processing grunt came extra capacity for more services. There was no software help desk in the school; intranet delivery in mind I found a great deal of choice for help desk software. I decided to trial GLPI. Largely French developed, it is free IT and asset management software. Also well documented and supported via forums it provides for help desk and knowledge base and much more besides. Installed on the Ubuntu server, I trialed it within the support dept and ultimately opened it up to the staff. As with MRBS, GLPI has the facility to talk to the MS Active Directory via open LDAP.

So much for the administrative side. For the students, I installed Audacity, an audio editor and the GIMP for image editing, the former is now fully used in delivering one educational module. Both applications were rolled out via a popular proprietary package manager without any problem to Windows XP desktops.

As you might expect, within ICT support GNU/Linux helps out. Largely with tasks like data recovery from corrupt floppy disks, hard disks and USB pen drives thanks to dd, dd_rescue, mount, fuse and many more wonderful open source apps. Wireshark for network traffic monitoring too.

There is scope for expansion and thanks to the availability of another server and with the continuing support of the head of ICT I’m looking to introduce Asterisk / FreePBX for VoIP telephony and video conferencing. Would be nice to get Open Office in too!

A little further down the line, I’d like to have an Edubuntu server available either working with terminals (curriculum workstations network booted) or a NX session with the free Windows NX client.

9.04 Ubuntu does not contain any radical changes, as is often the way with a 6 monthly cycle, but does finally include OpenOffice.org 3.0 and also promises faster boot time. Other improvements come from updates to Gnome (the default Ubuntu desktop) and application updates like Evolution (Ubuntu’s  Outlook equivalent) which now comes with exchange server compatibility.

As well as the Gnome Desktop default 9.04 there is also Kubuntu 9.04 with KDE desktop,  Xubuntu 9.04 with XFCE desktop, Ubuntu Server Edition 9.04 with no graphical user interface and the new Ubuntu Netbook remix 9.04 designed for netbooks like the Asus eee’s and the Acer Aspires.