[Talk-gb-westmidlands] Hosting services for satellite imagery

Christoph Böhme christoph at b3e.net
Mon Dec 7 19:58:49 GMT 2009


Brian,

the text looks already very good. I am thinking that it would be nice
if we could add something about students or staff already involved in
the project to show that there are some links to the universities. We
just would need to find out who there is apart from me and Paul.

Cheers,
Christoph

Brian Prangle <bprangle at googlemail.com> schrieb:

> Hi everyone
> 
> In order to maximise our funds for satellite imagery I'm going to ask
> all the Unis in our region if they'd like to host the images for us.
> Please have a look at the following text which is a first draft of
> the email I'm going to send ( I'll dress it up with a few examples, a
> couple of images and some URLs)
> 
> Regards
> 
> Brian
> 
> Invite
> 
> 
> 
> We are inviting your department to participate in the work of the
> local chapter of OpenStreetMap, which we have named mappa mercia
> 
> OSM
> 
> OpenStreetMap is a global voluntary project to produce a completely
> new digital map of the entire planet based on opensource principles
> and free of all copyrighted data.  Volunteers gather geospatial data
> by using consumer-grade GPS devices and simple observation, uploading
> their data online and editing it to produce maps using a variety of
> open source cartographic tools. There are currently 190,000 users who
> have  added over 130 million GPS points and  37 million ways to the
> database.
> 
> Aerial Imagery
> 
> Local mappers ( approximately 100 people ) substantially completed
> the map of Birmingham and Solihull within the motorway ring in
> December 2008. Current focus is on completing the Black Country and
> improving the quality and detail of what was mapped in 2008.
> 
> So that we can complete the city centre where GPS traces are highly
> inaccurate due to “ghosting” effects of  high rise buildings  we have
> raised funds to purchase geo-referenced satellite imagery to 2 metre
> resolution. This will also enable us to trace building outlines and
> service roads where we cannot obtain ground access. Eventually we aim
> to raise sufficient funds to purchase satellite imagery for the whole
> West Midlands county.
> 
> Server
> 
> In order for local mappers to edit  the satellite imagery we require a
> server to host the images. Whilst we could obtain  hosting services
> commercially, we want to maximise the area of satellite imagery we can
> purchase. This is a wonderful opportunity for a local educational
> institution to join a local effort which is ground-breaking in its
> approach to digital mapping.   UCL already kindly provide the core
> servers for our poject.  Full specifications of what we require are
> appended
> 
> Student Projects
> 
> Our project is unique in mapping terms because we make the data from
> which maps are rendered, openly available to software developers to
> build applications and render maps in new and exciting ways.  Data is
> available for the entire planet and there are literally hundreds of
> potential projects. In the West Midlands alone we have about a dozen
> immediate projects. Some examples have been appended
> 
> 
> 
> We can provide further information on request and would be pleased to
> present in detail the goals and methods of OpenStreetMap. We hope you
> can provide local support to our project. There is a nonprofit legal
> entity , the OpenStreetMap Foundation which acts as  custodian for
> the servers and services necessary to host the OpenStreetMap project
> and the www.openstreetmap.org domain name and provides an
> organisational focus for donors, sponsors and co-operating bodies




More information about the Talk-gb-westmidlands mailing list