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

Wed Dec 9 11:21:28 GMT 2009

On 8 Dec 2009, at 10:12, Brian Prangle wrote:

> 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.

I am happy with a 'stealth' approach to get them interested first as  
long as we understand that may grow and should certainly be available  
for other UK locations. It is of course also easy to upgrade a server  
as required so with that understanding I suggest the existing wording  
is fine.

The one big opportunity I think we should explore is whether we can  
expose the aerial photography to all Potlatch/JOSM users without  
horrible private passwords. I think the Rome supplier has terms and  
conditions that might allow that but it would need someone to take a  
look at it. What I am saying is that it is that area that could be  
most productive to pursue for now.

Fyi, ITO might be prepared to purchase aerial photography for our home  
town of Ipswich as part of our research effort and would need a place  
to host it. I would also encourage another major city, such as  
Sheffield to follow suit soon after you have proved the process. Open  
access to all OSM contributors would be a big bonus in that respect so  
again the Ts and Cs from the supplier matter.

Personally I think we should push Traveline a bit to get at least a  
nominal £500 (hopefully £900) from them on the basis that OSM allows  
people to find the bus stop and the associated footpaths - possibly  
the pitch to them is to support a UK wide initiative, not just a West  
Midlands initiative.

By the way, do check this out - zoom in and click on Stop Points (not  
Stop Areas) to link to the nextbus Traveline information directly. It  
seems a bit broken at present and doesn't work at all in B'Ham today  
but it might be in the middle of an update. This is a development  
version which scrapes the Traveline service with their permission.
http://www.öpnvkarte.de/naptan.html?zoom=17&lat=52.05365&lon=1.17535&layers=BT

Regards,

Peter

>
> 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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