thinkwhere

Got some good comments on my last entry about this issue, thought it good to summarise them, and see how some other products faired out.

I’ve yet to try out GPSWatch, however it says “The GPS Watch Demo application just displays the latitude and longitude information from the GPS Equipment along with static screens of some reports.” So I doubt it would be of much application to OSM track logging.

Thomas Landburg suggested a look at j2memap. This is a neat google maps viewer for phones. I was able to sucessfully download google maps and find areas, but couldn’t get the Bluetooth GPS to connect to it. Thomas says it needs JSR179, not sure if the nokia 6230i has this. Also, as I say in the comments theres a fuzzy legal issue of using maps that are in copyright to create OpenStreetMap data. Of course, directly tracing is obviously creating a “derivative work” but would the mere use of it to help navigate the unmapped streets also be classed as such? J2memap is a nice little app. (Edits, whilst writing this it has developed an application error when it starts. looks like i will have to reinstall.)

Starryalley pointed out “GPS Library in J2ME” and ODGPS. I couldnt get the GPS library example application to connect to the GPS, or when it did, it crashed the phone. However, if I get round to writing my own logging software for the phone, this library does seem very useful.

ODGPS, I liked. It remembered the GPS connection setting when starting again, it had a nice compass feature too. Designed for cyclists, it can also allow you to upload saved tracks, and you can “follow” a track. It can save tracks to the file system (GETrack saved them in the special memory space reserved for java midlets).

Heres an extremely blurry screenshot of a track it just made:

You should be able to see the yellow triange. I’m guessing this is to help users follow a track, to be in the right area. Theres a fuzzy red line which is the track.

However, it doesn’t show a tracks that is currently recording, which would be a great feature. I was able to save waypoints whist recording, which GETrack is unable to do, and what would be very useful for using with OpenStreetMap. As an experiment, a waypoint was made at the location of the nice Thai Cafe. ODGPS can export as their own .odg format. It doesnt seem to record time: heres one line for the file:
WP1;53.820675;-1.5770149999999998;149.1;1156952878092;D

It can also export as KML, so for easy viewing in GoogleEarth, thats what I used. Here’s a screenshot of the resulting track including the Thai Cafe Waypoint (click for big):

In summary, using GETrack is easy, it shows when the GPS signal isn’t clear, and shows the incrementing number of points. ODGPS doesn’t seem to do either, however there are some flashing coloured squares which may indicate a GPS signal (the documentation is in German). ODGPS allows to change the interval of recording tracks, and adding custom waypoints, but doesn’t record the time at each track, or waypoint. The use of GPSbabel would be needed for conversion to gpx.

Popped along to the Porterhouse pub in Londons Covent Garden this Saturday to join in with the celebrations for the 2nd Anniversary of Openstreetmap. Nice to meet everyone!!

It was very good, some photos are here. Some of the good things (even though I did become rather merry, started waxing lyrical about the glorious future and then started handing out the lovely badges to the newcomers!), was making jokes about mapping Kenya and rhinos, laughing at the airport chaos, finding out about Test Way, comparing the various GPS devices (yes it was predicted, yes it did happen!) One of my favourite bits was seeing the print outs of the Southampton and Isle of Wight area, and the European poster. There’s a great satisfaction to be had from mapping. Its a creative activity, and the people who took part in the mapping of the Isle of Wight were beaming when they saw the printouts.

The other main thing, of course, is face to face meeting. Putting names to faces. Although the actual mapping tends to be a solo activity, the OSM has generated a real community who care and are passionate about it, and the future. I think these community events are really crucial, for generating new ideas, to confirming or allaying thoughts and doubts, for meeting new people, creating collaborations etc. There are more mapping weekends planned, in Bath, and the New Forest areas. See the OpenStreetMap website for more info.

Nice to chat with some of the folks from the GLUG (Greater London Linux Users Group), hopefully the word will get out and more people will start being involved.

Some conversations I can just about remember were: Making the applet editor more user/newbie friendly, looking into distributed networking for osm (tile server), how to get other communities on board (ramblers for example), the importance of networking its who you know that’s most important, and the Ordnance Survey.

My take on the whole “Openstreetmap vs Ordnance Survey” is one of disinterest . I am not a great believer in negative reasons for doing stuff, and, although there are valid criticisms against the OS, I think that people can do better and more work for the love of and fun of creating a good free open streetmap. One of the other great benefits is that mapping gets people off their chairs and into the world, exploring new streets, seeing things differently, is really good. If you choose to cycle, it can also improve ones health

p.s. took me forever to get to Sussex afterwards…left the pub at 10:15…got in at 2am.

Jeffrey has looked at Anxiety Maps some more and outlines a procedure to getting the data. The location of the blogger can also be captured, for example through Blogwise (Lebanon Bloggers) and through bloggers using geotags http://brainoff.com/geoblog/ shows a way to map blogs using http://www.weblogs.com/ and geotags.

I’m thinking there could be two outputs, a map showing where people are worried about, and a map showing where people are worrying.

Psychology researchers from the University of Leicester have produced “the first” World map of happiness (from metafilter and many other sources) which is a subjective mapping exercise about peoples happiness in the world. It looks like it uses variables such as health, education, prosperity and education. “Health is more important than wealth or education”.

Its main message seems to be that Capitalism leads to happier people, as opposed to the idea of” the happy savage”, and that the anxieties of modern life are not that important to a countries happiness. (Perhaps worrying about other countries, is in fact a luxury!)

Second on the list of happiest places is Switzerland, so I should be able to report back on their relative happiness compared to the UK’s miserable 41nd position!