[OSM-dev] Introduction

[waldemar quevedo]

Hello OSM Community! I thought about introducing myself properly.
My name is Waldemar Quevedo, and I'm a student at the Tec de Monterrey
in Guadalajara,Mexico. On my last year of university I have been focusing on
learning
artificial intelligence and computer graphics and also did an internship
at a startup here in Guadalajara,Mexico were working on FatStudent,
a web application to help students from London to find part-time jobs.

One of the core parts of FatStudent is a Google Maps Flex/Rails application
for
browsing the jobs [0]. While working on this, me and the FatStudent team
discussed
what were some of the limitations of using Google Maps, mainly because
they're not free as in speech, and this got me interested on the
OpenStreetMap project.
Then I realized that it could get even more interesting if I go ahead and
participate
 on this year's GSoC by helping OSM!

Reviewing this year's GSoC ideas, there was an interesting discussion
regarding
the 'Easy Printable Output'. There has also been some discussion regarding
this project
on the Mapnik side of things (Mr.Springmeyer has been very kind on providing
info
on what needs to be done to improve Mapnik regarding the subject on Mapnik's
Trac)[1].
I'm interested on creating a web application that takes advantage of the new
developments
from Mapnik and integrate the ideas of other projects that have achieved
something similar
(townguide, Maposmatic with ocitysmap), to make it easier to print
customizable maps.

Since Mapnik has already some Python bindings, and learning from Maposmatic
approach,
Django would be a good option to develop the application.

Anyway, there is a lot to be thought with respect to this idea and its scope

could get very broad. What I'm thinking is for now to work on setting up a
service based upon
what Graham Jones has already done with townguide[2], and creating a service
a la Maposmatic
but for POIs while discussing with the community which features could add a
greater value
to the project. (Themes for the maps like the ones provided by Cloudmade
could be great I think)

Please feel free to give your suggestions or tell me if I am doing it wrong,

- Waldemar Quevedo

[0]: http://www.fatstudent.co.uk/jobs/map
[1]: http://trac.mapnik.org/wiki/GSOC2010/Ideas#BetterPrintSupport
[2]: http://www.townguide.webhop.net/
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