lambosprit

unfortunatly they're all mine but never mind. as you say we have to start somewhere.

Is anyone writting the code to make the maps at the moment? I was just wondering incase the file format needed changing before to many people get involved.

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Heather

Guys

I want to move this forward.

Our goal is to make maps should be free by:
1)collecting gps tracks that and open the data up for anyone
2) turning the open data into maps
3)stretch goal - developing an open routing engine

We know we an achieve goal 1 because we have seen that people are willing to give tracks to teleatlas for free and still pay the company for the maps later.

I will help by getting outside resources to help as needed, as you guys continue to work on the code. If something is needed, let me know and i will get you guys whatever you need. I have talked with Rob, Goce, and bugbyte and it sounds like the next steps should be:

1. documenting briefly (like a paragraph) the way that the data is being collected. What the collection format is and a justification for the format. Just so we have it going forward. We should make it a sticky.

lambospirit, could you help with this?

2. Focus on getting people to upload tracks by:
a. Advertise the project - what should it be called by the way - by having Rob make a video and show people how they can contribute.
b. request front ends to include it in their software so that everyone can easily upload their tracks, if they choose. - Centrafuse, guino, who else?

3. Determine how we will test to make sure that the data is readable and usable.

4. Then, once we have sufficient data or a large number of up-loaders - how many should we say? - we start focusing on analyzing the data. The data will be freely available as well to others so OSM and whoever else can use it to further their goal.

Again, this project will be 100% open.

Does this work - does this clearly lay out our goals and the general next steps?

lambosprit

Works for me with one exception. I think we should start work on analysing the data now. That way we find out if what we're collecting is enough but we also get some prototypes out there. I find that once you start doing something it gets its own momentum. If we keep talking about it we wont get anywhere fast. It'll also show if we have the ability within the people showing interest. (I know I don't at the moment)

I'll post a paragraph on why I use my format for the data upload (i'm very willing to change, add to etc if required).

What about involving a linux front end like nghost (I'm an out and out windows guy).

Some sort of port to a mobilephone app is a must for me although I must admit I haven't thought how best to go about it. As has been said before the big issues with this are security and ease of use (i.e. uploading to ftp site) and I dont have any experience of apps on mobile devices.

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lambosprit

Data collection
I've been playing with my tracking app and made some changes since the release I posted so I'll describe how it currently works.

My tracking app collects data for mapping if the user allows it.
for security/anonimity
It ignores a random number of points when the app is started or comes out of hibernation/suspend.
It deletes a random number of collected points when the app is started or comes out of hibernate/suspend (this is because most of my tracks where to and from work so every end of journey showed where I started previously, not good for privacy!)
All tracks are identified by a personal GUID thats generated when the app is installed.


for collected data.
I collect only latitude and longitude. I give each collected points a sequence number rather than a date and time (again for privacy / speeding issues) to show the order they where collected.
I collect data every 100 meters. This is about one point every 3 seconds at 70mph so easily within most gps equipments capabilities.

Data format
I use an xml file because I had the code for this already.
the xml file name follows the format given by fibreoptic of GUID + date and time
eg.
4006581f-6175-4cec-a92a-f11c7aab005e_20091001_100937.xml

I identify the user by guid in the file as an element (I have to prefix it with the letters ID as xml doesn't allow numbers at the start of an element)
I then use sequence number as an element (again prefixed with seqno)

then I add latitude then longitude

eg.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="GPSTracker.xsl"?>
<ID4006581f-6175-4cec-a92a-f11c7aab005e>
<SeqNo2926>
<latitude>51.6387083333333</latitude>
<longitutude>-0.435913333333333</longitutude>
</SeqNo2926>
<SeqNo2925>
<latitude>51.6382166666667</latitude>
<longitutude>-0.43724</longitutude>
</SeqNo2925>
<SeqNo2924>
<latitude>51.637115</latitude>
<longitutude>-0.43908</longitutude>
</SeqNo2924>
</ID4006581f-6175-4cec-a92a-f11c7aab005e>

Frequency of upload
I dont send data in real time as its only for mapping at the moment.
I collect data for a day then upload it. (while testing I had some bugs so I was updating in real time but I've fixed that now).

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Heather

Thanks - this is now a sticky above.
Does anyone have comments?

justchat_1

Can someone explain the difference between this and the open street maps project? That would be good for a sticky.

It seems like open street maps is most of the way there.....provides completely open data.....and actually has a plan and ability to do something useful with the data. Why start from scratch again?

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Heather

The goal is to make maps open and free as quickly and efficiently as possible.

mp3Car would like to provide free map data to OSM that may be used to improve their maps. We have been speaking with OSM staff for half a year now. I have emailed the founder this morning and asked him to take a look at lambospirit's sticky on the collection application and let us know if the data will be useful to them.

We should focus on automating the collection process in order to make it easier for an individual to contribute map data. And think about uploading tracks with iphones.

People can upload directly to OSM if they like. It is just more labor intensive. Currently we have observed that the process for providing the data to OSM is as follows:

-collect the data
-Convert it to waypoints
-manually edit the waypoints and input useful data (road names, routes, etc...)
-package the waypoints and upload it to the OSM site (manual upload, account login required)

There are several tools you need to use in the process and none of them are very intuitive or easy to use.

The goal is to automate this process. The automation will be done on every level from having agents collect the data and upload it to servers to automatic data processing (weeding out good from bad data, labeling and packaging).

The OSM project is moving very slowly due to the fact that it is very painful to contribute. It takes a certain amount of basic knowledge of various protocols, and comfort with software before you can even start. While techie types would be fairly comfortable using the various tools needed to contribute anything useful to the OSM project, if this project needs to move at a reasonable rate the process needs to be automated as much as possible to the point where you wouldn't need to be overly familiar with GPS, programming languages, or esoteric software packages to contribute.

Simply the goal would be: Install, forget and contribute.

soundman98

ok, i have downloaded, and installed the beta, hopefully i got all of the ssettings correct. according to lambosprits setup, there should be some more tracks uploaded in the next couple days

MP3Car.com