Staff Sardinia Open Data

5xmm-articolo It’s springtime! Sardinia Open Data is pleased to invite all of you to one of the coolest events of the Cagliari’s voluntary scene: the mapping meetings.
We are talking about informal meetings aimed to let people know how to map by Open Street Map a web tool on the internet.
The event is scheduled for every thursday starting from 7th of April from 7 pm to 9.30 pm at the Hub/Spoke coworking space Via Roma 235 in Cagliari.
This year’s edition is part of 5xMilleMappe project, a wider project financed by 5xMilleIdee of Rete Iside Onlus based
on a 5 month program and composed of mapping activities and training, supported by local associations and groups.

Practical sessions will take place in April, May and June (and a final event in September) are specific for those who want to begin in the free mapping arena together with those that are already experienced and are glad to share knowledge and expertise.

2016’s meetings will be divided in three different subjects: Classic (basic) OSM, Humanitarian OSM, and mapping for disable.
The first subject to start will be the training mapping debut with OpenStreetmap, basic learning concepts about mapping tools of Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team and finally the specific case of use for users with special needs.

The first cycle of April meetings (7th, 14th, 21st) will be focused on basic mapping elements and concepts.
After a short introduction regarding OSM, its system basis and how it classifies data, we will learn the rudiments of data editing by the provided tools ID and JOSM. Finally all the learned topics wil be experimented in a practical session kwown as mapping meeting which will take place in a choosen part of the city.

In May (5th, 12th, 19th, 26th) the second cycle of meetings will be focused on how to use OSM as web tool to support emergency operations in specific geographic areas of the world. More in deph we will familiarize with the tasking manager of HOT (Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team) for specific mappings of crisis areas. A final meeting will be dedicated to a mapping party of a remote (real) area of crisis. (e.g. like earthquake zone, flooding etc)

The last cycle of meeting in June (9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th) will be aimed to social subjects.
Architectural and design barriers that we know in our city will be mapped in OSM, a special contribute will be provided thanks to local associations and groups of people with disabilities.

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Thus during the meetings we will learn how this tools can be useful to trace, collect and report barriers and obstacles.
The last meeting will be dedicated to a meeting party to discover and map architectural barriers which obstruct everyday many people in our city.

wheelmap

Mapping meeting of the project 5xMilleMappe are for those curious who want to discover OpenStreetMap as well as those who desire to understand how the geographic data and tools work and those who struggle to contribute to the biggest free map of the world.

Everybody is welcome, is not required specific knowledge of geo-tools or mapping concepts. You just need a laptop computer for the classes and a smartphone (android or iphone) for the outdoor street activities.

Fill in the form to join us, the whole cycle is free and those who attend at least a complete cycle will be given a usb pen with the live mapping distro, very useful to bring always with you all the software tools we need.
OSM Mapping Meetings 2016 Cagliari program

Come in! You’re welcome!

Happy mapping! 😉

With open data we refer to a philosophy and a practice of sharing data. For us, being “open”, is a proper and true philosophy of life and it is for this reason that about 3 weeks ago Sardinia Open Data and its volunteers have decided to engage in a new activity. With the proposal of one of our volunteers we decided to contribute more effectively to the open mapping. The activity is part of the project: ”OSM Mapping Meetings” during which with the invaluable help of a volunteer group we pursue our collective mapping project using OpenStreetMap.

We decided to answer the call for help of the HOT team (Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team ) . HOT is a new initiative to apply the principles of open source and open data sharing towards humanitarian response and economic development. The requests was, and still is, paid to the critical situation in the Central African Republic due to a spike in the hands of rebels armed group named Seleka.

In a crisis situation to have a complete and well structured map is crucial, both to coordinate work at a distance and to act promptly and effectively on the ground. We thought to contribute to the mapping of Bangui, the capital, using JOSM, the most widely used program for editing OpenStreetMap. The HOT team has created and made a job available to anyone wishing to contribute. The Task Manager divides geographic regions into squares and allows you to pick an area to work on. When you have finished a task you can then write a note about it and mark it finished. This is a great way to get started if you aren’t sure what needs to be done.

The Tasking Manager allows you to verify, through simple graphs, the progress of the work of cartography, indicating how many and which contributors work on the same area of crisis and allows you to exchange comments between contributors keeping alive the spirit of “open”, exchange and sharing .

In the specific case of Bangui, our Task only provided the mapping of roads and buildings, using a special HOT preset called HDM Model for HOT field survey, available in the list of JOSM preset. These activities are rather simple especially for those who approach for the first times at OSM and allows many volunteers to contribute to the creation of a world map full and free.

In this specific case a “open”map . We firmly believe that sharing means to make available our knowledge, tools and our time and the distance mapping of crisis regions it seemed like a concrete activity to be carried out. I therefore thank all the volunteers for their availability and humanity demonstrated and invite anyone willing to help to write to us or visit Tasking Manager.