[OSM-talk] Making an offline OpenStreetMap CD/DVD ?

Mikel Maron mikel_maron at yahoo.com
Thu Jul 2 17:40:31 BST 2009


Offline can mean a number of things

- Offline accessible maps. The tiles are created and stored on the local computer or network. A laptop can be configured with the OSM stack (mod_tile+mapnik), or any number of other stacks that work with OSM data files (OpenGeo, Sahana). Or the software could be configured to run from a USB stick .. don't know if anyone has attempted this yet for OSM rendering.

The data is the other point. Planet is currently around 6.2 GB, compressed. That could fit on two DVDs. Probably better is to filter what's needed somehow, by using osmosis to cut a bounding box. Or download the relevant pre-sliced files from CloudMade or Geofabrik.

- Offline map editing. In places with temporarily or permanently low or non-existant bandwidth (where many NGOs operate), the win would be capturing local data in the course of operations, and synchornizing with main OSM back at the main office, or when bandwidth became available again. 
 
The rails app could be set up to run on a local computer. The trick is how to synchronize. If there's been no other edits in an area, I suppose just sending sending over a series of changesets would do. The problem is merging if there's been exisiting edits at the same time.

- Devices. iPhone has an offline maps app. It's easy to make maps for Garmin devices.

-Mikel



________________________________
From: Rory McCann <rory at technomancy.org>
To: OSM Talk List <talk at openstreetmap.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 2, 2009 8:16:36 AM
Subject: [OSM-talk] Making an offline OpenStreetMap CD/DVD ?

Hi all,

A team has formed amoung the Ubuntu community to help make Ubuntu work
well for NGOs (Non-Govermental Organisations, aka charities) [1] [2]. I
myself have done some volunteer work sending ubuntu computers to Africa
with Camara [3]. One problem with many places in the developing world is
non-existant or poor internet bandwidth. Many people have made an
Offline Wikipedia, Camara has done and it has been very successful.

It occured to me that having good free offline maps would also be very
valuable, i.e. an offline OpenStreetMap.

Has anyone done this with OSM?

If not, it should be easy enough to generate and create a CD, which
leads me to my next question. Approximatly how big are all the map
tiles? I doubt you'd fit the whole planet on a DVD. There might be ways
to make it simplified, less zoom levels, black & white vs colour,
restricted area, etc.


Thanks

Rory


[1]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NGO
[2]: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-ngo
[3]: http://camara.ie/
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