[OSM-talk] baby steps - nebie needs hand-holding - phase 2!

[David Groom]

Dave
I can't answer all your questions, but here are some thoughts on point 3.

The online editor applet has the advantage of the landsat photo under the 
gpx trackpoints, which sometimes may assists in determining what you are 
doing. Its also fairly easy obvious how to add names to a way, and how to 
denote a way as either a motorway, primary road or secondary road.  (I 
assume you have looked at Imi's video introduction to the applet which is 
referenced on the Wiki editing page.  The main disadvantage from my point of 
view on the online applet is its speed, it is rather slow if you are editing 
large amounts of data.  If you feel like using this tool, you convert the 
output from your GPS into a GPX file and then upload it via the web site. 
I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the Garmin GPS60 so  can't tell you if it 
has software which will convert the tracks to GPS format, or whether you'll 
need to use GPS Babel to do the conversion (if using GPS Babel I'd recommend 
downloading and using the GUI front end to it) .  Also remember that 
anything you do in the Applet affects live data, but if you are working on 
an area where no one else is working then I guess at present this is not too 
important as long as you correct any mistakes.

JOSM handles things very nicely, but has no Landsat overlay.  It will either 
read in GPX tracks from your hard disk, or if you have uploaded a GPS track 
to OSM it can then download them from OSM.  If you are working on an area 
which already has OSM data on it you can download the OSM data as one layer, 
and have your GPS tracks from you hard drive as another layer, which stops 
you working on exactly the same track as already exists in OSM.  Once you 
have drawn your line segments and made ways out of them you can then upload 
then to OSM

If you have  access to a Linux machine you could try Osmedit.  The 
disadvantage to this is that you have to compile the software from source, 
so this may put some people off.  Osmedit can apparently read direct from a 
Garmin GPS, but I've not tried it.  Alternatively it can download from OSM, 
or read a local GPX file.  I personally don't yet find it as intuitive as 
JOSM, but that's probably a matter of choice.  It does have some nice 
features such as the ability to overlay height data as contour lines, and 
also to grab a Landsat photo of the area, and display this under the tracks 
you are working on.

 Personally, at present, my choice would be to use JOSM

David


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "RolyMo" <rolymo at gmail.com>
To: <talk at openstreetmap.org>
Sent: Sunday, April 02, 2006 11:32 AM
Subject: [OSM-talk] baby steps - nebie needs hand-holding - phase 2!


Dear All,

Having read as much as possible on the wiki, various websites and
replies to my earlier email (thanks very much), I am starting to
formulate how I, as a OSM/GPS beginner, might try to help out with the
OSM project.

Again, I'd appreciate any thoughts.

1 Buy GPS device.  I am looking at the Garmin GPS60 following Nick
Black's review in the wiki and further reading.  Is there a compelling
reason to buy more adanced versions in the range if all I want the
device for is OSM-related?

2 Identify places to track.  Actually, I already started on this.  I
have 3 regions where I think I can add some help and have added them
to my user page in the wiki.  (I also added some minor details re
motorways in Northern Ireland on the UK community page - did I do it
right?)
If there are people involved in mapping The Hague, Cornwall or
Northern Ireland, it would be great to hear if there already exists
some plan to cover the regions - or I'm happy just to "go at it".
(Alex:amvv?  Anybody?)

3 Convert outings to the OSM map.  This bit is still sketchy in my
mind.  The GPS60 has USB output and, in principal, should allow me to
get data off it quite easily, right?  (Says hopefully!)  At which
point, should I edit the data before uploading (JOSM?) or use the
online editor?  Maybe download existing OSM data for a given region
before merging with my tracks then use JOSM before uploading?  What is
the easiest thing to get into - and what would be the reasons for
using the other tools?

4 Donate!  The only donation mechanism I've seen is the PayPal link on
the OpenGeoData site.  Should I regard that site to be a "parent" (for
want of a better word) to OSM and the postcode project?  Following
discussions in the talk list, is there now another preferred mechanism
to contribute funds?

Once again, thanks for any help.

Dave
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/User:RolyMo

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