pages tagged mappingBleah!http://bleah.co.uk/tags/mapping/Bleah!ikiwiki2011-04-09T12:03:03ZGet Losthttp://bleah.co.uk/blog/posts/2008/06/07/get_lost/2011-04-09T12:03:03Z2008-06-07T19:38:40Z
<p>Last weekend I went to an <a href="http://nowhere-fest.blogspot.com/2008/05/who-are-lrm-what-is-psychogeography-and.html">Introduction to LRM and psychogeography</a>.
<a href="http://diffrentcolours.livejournal.com/">PerfDave</a> mentioned the <a href="http://nowhere-fest.blogspot.com/">Loiterers Resistance Movement</a> when
discussing the <a href="http://manchester.fsuk.org/blog/2008/05/28/openstreetmap-17th-june/">OpenStreetMap talk</a> for <a href="http://manchester.fsuk.org/">Manchester Free
Software</a>, so I went to learn more, and give <a href="http://openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetMap</a> a
mention.</p>
<p>The meeting began with an a few people speaking about different aspects of
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogeography">psychogeography</a>, the meaning of which noone’s really clear on anyway. I
think that’s what makes part of it: The mystery.</p>
<p>We split off into groups, each with “maps” collated from drawings made by
those present. The idea was to wander around Manchester and interpret the
drawings as places to go to, or directions to take. If I’ve made it sound
boring, it was actually quite fun, and a pleasant walk, while others in the
group would talk about the history of the places we went through.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://nowhere-fest.blogspot.com/">LRM</a> have a festival going on this month, the Get Lost Festival, in
association with <a href="http://www.trip2008.wordpress.com/">TRIP</a> and the <a href="http://www.royalexchange.co.uk/">Royal Exchange Theatre</a>. I’m planning
to go to some more events, starting with the <a href="http://nowhere-fest.blogspot.com/2008/06/historical-weekend.html">Tour of Old Ancoats</a>
tomorrow. If you’re interested, take a look at the <a href="http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/3/14/1813512/Get%20Lost%20Brochure%20FINAL%204%20WEB.pdf">full programme</a>.</p>
New Shiny, No, Really Shiny, Reflective Evenhttp://bleah.co.uk/blog/posts/2008/05/28/new_shiny/2011-04-09T12:03:03Z2008-05-28T06:48:03Z
<p>I returned to work yesterday, after a fairly relaxing week off, to find an
<a href="http://eeepc.asus.com/global/900.htm">Eee PC 900</a> and an <a href="http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2008-May/026351.html">OpenStreetMap high‐visibility vest</a> on or under my
desk.</p>
<p>I haven’t touched the Eee, yet, except to charge the battery. Rest assured
that I will be replacing the operating system, likely with
<a href="http://debian.org/">Debian GNU/Linux</a>. I noticed some packages relating to Eee PCs in Sid,
which is promising.</p>
<p>I wore the high‐vis vest on my way home. The vest features an
<a href="http://openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetMap</a> logo with the host part of the URI (www.openstreetmap.org)
above and “SURVEYOR” below. There’s a <a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Image:OSM_Hi_Vis_Back.jpg">picture</a> on the
<a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetMap wiki</a>. Visibility for me on the road, and visibility for
<a href="http://openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetMap</a>.</p>
Easter Catch‐Uphttp://bleah.co.uk/blog/posts/2008/03/24/easter_catchup/2011-04-09T12:03:03Z2008-03-24T11:03:05Z
<p>Life seems to have been taken up with other things these past few weeks.</p>
<p>Since I mentioned <a href="http://bleah.co.uk/tags/mapping/../../blog/posts/2008/03/02/openstreetmap/">OpenStreetMap</a> I have done a little bit more mapping,
including <a href="http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=1476">Birchfields Park</a> in Longsight, and some bits around
Deansgate Locks. I have a number of pending questions about mapping bits of
the latter area, but just haven’t got around to asking.</p>
<p>I had neglected my bike a bit. To make up for it, I gave it a good clean.
The cadence sensor to go with my <a href="https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=160&pID=331">Edge 305</a> arrived last week, so I’m
sure I’ll have a little “must play with new shiney gadget” phase that gets me
out a bit more. I had hoped to cycle over to my mum’s this weekend, but I
think I have left it a little late.</p>
<p>Also last week, I have suddenly become a whole lot more involved with
<a href="http://manchester.fsuk.org/">Manchester Free Software</a>. We had <a href="http://www.alexhudson.com/">Alex Hudson</a> speak mainly
about the <a href="http://bongo-project.org/">Bongo Project</a>, and followed up in <a href="http://www.fabcafe.co.uk/">Fab Cafe</a> with a
meeting to discuss the future of Manchester Free Software. The <a href="http://groups.fsf.org/index.php/Manchester/2008-03-18/Minutes">minutes</a>
are online in the <a href="http://groups.fsf.org/index.php/Manchester">Manchester</a> area of the <a href="http://groups.fsf.org/">FSF Groups</a>
wiki for those interested. Next month we have <a href="http://johnleach.co.uk/">John Leach</a>, author
of <a href="http://geekz.co.uk/lovesraymond/">Everybody Loves Eric Raymond</a>. He’ll be talking about that, as well
as well as <a href="http://www.brightbox.co.uk/">Brightbox</a>, a Ruby on Rails hosting provider.</p>
OpenStreetMaphttp://bleah.co.uk/blog/posts/2008/03/02/openstreetmap/2011-04-09T12:03:03Z2008-03-02T19:16:04Z
<p>Around about a month ago, I purchased a <a href="https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=160&pID=331">Garmin Edge 305</a> for my
bike. It is a fitness training and cycle computer that also happens to
contain a GPS receiver. It features the ability to follow workout programs
and courses that can be programmed in via the device itself, or likely much
more easily sent to the device from a computer via USB. I haven’t used it for
that yet, though, that sort of thing requires me to get into a routine.</p>
<p>What I have been doing is taking it with me wherever I ride, and collecting
GPS traces to upload to <a href="http://openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetMap</a>. OpenStreetMap is a project to
create and provide free¹ geographic data that people can then use to create
maps, plan routes, or whatever else takes their fancy. Anybody can
contribute, and you don’t even need a GPS: Street names often need to be
filled in, or maybe you know that a junction is actually a mini‐roundabout.
Some areas also have fairly high quality aerial imagery available, such as the
<a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Yahoo!_Aerial_Imagery">Yahoo! aerial imagery</a> and <a href="http://openaerialmap.org/">OpenAerialMap</a>, which can be used to
add roads, building outlines, parks, and other things. Old, out of copyright
map data for the UK is also available from the <a href="http://www.npemap.org.uk/">New Popular Edition
Maps</a>, which can be used to map, for example, cycle routes that follow
the paths of disused railway lines.</p>
<p>My first edits in South Manchester covered the area around West Point,
Levenshulme, most of it residential areas. I continued from there by mapping
up to Rusholme and Longsight. There is Yahoo! imagery available, although
it’s not always easy to see things clearly. Combining the aerial imagery with
GPS traces and notes taken while surveying makes things a little easier. A
highlight has to have been putting <a href="http://www.southmanchesterreporter.co.uk/news/s/527908_move_over_clint_its_the_street_with_no_name">The Street With No Name</a> (<a href="http://www.northwestvision.co.uk/page/the-street-with-no-name-is-discovered">article
with more pictures</a>) on the map.</p>
<p>Last Sunday I met up with Rob (pobice) and went to Leeds for a <a href="http://www.wylug.org.uk/2008/02/wylug-social-and-openstreetmap-session-sunday-24th-february-2008/">micro‐mapping
party</a> organised by <a href="http://www.wylug.org.uk/">WYLUG</a> members <a href="http://www.louisaparry.co.uk/">Louisa</a> and <a href="http://www.johnleach.co.uk/">John</a>, joined
by Paul and <a href="http://thinkwhere.wordpress.com/">Tim</a>. Partnered up with Tim, I helped map around <a href="http://www.leedsth.nhs.uk/patients/aboutus/hospitals/st_james.php">St James’s
University Hospital</a> aka Jimmy’s. I lost Tim as we were finishing up
to head back to Leeds, but with the help of existing maps from OpenStreetmap I
had little trouble finding my way back. Louisa posted a <a href="http://louisaparry.co.uk/journal/archives/2008-02-26/open-street-map-micro-mapping-party">summary</a> along
with some lessons learned from organising the mapping party, and Tim created
a <a href="http://geothings.net/osm/leeds/microMappingFeb08.mpg">fantastic animation</a> (MPEG video) of the traces collected that
afternoon.</p>
<p>Back to work, and I have been spending some lunch hours mapping in Manchester
city centre, mainly around Great Bridgewater Street. It was nice to see that
at around the same time, someone else put the G-MEX on the map. Incidentally
that’s already out‐of‐date since it has had its name changed (back?) to
<a href="http://www.manchestercentral.co.uk/">Manchester Central</a>. Fear not, the maps should be updated soon. The
ease of updating the data is part of what makes OpenStreetMap, similar to
<a href="http://wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a>.</p>
<p>Today I followed the footpaths of <a href="http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=1476">Birchfields Park</a>, which is yet to be
seen on OpenStreetMap, despite other nearby parks being included to a
reasonable level of detail.</p>
<p>I think I may have caught the mapping bug.</p>
<hr />
<ol>
<li>“free” here has little to do with price, it means you have certain basic
freedoms to use, study, modify, and redistribute the data, akin to those
you have with <a href="http://bleah.co.uk/tags/mapping/../free_software/">free software</a>.</li>
</ol>