map warper

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Mapwarper.net running on a faster, newer server!

Mapwarper.net has finished maintenance work – I really should get rid of the beta sign now. Anyhow its running on a much faster site, courtesy of Topomancy.com. So performance should be better now. All user accounts and maps and points should have been transferred seamlessly.

mapwarper.net georectify maps georeferencing fun!

I’m still configuring the mail server, so if new users when signing up are seeing mail in spam boxes, let me know!

Cheers!

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Haiti #2

Almost exactly a year ago, I finished the import of a large amount of road data for Haiti. This was the result of the mapping community responding to the devastating storms and flooding that shook the country, and the need for good quality data for people to share.  Now the country is struck by another disaster.

The main page coordinating efforts from OSM is here:

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Haiti#2010_Earthquake_Response

We’ve set up a special Map Warper instance at  http://maps.nypl.org/relief/maps has a number of public domain maps that you can warp. Please come along and rectify these maps. OSM volunteers will then trace over the top and add these onto the map.

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Where 2.0 & Free our old maps!

Well over a month ago I went over to the Bay area for Where2.0 and Wherecamp 2009.

Presented at the Ignite Where on the Thursday evening, after the workshops, about Map Warper.

Map Warper Ignite Slides on slideshare.

Video is here!

I’m near the end at 34:15 minutes in.

In fact, http://where.blip.tv is where to go for all the presentations.

Ignite format was fun, the lights were quite bright on stage so it appeared that I was scowling!

Scowling, and not from slagging off the Ordnance Survey too. Rather I think the OS deserves the love that it’s maps generate – it’s the people who use them that deserve the criticism.

I gave the example of an anti-pattern used in local governments in the UK:

  • Councils have old map archives.
  • Councils have Ordnance Survey mapping.
  • Councils have statutory obligation to look at contaminated land, and the history of land for planning and development etc.
  • Councils use OS mapping to georeference and rectify old maps using OS mapping. Often at great expense, sometimes outsourcing to other countries.
  • Resulting rectified maps are derivative works from the OS, and cannot be shared, or given away for free because of this.

As a response to this, and knowing that all the councils probably had digital collections of (unrectified) out of copyright maps, I am proposing “Free our Old Maps” project.

Lets use crowd sourcing techiques to free these old maps get layers and layers of old historical maps for the UK.

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The rest of the conference was good.

Michal Migurski had a nice slot entitled “Flea Market Mapping” where he  showed off his own attempts at a map warper, but was mainly highlighting the love of old maps. He was unaware of and didn’t see Map Warper or my talk before at the very same conference! (But liked it when he did see it later)

Wearabale Haptics talk captured my imagination.

The horizonless map from Autodesk was v. cool too. Can’t find the relevant link though…

Ugotrade writes up a nice review: http://www.ugotrade.com/2009/06/02/location-becomes-oxygen-at-where-20-wherecamp/

OpenStreetMap was a given, no longer a new thing that people didnt know about, it was pretty much mentioned casually throughout. The Stamen fellas did a nice workshop with mapnik, cascadenik and OSM data, which was very well attended.

Also over from Leeds was my buddy Mohsin, fresh out of Leeds Met, and presenting at Wherefaire his Snapture project. Using Leodis images, location on a mobile app, we can view Leeds through time. V. cool project.

http://www.slideshare.net/chippy/map-warper-ignite-talk-where20-2009