[OSM-talk] OSM Aware, the state of the current pheromones

[François Schnell]

Hello,
Just a quick update and I'm gone.

There's now a "light" v0 version:

V0:  one summarized placemark per user at the last known position (very low
fat, should work on all machines running Google Earth)
v1:  the most detailed one (a placemark per node). Without feedback I've
stopped pushing world daily v1 on the server (see archives or produce them
yourself if you want: it takes one or two minutes to crunch for a big world
day on my PC).
v2: no placemarks but lines (lighter that v1)

There's also a list of "live" network links on the site (
http://code.google.com/p/osmlab/)
If you want to refresh a link manually find the network link in the GE
folder, right click, "refresh"

http://www.fxfoo.com/osm/kml/world-minute-v1-networkLink.kml
http://www.fxfoo.com/osm/kml/world-day-v0-networkLink.kml
http://www.fxfoo.com/osm/kml/world-hour-v0-networkLink.kml
http://www.fxfoo.com/osm/kml/world-hour-v2-networkLink.kml
http://www.fxfoo.com/osm/kml/france-day-v0-networkLink.kml
http://www.fxfoo.com/osm/kml/france-day-v2-networkLink.kml

For info the network-links don't have yet the stats summary when clicking on
the name of the kml (that individual KMLs have).

-

I'll make a little pause here, having some OSM mapping to catch and more
"responsive" projects I want to invest my energy into. Nerver-the-less I
wonder how much the lack of interest in  "awareness" tools in OSM will have
an impact on the holes Ed Parsons predicts:
http://www.edparsons.com/?p=609
(Sure the OSM growth is exponential but among which population, only/mainly
alpha-geeks?)

Anyway, happy mapping ...>[] (I'm already gone)

francois

On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 11:39 PM, François Schnell <
francois.schnell at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello list and fellow mappers. I guess it's my first post here even if I
> map and follow the list for over a year I think (I'm sometimes on IRC).
>
> <ant rant>
>
> I love OSM but I miss a quick and easy way to smell your pheromones guys
> (ie recent activity around me to spot active mappers,
> adapt/motivate myself in consequence, have local statistics, eventually
> monitor/spot 'obvious' 'vandalism').
>
> I think a quick awareness is important for a project like OSM and I'd love
> to see that aspect more developed/encouraged in the future.
>
> For bottom-up emergent systems like a 'simple' anthill or a beehive it's
> even capital. The anthill is very efficient and well structured (nursery,
> cemetery,...) not because of a savant top-down architect but mainly because
> two conditions are met: critical mass (having enough ants) and the quality
> of the local communications/status between members (the pheromones). So I
> don't say we're ants-like and OSM is en emergent system but I think it
> certainly has some bottom-up stuff and a quick local mapping awareness could
> help.
>
> </ant rant>
>
> Anyway, to fulfill my junkie need for pheromones I've played with the .osc
> files (change sets) provided here:
> http://planet.openstreetmap.org/
>
> The current - work in progress - result is here:
> http://code.google.com/p/osmlab/
> http://www.fxfoo.com/osm/kml/
>
> So basically by charming the Python snake I extract informations from the
> .osc files (minutes, hours and days ) and produce a bunch of kml (for quick
> and "dynamic" visualization in Google Earth for example).
>
> Before any eventual ant get too excited be aware that:
>
> - the kml doesn't show "ways", the tool is not intended for mapping or
> comparing (I think an "OSMtoKML" tool already exist anyway). I'm just
> interested in seeing/smelling your current pheromones , that's all ;)
> - the Hour and Day kml are *big* since I render every node in the first
> version (either placemarks or lines). On my desktop Core2Duo2.4Ghz/2Go,
> VistaBox and MacBookLaptop, it's ok (but bellow 2Go I doubt it would be a
> nice experience. I'll produced a much smaller daily/hourly KML soon for
> those who don't have a "gaming" PC (by summarizing nearby nodes)
> - if you encounter a forbidden access on the latest daily/hourly kml retry
> in a minute (hours/days are still processed on my Vista desktop and send to
> the Ubuntu server through my ISP limited upload speed , you shouldn't
> encounter that with minutes which are processed directly on the server)
>
> - generally (yellow, blue, red) stands for (created, modified, deleted)
> - generally  clicking on the name of the KML in GE brings a statistics
> summary, you also can expand the folder to have more informations
> - clicking on a placemark gives information about the node and links to the
> associated user and the OSM map
>
> Minutes KMLs should be accessible to every machine.
> There's also a "live" world-minute network link here:
> http://www.fxfoo.com/osm/kml/world-minute-v1-networkLink.kml
> In Google Earth it will automatically update itself with the latest minute
> available and you should see the latest mappers activity
>
> For developers or power users the command line tool is written in Python
> and should work on Win/OSX/Linux. If you have some Python notions you should
> be able to modify/extend the app. to create you own kml (or something else).
> There are some handy parameters/variables available to change things like
> the elevation,  colors, transparency, line thickness, icons... You can also
> directly edit a kml in a text editor and change the styles at the beginning
> of the files (colors, etc).
>
> if you experience any bug thanks to let me know on the project site
> '"issues" or send me a mail.
> Thanks also for eventual feedback/ideas.
>
> francois
>
> PS:
> What I plan to do "soonish" is:
> - the slim-down daily/hourly
> - networks links for daily/hourly
> - getting the kml sexier and trying orher kml (density image overlay, use
> of the time slider in GE)
> - a web front-end
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