Category: Leadership

Mappa Mercia – Open source mapping for Birmingham

An open source street map of Birmingham has been completed by volunteers – next they will be turning their attention to the Black Country, unless of course the Ordnance Survey open up it’s data as recommended in the Power of Information Taskforce report.  (Come on OS – save these folk some pixel work.)  I’m also told that the folk who handcrafted every pixel are keen to come to the next Social Media Surgery.
Below is an entire news release from  www.mappa-mercia.org

“OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole world. It is made by people like you.”

PRESS RELEASE FEBRUARY 9th 2009

Today Birmingham takes another huge step to becoming a digital City. The metropolitan area of Birmingham and its environs within the motorway ring have been completely digitally remapped by its own citizens in a format which is freely editable and available at www.openstreetmap.org.

It is the first English city to be completely remapped in this way. It joins the likes of Paris, Berlin, Canberra and Vienna

Birmingham now has a digital map that is more up-to-date and accurate than all other online or satnav maps. Only Ordnance Survey can claim to be more accurate – and they have huge technical and financial resources at their disposal.

(Click here for a detailed view of Birmingham )

The OpenStreetMap of Birmingham has been created by local people, with local knowledge, who take pride in how their neighbourhoods are represented. They can match, and even surpass, the efforts of commercial mappers who spend millions creating this kind of rich data. A dedicated band of 100 volunteers has been collecting GPS data whilst cycling, walking, and riding the buses and trains. One of our team has even mapped by canal boat!

The raw positional data is supplemented by additional visual observations on the ground and then edited into a format that can be rendered as a map readable by humans. All the software used in the project has been developed as open source software and is free to download and use. All participants have to do is invest their time and pay attention to detail. All data once submitted is editable in a wiki-style process.

“It’s very satisfying to see a complete city mapped in OpenStreetMap. Four years ago when this project was created we were looking at a blank screen and most commentators thought we were crazy.” said Andy Robinson, secretary of the OpenStreetMap Foundation and a prolific mapper in the West Midlands.

The Birmingham effort is part of a worldwide movement to digitally remap the entire planet which started in 2004. The project was originated in the UK and now involves some 85,000 enthusiasts globally, who have so far mapped almost 14 million miles of road globally. We have mapped some15,000 residential roads, 6,000 footpaths and 9,000 other roads in Birmingham ( and over 700 bus stops, 300 pubs, 200 traffic lights and 300 postboxes)

Why re-map the world?

We need a free dataset for programmers, social activists, cartographers, and communities and the like to use geodata and create maps suited to their purposes without being limited by proprietary restrictions designed to protect large corporate investments in geodata. Under-developed countries are particularly helped by a project of this sort, because it is just not economic for commercial mappers to map their areas in detail.

How can it be accurate? The essence of a wiki-style process is that all users have a stake in having accurate data. If one person puts in inaccurate data, maliciously or accidentally, the other 99.9% of people can check it, fix it, or get rid of it.

Just think how amazing it was a few years back when you saw Google Maps for the first time. Suddenly mapping was cool, and access via an API* lead to a wave of innovation. Satnav was nowhere 3 years ago. Look at it now! But you still can’t access the incredible amount of data locked behind the API and you can’t add or improve it, so your applications are limited. Just think of the explosion of innovation, much of it in unexpected areas, that’s possible when the data is available!

All the software used in the project has been developed as opensource software and is free to download and use. The data and maps are licensed by Creative Commons which defines the spectrum of possibilities between full copyright — all rights reserved — and the public domain — no rights reserved. What this means to users (and this isn’t legal advice) is basically you can do what you like with the data, so long as you mention the original creator and the licence and anyone else can do the same with anything you produce.

A flagship example of the power of opening up access to geodata is OpenCycleMap.

It’s a customised online map for cyclists, based on OpenStreetMap data. It shows things that are interesting to cyclists including signed cycle routes, offroad cycle paths, bike shops and bike parking – and of course hills – whilst diminishing other things like motorways that are of little interest. It’s built on top of OpenStreetMap, and was recently commended by the British Cartographic Society.

So we’ve got a map, what’s next?

1. There’s most of the Black Country to map for a start!

2. Local businesses and organisations can start using OSM maps and data, rather than proprietary sources, freeing themselves from the technical, financial and accuracy restrictions of commercial mapping providers.

3. Now that we have a complete set of local data, Midlands software developers can start using it to create novel applications (e.g road traffic simulations, tourist trails, restaurant guides).

Why would a business consider using OpenStreetMap data when anyone can use maps from Google, Mapquest or Yahoo for free? Put succinctly: they have control. OSM data and map users have significantly more control over their maps than someone who uses a free API. With OSM you can modify, supplement and select the data to create a highly customised map.

4. It might take a 100 people to produce a map like this but we need a 1,000 to keep it up to date. We need communities and individuals to improve and verify the map via a simple tool available at http://openstreetbugs.appspot.com/ (or on our local West Midlands site http://www.mappa-mercia.org/openstreetbugs.shtml ) All they need is local knowledge and access to the internet.

For more information, individuals and community organisations can contact Brian Prangle 0121 604 1141 and community@mappa-mercia.org

Press contact Andy Robinson Tel No 07775537872 and press@mappa-mercia.org

More information for editors can be found at:

www.openstreetfoundation.org

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Main_Page

www.openstreetmap.org.

www.opencyclemap.org/

Images of one year of edits for the whole planet:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterito/3054501076/in/pool-itomedia

Animation of all the edits we have for Birmingham showing progress from initiation to today:

http://blip.tv/file/1625650

We have gathered all the resources together in a specific West Midlands website:

www.mappa-mercia.org

Sunday Links:

Try our new map.jpg

The National Trust creates this google map which helps people find National Trust properties and make their way there. No substantial techy shakes,  but what is most significant though is a sense of collboration here.  They tell us it’s a beta and ask for our iddeas about how to imporve it.  That attitude is good news.

The people who contribute to online communities are special – don’t lump them in with the rest of the members, urges Museum 2.0

“And so imagine if, instead of launching a community project and stating, “this is a place where anyone can contribute,” you launched and said, “Only one in a hundred people will share something here. Are you that one?” The idea that the user might be someone special, someone in the minority, is evocative and immensely appealing. If everyone can do it, why bother? If only YOU can do it, the motivation goes up.”

Andy Duncan of Channel 4 talks to Nesta about the future of digital Britain. (hat tip Dominic) He reckons:

  1. we must have universal access to broadband services.At the moment we rank fifth of the OECD countries for access, but in terms of speed we are some considerable way behind countries like Korea and Japan.   If we are to
    be a fully digital society, then every citizen must be able to participate.  Anything less would be an implicit denial of full citizenship to some.
  2. stimulate demand and here the best way forward must be a combination of public policy and private provision.when by the government’s own admission only 20% of schools have really ‘got it’ in terms of exploiting digital technology to drive next generation learning, we need to ramp up the integration of digital technologies with our formal and informal learning services.   Media literacy is as essential to a full and productive life today as basic literacy was in the world of our grandparents.
  3. My third boundary marker for Digital Britain concerns what you could call the supply side of the equation.  For example, there’s the hugely complex question of how to regulate and reward the exploitation of intellectual property in the digital world.  Children and teenagers don’t differentiate between content they access on television and what they access on the net, but our regulatory system still treat them as totally separate.  One way of dealing with this may be to learn from the advertising industry where responsible self-regulation has been a
    success, and it’s clear that, however they do it, the big internet service providers need to take more responsibility for the services they carry.  I’m not pretending it’s easy.  If ever an issue belonged in the ‘difficult box’ for parliament and for society at large, this is it.  But we can no longer dodge it.

MySociety reckons we have 6 days to prevent MP’s burying the details of their expenses.  Click here to see how you can act: “NB. mySociety is strictly non-partisan, by mission and by ethics. However, when it looks like Parliament is about to take a huge step in the wrong direction on transparency, we’ve no problem at all with stepping up when changes happen that threaten both the public interest and the ongoing value of sites like  TheyWorkForYou and WhatDoTheyKnow.”

Isowish for the unselfish gene.

I so wish that I could become a film making, illustrating, small holding farmer » I So Wish | Making wishes that come true.jpg

A couple of my friends, Stef and Dubber,  set up this simple site a few months ago. It is much more interesting that it may at first appear.  After all this looks like a selfish site. Tell us what you want, it says.

But what makes Isowish social, worth joining and interesting is not making a wish but being part of a community that might help grant one.  Some of the wishes are deeply personal, beyond anyone’s power to grant. Yet even these elicit encouragement and support from the Isowish community.  You may not be able to fix a problem, but you can make people feel better.

Isowish demonstrates a simple truth, that generosity is the key to social web.

Vote Created in Birmingham

link to voting page


Created in Birmingham is not just a blog, it is a cultural asset to the city.

CiB has been core to helping dozens of folk begin their own blogs so helping Brummie talent join a global conversation. For this alone it’s worth a vote in the uk section of the worlds best blogs competition. You can vote here once a day between now and Janury13th.  If you’d don’t want Melanie Phillips from the Daily Mail to win, this is time well spent.

(by the way Pete Ashton – who established CiB – is also on the short list. I voted for him yesterday because I prefer his blog!)