Open Street Map - September 20th...

[Colin McGregor]

My call for someone to take the lead on the Open Street Map session
for September 20th seems to have fallen on dead ears, sigh. So, what I
am hoping is that that announcements I plan to make at this weeks
GTALug meeting and Unix Unanimous meetings will get a bit further...

In the mean time, even if it is just 2-3 people, I would like to see
something happen, so if nobody else steps forward to push things along
here is what I would like to see happen:

- Get together at Linuxcaffe on the 20th @ 9 AM (with back-up location
in case of weirdness, the Starbucks inside Indigo @ Yonge & Eglinton).
- Have a coffee, discuss gameplans, equipment, etc.
- Head out and map.
- Return and meet at Linuxcaffe on the 20th @ 5 PM (with back-up
location in case of weirdness, the Starbucks inside Indigo @ Yonge &
Eglinton).
- Coffee, sum up and enter data until done or shop closing

Now, my answers to the questions I sent out earlier are:

  - How can you get around the city (foot? car? bicycle?).

  Foot and/or TTC (I have a Metropass)

  - Do you have a laptop computer, if so, what sort? (there is Open
Street Map software for Windows, Mac and Linux, but not all the same
programs are available for all platforms).

   I have a Debian running laptop.

  - Do you have a GPS receiver, if so, what sort (some GPSs must be
connected to laptop to work, limiting their value for tracing hiking
paths)?

  Yes, but. The GPS I have requires being connected to a running PC.
In other words this is great for when I have access to a car/truck,
but this is not normal...

  - What part(s) of the city would you like to focus on?

  Depends. If I can get access to a car/truck I would love to map the
currently unmapped streets in Etobicoke. Otherwise I would love to go
after streets that while mapped do not have names near my home (near
Yonge & Eglinton)...

  Over the last two weeks I have printed out areas near my place where
the streets were mapped but not named, and noting street names off
sign posts. Saturday afternoon that meant walking between Mount
Pleasant and Bayview / Blythwood Road and Lawrence Ave. E.. Got almost
all the streets done, but I am new enough at this that I am not sure
how to fix some map errors I saw on the ground. The current Open
Street Map shows you can drive drive down Dawlish Ave. from Mount
Pleasant to Bayview, truth is, unless you drive a tank, you can't
(there is small ravine part way down the street that appears to have
never been bridged... barriers to cars are on either side of the
ravine... In other words I don't yet know how to break a street that
is listed on the map into two parts...). I also saw and added a tiny
street, Lauren Crt. based on what I saw plus the Yahoo photos, but
that could no doubt be improved...

Thoughts / ideas?


Colin McGregor
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