[Talk-gb-westmidlands] Fwd: Another First for Birmingham!

Mon Feb 9 17:15:08 GMT 2009

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Nick Booth <nick.booth at podnosh.com>
Date: Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 11:43 AM
Subject: Re: Another First for Birmingham!
To: Brian Prangle <brian at mappa-mercia.org>

Congrats Brian:
You might like to know that the govt minister responsible for the power of
information taskforce has already spotted this:

http://twitter.com/tom_watson/statuses/1191406864

and I got it up asap:

http://www.podnosh.com/blog/2009/02/09/mappa-mercia-open-source-mapping-for-birmingham/

Nick

On 9 Feb 2009, at 09:29, Brian Prangle wrote:

Another first for Birmingham!

*"OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole world. It is made by
people like you."*

*PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY 9th 2009*

*Today Birmingham takes another  huge step to becoming a digital City. The
metropolitan area of Birmingham and its environs within the motorway ring
have been completely digitally remapped by its own citizens in a format
which is freely editable and  available at
**www.openstreetmap.org*<http://www.openstreetmap.org/>
*. *

It is the first English city to be completely remapped in this way. It joins
the likes of Paris, Berlin, Canberra and Vienna

Birmingham  now has a digital map that is more up-to-date and accurate than
all other online or satnav maps. Only Ordnance Survey can claim to be more
accurate - and they have huge technical and financial resources at their
disposal.

(Click here for a detailed view of
Birmingham<http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=52.4715&lon=-1.8616&zoom=12&layers=B000FTF>)

The OpenStreetMap of Birmingham has been created by local people, with local
knowledge, who take pride in how their neighbourhoods are represented. They can
match, and even surpass, the efforts of commercial mappers who spend  millions
creating  this kind of rich data.  A dedicated band of  100 volunteers has
been collecting GPS data whilst cycling, walking, and riding the buses and
trains. One of our team has even mapped by canal boat!

The raw positional data is supplemented by additional visual observations on
the ground and then edited into a format that can be rendered as a map
readable by humans. All the software used in the project has been developed
as open source software and is free to download and use. All participants
have to do is invest their time and pay attention to detail. All data once
submitted is editable in a wiki-style process.

* "It's very satisfying to see a complete city mapped in OpenStreetMap. Four
years ago when this project was created we were looking at a blank screen
and most commentators thought we were crazy."* said Andy Robinson, secretary
of the OpenStreetMap Foundation and a prolific mapper in the West Midlands.

The Birmingham effort  is  part of a worldwide movement to digitally remap
the entire planet which started in 2004. The project was originated in the
UK and now involves some 85,000 enthusiasts globally, who have so far mapped
almost 14 million miles of road globally.  We have mapped some15,000
residential roads, 6,000 footpaths and  9,000 other roads in Birmingham (
and over 700 bus stops, 300 pubs, 200 traffic lights and 300 postboxes)
Why re-map the world?

We need a free dataset for  programmers, social activists, cartographers,
and communities and the like to use geodata and create maps suited to their
purposes  without being limited by proprietary restrictions designed to
protect large corporate investments in geodata. Under-developed countries
are particularly helped by a project of this sort, because it is just not
economic for commercial mappers to map their areas in detail.

How can it be accurate?  The essence of a wiki-style process is that all
users have a stake in having accurate data. If one person puts in inaccurate
data, maliciously or accidentally, the other 99.9% of people can check it,
fix it, or get rid of it.

Just think how amazing it was a few years back when you saw Google Maps for
the first time.  Suddenly  mapping was cool, and access via an API* lead to
a wave of  innovation. Satnav was nowhere 3 years ago. Look at it now! But
you still can't access the incredible amount of data locked behind the API
and you can't add or improve it,  so your applications are limited.  Just
think of the explosion of innovation, much of it in unexpected areas, that's
possible  when the data is available!

All the software used in the project has been developed as opensource
software and is free to download and use.  The data and maps are licensed  by
Creative Commons  which defines the spectrum of possibilities between full
copyright — *all rights reserved* — and the public domain — *no rights
reserved*. What this means to users (and this isn't legal advice) is
basically you can do what you like with the data, so long as you mention the
original creator and the licence and anyone else can do the same with
anything you produce.

A flagship example of the power of opening up access to geodata is
OpenCycleMap.

It's a customised online map for cyclists, based on OpenStreetMap data.  It
shows things that are interesting to cyclists including signed cycle routes,
offroad cycle paths, bike shops and bike parking - and of course hills -
whilst diminishing other things like motorways that are of little interest.
It's built on top of OpenStreetMap, and was recently commended by the
British Cartographic
Society<http://blog.cloudmade.com/2008/09/08/cloudmades-andy-allan-wins-cartography-award/>
.

So we've got a map, what's next?

*1. There's most of the Black Country to map for a start!*

* *

2. Local businesses and organisations can  start using OSM maps and
data,  rather
than proprietary sources, freeing themselves from the technical, financial
and accuracy restrictions of commercial mapping providers.

3. Now that we have a complete set of local data, Midlands software
developers can start using it to create novel applications  (e.g road
traffic simulations, tourist trails, restaurant guides).

Why would a business consider using OpenStreetMap data when anyone can use
maps from Google, Mapquest or Yahoo for free? Put succinctly: they have
control.  OSM data and  map users have significantly more control over their
maps than someone who uses a free API.  With OSM  you can modify, supplement
and select the data to create a highly customised map.

4. It might take  a 100 people to produce a map like this but we need a
1,000 to keep it up to date. We need communities and individuals to  improve
and verify  the map via a simple tool available at
http://openstreetbugs.appspot.com/ (or on our local West Midlands site
http://www.mappa-mercia.org/openstreetbugs.shtml )  All they need is local
knowledge and access to the internet.

For more information, individuals and community organisations  can contact
Brian Prangle   0121 604 1141 and community at mappa-mercia.org

*Press contact* Andy Robinson Tel No 07775537872 and press at mappa-mercia.org
  More information for editors can be found at:

www.openstreetfoundation.org

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Main_Page

www.openstreetmap.org.

www.opencyclemap.org/

Images of one year of edits for the whole planet:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterito/3054501076/in/pool-itomedia

Animation of all the edits we have for Birmingham showing progress from
initiation to today:

http://blip.tv/file/1625650

We have gathered all the resources together in a specific West Midlands
website:

www.mappa-mercia.org

*note for non-technical news editors: API Application Programming Interface
– a method by which commercial software developers "open" their software via
a gateway to third parties whilst at the same time protecting their
commercial intellectual property i.e you can "hook" into the software but
you can't see the internal workings.

<OSM Birmingham Press Release v3.pdf>
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