[OSM-talk] openBmap - open geodata project seems to need help

[David Ebling]

Hi all,

I'm new to the mailing list here, though a long-time OSM contributor (user daveemtb). I have tried to search the archives to check this hasn't been covered recently but sorry if I missed it.

There's a really interesting project at http://www.openbmap.org/ which is an open database of WiFi access points and mobile phone cell locations, IDs etc. it also makes use of OSM maps.

I think it has a lot of potential to allow location based services to operate on a wide variety of devices without relying on closed geodata from Google etc (sound familiar?)

Unfortunately the project seems to be struggling from a lack of help from people with the relevant technical expertise. (I contacted the people currently running the project).

They are currently unable to update the maps of cells etc - there seems to be plenty in the database that isn't showing on maps yet, and I know from OSM how important rendering data is in encouraging people to contribute.

Is there anyone who would be able to help these guys out? Unfortunately my web coding and Android app writing skills are absolutely non-existant or I'd chip in myself.

Also, it should be possible to run the openBmap Android app in the background while recording OSM traces. Being able to contribute data to two open data projects at once seems pretty neat to me!

There are other databases (such as wigle.net) out there aiming to collect similar data via crowdsourcing, only to use the data for commercial purposes, which are getting more data contributions at the moment! :(  I suspect this is because the tools and output are better.

And I think people have debated integrating the data into OSM. I think this is impossible because triangulation between different observations over time is needed, even if it was desirable (which I'm not sure it is).

Anyway, hope this is of interest to some of you! I've found mapping wifi and cell locations to be an interesting add-on to OSM mapping.

David E