Eu odeio relações de ônibus

About me

I started mapping in 2021 as I tried to ride every street in Brooklyn, NY on wandrer.earth. I kept finding private streets and other issues on OSM and began fixing them.

At the moment I split my time between the Seattle area and Tucson, Arizona. My professional work is in non-profit accounting. I have worked with a number of organizations covering a full range of financial responsibilities. Handling everything from hands on bookkeeping to grant management to financial strategy.

My mapping

My most cohesive, complete project is detailed mapping of Train Mountain Railroad, the worlds longest miniature railroad. If you’re curious I gave a talk at State of the Map US in 2024 about it.

Most of my mapping is more miscellaneous in nature. I’m a big StreetComplete user, and I’ll always pull over on a bike ride to map a public bookcase! I also enjoy contributing detail to pedestrian and bicycle networks.

Board service and goals

Through the last two years serving as the Board Treasurer I have help usher OpenStreetMap US through a number of shifts in financial situation. Guiding the staff through financial challenges and changes in financial structure.

Through the next two years I want to continue this work, and assist the staff in streamlining bookkeeping and reporting. In addition, as a best practice I would like to see the organization through a financial audit or review. Ultimately leaving the organization on an even stronger financial foundation than it is today.

En mi entrada anterior “Procesamiento en tiempo real de notas de OSM con Bash” expliqué cómo mantener una base de datos local sincronizada con las notas de OpenStreetMap en menos de 10 segundos, usando herramientas comunes de Linux y PostgreSQL. Ese trabajo permitió tener un repositorio actualizado y confiable de notas, comentarios y cambios de estado.

Hoy quiero mostrar el siguiente paso: cómo esa base de datos se convierte en un servicio WMS que permite visualizar las notas directamente en aplicaciones como JOSM, Vespucci o QGIS. De esta manera, pasamos del procesamiento en segundo plano a la representación gráfica en el mapa, abriendo nuevas posibilidades para mapeadores e investigadores.

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Las Capas del Servicio

El servicio ofrece cuatro capas principales:

• Notas abiertas (rojo): todas las notas activas, con intensidad de color según antigüedad.
• Notas cerradas (verde): reflejan el trabajo ya realizado, con intensidad según el tiempo desde el cierre.
• Países y zonas marítimas: fronteras, aguas territoriales y ZEE, para dar contexto geográfico y político.
• Zonas en disputa y no reclamadas: áreas donde la asignación de país es ambigua, clave para entender por qué algunas notas no encajan en un análisis nacional.

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Casos de Uso

• Priorización de trabajo: un mapeador abre JOSM, carga la capa de notas abiertas y ve un cúmulo de puntos rojos en su ciudad. Decide enfocarse allí.
• Verificación de progreso: un grupo comunitario carga la capa de notas cerradas y observa un mar de puntos verdes, evidencia del esfuerzo colectivo.
• Contexto geopolítico: cerca de una frontera, las notas aparecen en una zona marcada como disputada. El mapeador entiende la ambigüedad en la asignación.
• Análisis espacial: un investigador usa QGIS para estudiar patrones: más notas en áreas urbanas, menos en rurales. El servicio facilita estadísticas y visualizaciones.

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Cómo Usarlo

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Kilka słów o postępie w nauce, 8 lutego 2026 roku

1. Dodawanie zakresów mieszkań tagiem addr:flats jest tylko informacyjne. Nie pomaga to niestety w nawigacji i możliwości wpisywania adresów z numerem mieszkań do prowadzenia przez nawigację. Stanowi jednak dobry wstęp by w przyszłości “rzeźbić” samemu każde mieszkanie lub by ktoś inny się tego podjął.
2. To dziwne, że nie było automatu Pocztex zaznaczonego na osiedlu Zygmunta starego. InPost, DPD czy one box są dobrze oznaczone w całym mieście, jednak tutaj niezweryfikowane podejrzenia iż to się zaczytuje automatycznie.
3. Podejrzewam, że OSM jest traktowane po macoszemu przez wszystkich. Szczególnie tych, którzy korzystają z tego nieświadomie. Ma to swoje zalety - udało mi się jako pierwszemu dodać dwa urządzenia będące recyklomatami na mapie OSM dla Poznania.

Podsumowując, całkiem przyjemnie jest edytować wiedząc, że nikt mnie nie ubiegnie. Szkoda jednak, że tak wiele jest jeszcze przez to do zrobienia.

The seriousness with which the OpenStreetMap community approaches discussions is a true strength of the project. Over years of debate, the community has formed a highly cohesive tagging system for names. These guidelines are simple for beginners, yet they allow for the precise classification and mapping of real-world names. A name is perhaps the most vital piece of data for most users—it is what they want to see on screens and paper, hear via voice navigation, and even touch.

However, this post isn’t about which tag to choose, but rather the format in which the name should be entered. I want to discuss the phenomenon of ellipsis—or, to put it simply, the shortening of names—and what we as mappers should watch out for when collecting and adding toponyms to the map.

What are elliptical toponyms?

Elliptical toponyms are geographical proper names that have been historically truncated or shortened in oral or written use. These are often names that originally included a generic term (a word indicating the type of object), which over time partially or completely disappeared. The table below shows several examples of such “shortened” Scandinavian and Baltic toponyms:

Historical Full Form	Truncated Form	Explanation
Sed-ezeris	Sedzeris	The hydronym “Lake Seda” lost the generic term ezeris (lake).
Spanggroben	Spanget	A neighborhood near a stream; the second element -groben (ditch/trench) was dropped.
Stampedam	Stampen	A farmstead near a pond; the second element -dam (pond) was dropped, leaving only the specific element.
Sankt Peters Kirche	Sankt Peter	St. Peter’s Church; the second element Kirche (church) was dropped.

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Те, як серйозно в OpenStreetMap ставляться до обговорень, — справді сильна сторона проєкту. Протягом років таких обговорень спільнота сформувала дуже цілісну систему теґування назв. Ці настанови прості для тих, хто тільки починає, але при цьому дозволяють точно класифікувати та наносити на мапу реальні назви. Саме назва, мабуть, є найважливішим елементом даних для більшості користувачів — адже саме її вони хочуть бачити на екрані й на папері, чути та навіть торкатися.

Але цей допис не про те, який теґ обрати для назви, а про те, у якому вигляді цю назву заповнювати. Я хотів би розповісти про явище еліпсису або, якщо перефразувати, — усічення назв, і про те, на що ми, картографи, повинні звертати увагу під час збору та нанесення на мапу топонімів.

Що таке еліпсовані топоніми?

Еліпсовані топоніми — це власні географічні назви, які історично під час усного чи письмового вжитку були усічені або скорочені. Наприклад, ті, у яких спочатку було родове поняття, що позначало тип обʼєкта, але з часом воно частково або повністю зникло. Нижче у таблиці наведено кілька прикладів таких «усічених» скандинавських топонімів:

Повна форма	Усічена форма	Пояснення
Sed-ezeris	Sedzeris	Гідронім «озеро Седа» втратив родове поняття ezeris (‘озеро’).
Spanggroben	Spanget	Назва кутка поряд зі струмком, другий елемент -groben (канавка, рів) опущено.
Stampedam	Stampen	Назва хутора поруч зі ставком, другий елемент -dam (ставок) опущено, залишився лише специфічний елемент.
Sankt Peters Kirche	Sankt Peter	Церква святого Петра; другий елемент Kirche (церква) опущено.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akkadian_Empire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebla#/media/File:Ancient_Near_East_2400BC.svg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Beaker_culture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebla https://www.historicnewburgh.org/_files/ugd/e582e3_718ec184562a4a38b356d24b99a57131.pdf https://www.usi.edu/media/cprjxhjf/campus-maps-floor-plans_01-21-2022.pdf https://amusingartifacts.org/2025/01/20/usi-campus-aerial-views-part-of-the-then-and-now-continuing-series-about-the-march-of-time/

Trijn Rembrands (Alkmaar, ca. 1557 – aldaar, 10 juni 1638[1]) was een vrouw uit Alkmaar die bekendheid verwierf door haar vermeende rol tijdens het beleg van Alkmaar in 1573. Ze wordt in historische bronnen en literatuur afgeschilderd als een heldin die dapper meevocht tegen de Spanjaarden. Zij wordt soms de Kenau van Alkmaar genoemd; een duidelijke verwijzing naar Kenau Simonsdochter Hasselaer. Wikipedia

Op 10 oktober 2025 is in het Victorypark in Alkmaar een standbeeld onthuld ter ere van Trijn. De locatie met alle tags.

Today, I continued my journey as an OpenStreetMap contributor by actively participating in humanitarian mapping through the HOT Tasking Manager. During this session, I focused on mapping basic features such as buildings and road segments using satellite imagery.

This experience helped me better understand the importance of accurate data in supporting humanitarian efforts, including disaster response and community planning. I paid close attention to data quality, proper tagging, and alignment with OpenStreetMap mapping guidelines.

Through this contribution, I strengthened my familiarity with the OSM editing tools and improved my confidence as a mapper. I also gained valuable insight into how collaborative mapping enables volunteers from around the world to support vulnerable communities with reliable geospatial data.

I look forward to continuing my contributions, improving my skills, and participating in more humanitarian mapping projects in the future.

Jede*r hier hat (ständig wechselnd) andere Prioritäten und alle halten ihren Schwerpunkt immer für den Wichtigsten ;)

So schlimm ist es natürlich nicht. Ich mache mich mal auf im Landkreis Waldeck-Frankenberg einen Ort nach dem Anderen (nach Gemeinde) abzuarbeiten um die uralten Geometrien aus den Anfangsjahren mal ein wenig abzuarbeiten.

Jovita Fuentes Javellana, age 82, of Acworth, GA, passed away on Thursday, February 7, 2019. She was born on June 24, 1936 in Iloilo, Barotac Nuevo in the Philippines to Angelina Agudo and Nicolas Fuentes. We call her by her name, Betty. Our lola (Grandma) Betty.

Jovita was a dedicated and loving wife, mother and grandmother. She had a talent for sewing, crocheting and gardening. In addition to being a wonderful mother, Jovita was also a great cook.

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Bilang paggunita sa aking yumaong lola ngayong buwan ng Pebrero: sa ika-7 anibersaryo ng kanyang pagpanaw; napagpasyahan kong i-pin sa OpenStreetMap ang libingan ng aking lola na si Jovita J. Isa siya sa mga pinakamahalagang tao sa aking buhay, kasunod ng aking mga magulang, at patuloy na nabubuhay ang kanyang alaala sa aking puso.

Si Jovita Fuentes Javellana ay pumanaw noong ika-7 ng Pebrero, 2019 sa Acworth, Geogia sa Estados Unidos sa edad na 82. Ipinanganak siya noong ika-24 ng Hunyo, 1936 sa Iloilo, Barotac Nuevo sa Pilipinas. Mga magulang niya ay sina Angelina Agudo and Nicolas Fuentes.

Si Jovita ay isang mapagmahal na asawa, ina, at lola. Siya ay may natatanging talento sa pananahi, crocheting, at paghahalaman. Bilang isang masigasig na ina, palagi kong hinahanap ang mga masasarap at masustansyang pagkaing hindi malilimutan. Tulad ng Pasta Valenciana, at mga pagkaing tatak Ilonggo.

Si Jovita Javellana ay nag-iwan ng mga minamahal na alaala sa kanyang mga anak na lalaki:

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im sooo new plssss what can i benefit from this, i needddd this to help me for the future and stuff idk

Depuis que je suis en retraite dans le cantal, je me suis pas mal intéressé aux aspects agricoles. A partir des orthophotos 2025 j’essaie de cartographier l’emprise des cours de fermes dans le département en travaillant aussi sur l’amélioration et le maintien des landuse. il y a environ 4000 cours de fermes dans le Cantal. Un peu plus de 1100 sont tracées. C’est facile pour les bâtiments récents et on observe une belle modernisation des bâtiments d’élevage en 10 ans avec une grosse majorité d’installations photovoltaïques en toiture. petite extraction sur Umap https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/fr/map/fermes-dans-le-cantal_1326159#10/45.146663/2.712250

Why this matters

In disasters and other connectivity outages, people on the ground often see road blockages, landslides, bridge damage, or other map-relevant changes before reliable Internet access is restored. Traditional reporting channels fail when cellular networks are down or overloaded.

This post shares a community-oriented experiment: using a LoRa mesh (Meshtastic) to send simple field reports from phones (via Bluetooth to a LoRa device) to a gateway that later publishes them as OpenStreetMap Notes once Internet is available.

Scope & safety: this is not an emergency response system. Please do not include personal data (PII) or life-critical requests. The goal is to support mapping workflows.

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What we built (high level)

OSM Mesh Notes Gateway turns offline messages into OSM Notes:

1. A field volunteer carries a GNSS-enabled LoRa device (e.g., T‑Echo) and connects their phone via Bluetooth using the Meshtastic app.
2. They send a short message starting with #osmnote.
3. The message travels across the LoRa mesh to a node connected by USB to a Raspberry Pi gateway.
4. The gateway validates that the device’s last GNSS fix is recent (for mobility), queues the report if offline, and creates an OSM Note when Internet is available.
5. The gateway replies by direct message (DM) with an acknowledgement and privacy reminder.

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Key ideas that make it work in the field

### 1) GNSS recency checks (mobility-aware) Because position updates and text messages may arrive separately in a mesh, the gateway uses the latest known GNSS position per device and enforces strict time thresholds (e.g., 15s ideal, 60s max) to avoid placing notes far from the real location (especially in vehicles).

2) Store-and-forward queue

If the gateway has no Internet, reports are stored locally (SQLite) and retried periodically. Users get a local queue ID like Q-0007.

3) “Queued → published” notifications

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Dear all,

With this post I have the pleasure to share with you that the Missing Maps initiative has a brand new website!

👉http://www.missingmaps.org

The site has been renewed with a fresh design and you can now explore upcoming mapping events, read stories on our blog, and more!

I’ve always loved the old website, which was launched with the foundation of the Missing Maps in 2014, it however started to gradually break down with a lot of functionalities becoming rather non-functionalities.

Thanks to this renewal process:

• we have a completely fresh design!
• you can find out what projects Missing Maps member organisations could use help with,
• you can (again!) explore upcoming Missing Maps events - they are pulled in via OSMCal,
• we can post (again!) new stories on our blog - read for sure the newest post we made!
• you can browse learning materials and different ways to get involved,
• and more!

Feel free to explore our new website and let us know if you have any thoughts or find any bugs. You could leave a comment in response to this diary or directly submit an issue via GitHub.

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Occasionally, I simply scroll through the map on openstreetsmap.org. A year ago, I became aware of the area around Sa Pobla, a Spanish town on the Balearic island of Mallorca. I noticed that, apart from the basic infrastructure, relatively few landcover features had been mapped. Since I had little experience with this and wanted to learn about basic things like fields and tracks in OSM, I started mapping everything that could be seen in the aerial imagery south of Sa Pobla: farmland, water ponds, tracks, roads, buildingy, orchards, etc.

I always tackle a small area that is bounded by surrounding roads. So I mapped my way clockwise around the town, extending the area northwards to the motorway. Then I planned to map the town of Búger and all its houses and began mapping my way towards it. It was rewarding and motivating to be able to see the area I had mapped in much greater detail rendered on openstreetmap.org the next day. Last year, I even had the opportunity to visit Sa Pobla on vacation!

Over the last quarter of a year, I have mapped my way further east to the large wetland area Parc Natural de s’Albufera de Mallorca.

I have left the town of Sa Pobla out for the time being, as mapping buildings in densely built-up areas has not really fulfilled me so far. It is not easy to identify the clear boundaries between houses using aerial imagery, and it is very time-consuming.

Speaking of which, I mostly use Bing, as it has the best aerial imagery available for this area. If I need a different exposure for details, I switch to Mapbox or ESRI. It is a little unsatisfactory that large areas of the town of Sa Pobla, which is at the center of my activity, are not mapped for now. But that will take some time…

Starting in 2026, I slightly adjusted my daily routine, particularly around my weeklyOSM-related activity. Instead of passively consuming updates, I began actively scanning for news by lurking in several regional OSM online groups. Occasionally, genuinely newsworthy discussions emerge there.

One such case appeared today in the OpenStreetMap Braga (Portugal) Telegram group.

In the aftermath of Storm Kristin, which recently hit Portugal, multiple OSM-driven humanitarian initiatives surfaced. These efforts focused on mapping damage, identifying locations that require assistance, and highlighting places offering help.

At some point, the discussion shifted toward the need for a truly offline mapping application. Connectivity issues in affected areas appeared to render many OSM-based emergency platforms ineffective, simply because they still depend on an active internet connection.

This resonated with my own experience. I have built several “half-offline” OSM-based applications before. They are only partially offline because they store coordinate data locally in the user’s browser, while the application code itself and the OSM map tiles still require network access.

That led to a straightforward question: if we want a truly offline application, shouldn’t the map tiles themselves also be stored locally in the browser? Storing coordinate data is already trivial, but what about images? BLOBs? Is this feasible at scale?

While I was still thinking through these constraints, someone in the same Telegram group announced that an offline emergency platform had already been built. Naturally, I was curious and tested it by toggling my network connection on and off.

The result was clear: the application remained accessible offline.

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At SOTM EU I gave a demo of how to use the OSMF vector tiles with custom tiles for detailed information on a feature. In the demo I showed walls, focusing on the material of the walls.

This is an expanded explaination, focusing on the example of trees and forests.

Starting point

I start with the guide on switch2osm, building a style file to serve locally on http://127.0.0.1:8000. I then serve the release directory with a HTTP server. With simple stuff like this I tend to use node’s http-server with npx http-server release -p 8000 --cors -c-1

Making tiles with tree layers

I’m using Tilemaker to make the tile layers. This is a easy way to generate tiles but can’t be updated minutely.

I need a config file and a process file. The former tells tilemaker what layers there are, the latter takes OSM objects and adds them to the right layer

config.json

{
"layers": {
    "tree_points": { "minzoom": 10, "maxzoom": 14 },
    "tree_lines": { "minzoom": 10, "maxzoom": 14 },
    "tree_areas": { "minzoom": 6, "maxzoom": 14 }
},
"settings": {
    "minzoom": 6,
    "maxzoom": 14,
    "basezoom": 14,
    "include_ids": false,
    "compress": "gzip",
    "name": "Tree example",
    "version": "0.1",
    "description": "Sample vector tiles"
}
}

process.lua

node_keys = { "natural=tree" }
way_keys = { "natural=tree_row", "natural=wood", "landuse=forest" }

function node_function(node)
    if Find("natural") == "tree" then
        Layer("tree_points", false)
    end
end

function way_function(node)
    local natural = Find("natural")
    if natural == "tree_row" then
        Layer("tree_lines", false)
    elseif natural == "wood" or Find("landuse") == "forest" then
        Layer("tree_areas", true)
    end
end

I can now run tilemaker from the command line with ~/osm/tilemaker/tilemaker --input planet-latest.osm.pbf --output release/trees.pmtiles. The tiles takes my computer about 10 minutes to generate for the whole planet.

Using pmtiles

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I fell down the rabit hole, learning about OSM, in order to port the map into a video game called Farm Simulator. They suggested I just rip it, and add what I want unsaved before I port, then realized I might as well just contribute to this neat open source database! I actually find it quite satisfying, and hope I’m helping. I’m not sure how long I’ll stick around, but I’m already at the max contribution…