29/05/2025-04/06/2025
[1] Design concepts for a more differentiated depiction of coastal infrastructure | © Christoph Hormann | Map data © OpenStreetMap Contributors.
Mapping
historic=ceremonial_gate, a tag proposed to represent traditional symbolic gates in East Asian cultural regions (such as Chinese Paifang/Pailou, Japanese Torii, Korean Hongsalmun/Iljumun, and Vietnamese Tam Quan), is currently under discussion.
Mapping campaigns
- Mapillary and HERE announced CompleteTheMap Europe, a collaborative effort to enhance street-level imagery coverage across major European cities. Registration must be completed by Thursday 12 June.
- The OpenStreetMap Russia community has announced ► an upcoming online mapping initiative aimed at enhancing the digital map of the city of Morshansk. The mapathon has been running since Saturday 31 May and will run until Friday 13 June. Participants will use up-to-date resources including 2024 Yandex street-level panoramas and Esri satellite imagery to contribute detailed mapping data to one of the few remaining under-mapped cities in the country.
Community
- Jim Spath shared some progress on improving the display of EV charging stations in Android Auto OsmAnd.
- Kumakyoo advocated for mapping pavements as separate geometries, rather than using the
sidewalk=*tag on roads, arguing that in certain cases, this tag alone makes it impossible to accurately determine the layout of pedestrian crossings from OSM data. - Malle_Yeno blogged his thoughts on wheelchair accessibility mapping: do establishments need powered doors to be accessible? Do we evaluate accessibility at the POI feature level, or in context?
- Andy Townsend thought about using the
diameter_crowntag to render trees according to their size.
OpenStreetMap Foundation
- The OpenStreetMap Operations Team has successfully mitigated a large-scale web scraping attack targeting the OpenStreetMap Wiki. The botnet, which operated through over 2 million unique IP addresses, and is still growing, was aggressively scraping content via proxies. In response, the team implemented a defensive measure by blocking more than 32,000 IPv4 /24 ranges. Members of the community have proposed deploying Anubis, a proof-of-work challenge system, to further protect the wiki from automated scraping. However, discussions are ongoing regarding potential licensing concerns associated with its implementation.
Events
- Katja Haferkorn announced ► the planned formation of the new Programme Committee for FOSSGIS 2026. Anyone interested in joining the Programme Committee is invited to send an email to FOSSGIS by Tuesday 15 July.
- FOSSGIS held ► its first Networking Meeting for Geoinformatics Professionals, FOSSGIS Conference Participants, Members, and Interested Members of the FOSSGIS Community on Wednesday 4 June. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 10 September, again at 6:00 PM (UTC+2).
Education
- Hermann106 shared ► several useful links for learning how to use JOSM.
Maps
- [1] Christoph Hormann developed some design concepts for more differentiated depiction of coastal infrastructure based on OpenStreetMap data.
- Tkhir noticed ► that some of Kyiv’s streets are named after fruits and vegetables. Andrii Holovin added emojis in a comment to provide context about the etymology of the names.
- Christoph Hormann has developed a map design capable of rendering aquaculture installations (
landuse=aquaculture).
OSM in action
- Costa Line has developed ► an interactive OpenStreetMap-based web map that can be used to track the movements of all the ships in its fleet.
- The Department of Posts under India’s Ministry of Communications has launched the Digital Postal Index Number (DIGIPIN), a grid-based digital address system aimed at modernising postal services and improving address accuracy across the country. The official portal, Know Your DIGIPIN, utilises an OpenStreetMap base map to allow users to conveniently look up their DIGIPIN based on their geographic location.
- Student Justin Fung built an interactive map to help wildfire evacuees. Justin presented his map on CBC News.
Open Data
- In Ukraine, over 1.5 million addresses have already been verified ► in the Unified State Register of Addresses, as the second stage of the project gains speed. The register is being developed with government support and help from UK Dev, the Eurasia Foundation, and the East Europe Foundation. Verified address data will improve map accuracy, reduce errors, and support better public services.
Software
- Project OSRM is developing a new area routing feature that will enable the calculation of optimal routes across walkable open spaces.
- tvbrene has built ‘ExtendedClipboard’, a JOSM plugin that provides up to 10 independent clipboards for storing OSM objects for later selection.
- Tykayn has developed the Mon Commerce OpenStreetMap (My OpenStreetMap Business), a tool that invites POI owners in France, to maintain their OpenStreetMap data. It allows a place to be edited without requiring a personal account (the edits are proxied through the osm-commerce-fr OSM account).
Programming
- Archit Rathod blogged about his upcoming Google Summer of Code 2025 contribution, where he will build a system for incorporating real-time road closure data with OpenStreetMap.
- Ayush Dhar Dubey outlined his plan to modernise the 3D Model Repository as part of the Google Summer of Code 2025.
- Anders Borg has created a Python application that converts Overture map data (based on OSM and other open data) to a cohesive STL model, which can then be modified for 3D printing of a certain map area.
- Victor introduced OsmAnd’s new Highway Hierarchy Routing, a routing engine that segments maps into small clusters with defined border points, enabling pre-calculated shortcuts for faster routing within and between neighbouring clusters.
Releases
- Florian Bischof announced the release of Leaflet 2.0 Alpha. This version marks a major modernisation of the Leaflet codebase, including the removal of Internet Explorer support, legacy methods, and polyfills. It also adopts modern standards including Pointer Events and is now published as an ESM module.
- Organic Maps is ‘back on track’, as they say, after their recent management problems. The May version is now available. This update includes various improvements to the map, including the removal of the referral link to Kayak and minor fixes for Android. Users are also invited to take part in beta testing for the June version, which promises a range of new features.
- CoMaps, a fork of OrganicMaps (we reported earlier), has released a preview version. For now, it is distributed as a downloadable APK file, with plans to release it on F-Droid, Google Play, the App Store, and Accrescent.
- Alexis Lecanu released version 1.12.0 of Baba, a mobile app for contributing to the Panoramax project. This release includes several bug fixes and a newly added street view.
- Volker Krause shared a round-up of the developments over the past two months in KDE Itinerary. Key updates have included enhanced editing capabilities for train and bus trips, the introduction of a new departures view, integration with OpenRailwayMap, and the addition of several new features in the Transitous backend.
Other “geo” things
- Engaging Data has developed ‘Snake on a Globe’, a geography-based twist on the classic snake game. Players navigate the globe to reach apples placed in world cities, testing both strategy and geographic knowledge.
Upcoming Events
Note:
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This weeklyOSM was produced by MarcoR, MatthiasMatthias, Raquel Dezidério Souto, Strubbl, Andrew Davidson, barefootstache, derFred.
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