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

[Peter Miller]

On 7 Dec 2009, at 17:25, Brian Prangle wrote:

> 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)
>

It's good to see this moving forward.

Btw, Is Mappa mercia really a signed up local chapter? I wasn't aware  
that there were any in the UK.

I do hope that any hosting you seek out is suitable for hosting  
satellite photography for other places in the world, or at least the  
UK. My offer is support is on the understanding that we are creating a  
system that can easily be extended to host further data.

I suggest you include some indication of the number of servers, the  
power requirement, the bandwidth requirement etc in your request for  
help, or at least have that information immediately ready for the  
request to come in. It will of course be a bit of a guess but people  
can't make decisions without any figures to work with.



Regards,


Peter


> 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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Talk-gb-westmidlands mailing list
> Talk-gb-westmidlands at openstreetmap.org
> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb-westmidlands

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