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

[Brian Prangle]

Hi Peter

Describing mappa-mercia as a local chapter is just a piece of "marketing
licence" -it's easier this way  to make a connection for the uninitiated to
the project as a whole. Full spec of the server required will be appended.
How to broach your objective of further images from elsewhere? This is a
tricky one - I was hoping that the spec of the server (I'm aiming at about
3X the reqirement for the W Mids) would encompass this. I'm now not sure
whether we should be upfront about this. It moves away from the local angle,
but this might actually encourage the unis to be involved in a global
project but there again they might be frightened by a potentially open-ended
commitment. I'll work on a wording today.

Regards

Brian

2009/12/7 Peter Miller <peter.miller at itoworld.com>

>
> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
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