OSM view of Chicago, Photo by Steve Vance
In anticipation for the OpenStreetMap winter editathon this weekend, we sat down with Ian Dees for a crash course in using OpenStreetMap.
OpenStreetMap 101 with Ian Dees
OpenStreetMap
Join us for the PDF Liberation & OSM Hackathon on January 18 and 19
The Smart Chicago Collaborative will host the Chicago location for the PDF Liberation Hackathon 2014 at the offices of the Chicago Community Trust from Saturday, January 18, 2014 from 9AM – 5PM CST and Sunday, January 19, 2014 from 9AM – 1PM CST.
We’re also hosting the Chicago Winter OpenStreetMap #editathon for all day Saturday. Below the fold, we’ve got the details on both of these nationwide events.
- Downtown Chicago crashes on OpenStreetMap, Photo By Steve Vance
Call to Action: Help OSM map areas hit by Typhoon Haiyan
Typhoon Haiyan, photo by Karen Nyberg/NASA
While we’ve featured OpenStreetMap before, what you may not know is the important role they play during disasters.
During a disaster, the Humanitarian OpenSteetMap Team (HOT) activates to help coordinate mapping of disaster areas. These activities include mapping out roads, buildings, locations of refugee camps, and other resources. In addition, they also maintain a wiki with information about the disaster. To get an idea of what this looks like, here’s what the OSM community did after the earthquake in Haiti.
OpenStreetMap – Project Haiti from ItoWorld on Vimeo.
Currently, OpenStreetMap is looking for people to help in this effort. If you have an OpenStreetMap account, you can log into the OSM Tasking Manager and select tasks. Most of the current tasks involve tracing buildings and roads to help relief workers on the ground navigate.
If you don’t have an OpenStreetMap account, you can sign up for an account for free here. OpenStreetMap is easy to use and there are several tutorials available, including this one by Chicago’s very own Ian Dees.
If you have time available, please consider spending some time assisting OSM in the effort. For questions directly relating to the HOT Team at OSM, you can email them at [email protected].
National Civic Day of Hacking at 1871
Chicago will be hosting three different events during National Day of Civic Hacking.
- ChicagoMigrahack: A hackathon focused on immigration issues at Cibola. (May 31st – June 2nd)
- Hack for Youth: A youth centric hackathon hosted by the Alder Planetarium. (June 1st – June 2nd)
- Hack for Chicago: A general hackathon at 1871.
Here are a couple of the projects that will be going on during the Hack for Chicago event.
Civic Needs App: (9:30 IMSA Room)
One of the challenges of civic innovation is matching the resources provided by open government data, and talent of the civic hacking community with the needs of the community. This app is led by a team of Ryan Briones, Scott Robin, and Chris Gansen. The idea behind this app is to help provide an easy interface for community members to recruit web developers for civic projects.
Civic.json:
A branch of the civic needs app will be focused on creating a database of all civic app projects in Chicago using a new template. This will enable people to search for civic projects already in existence in order to either find a solution to a problem or to help improve an existing app.
App Design Workshop with Knight Lab: (9:30am Auditorium)
Miranda Mulligan will be giving an app design workshop at 9:30. This design process doesn’t start with the latest data set, but instead focuses on user needs.
Everyone partners up for the workshop and takes turns interviewing their partners about a particular problem they face. The workshop encourages participants to dig deeper by determining the user’s needs, insights on how they feel about the issue, and then designing an app that fits those needs.
Chicago-Area Red Cross Tech Recruitment: (11:30 Auditorium)
Red Cross Digital Operations Center, Dell/Creative Commons
Jim McGowan from the Chicago Area Red Cross will be at the event to recruit tech volunteers for the Red Cross. Jim is the manager of the Red Cross Operations Analysis and Disaster Dispatch for the region.
He’ll also be on hand to talk about the Urban Disaster Planning hackathon with Geeks without Bounds occurring June 21st – June 23rd.
Edit-a-thon with OpenStreetMap
Steven Vance/Creative Commons
Ian Dees will be leading an Edit-a-thon for Chicago’s OpenStreetMap. OpenStreetMap is an open source map that anyone can edit. Users can add data to the map including information about their favorite restaurants, cultural venues, and more. We’ll be adding more data to the map as part of the OpenStreetMap Meetup Group. You can register for the event at the Chicago OpenStreetMap Meetup Page here.
Chicago Councilmatic Launch: (12:00pm Auditorium)
OpenCity Apps will be launching the Chicago Councilmatic for National Day of Civic Hacking. Councilmatic was originally a Code for America project built for the City of Philadelphia that makes it easy to track city legislation.
Whatever you want:
Steven Vance, Creative Commons
The Hack for Chicago event as 1871 is not limited to any specific project and so people are more than welcome to come in and work on any civic app they like. Civic problems are tough and there is plenty of work to be done on a variety of issues.
To register for the Hack for Chicago event, simply RSVP on the OpenGov Chicago Meetup page and tell us what you’re interested in working on.
Breakfast will be provided by Azavea at 8:45am. Lunch will be provided by the Smart Chicago Collaborative and will be served at 11:30am.
OpenGov Hack Night: Upcoming Events and Sustainable Data
There was no presentation at this week’s OpenGov Hack Night, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything going on.
Here are a few events that are coming up!
-
National Day of Civic Hacking: Save the date! On June 1st and 2nd, Chicago will be joining civic hackers across the country to Hack for Change! We’ll have three events.
- Immigration Hackathon at Cibola
- Youth Hackathon at Adler Planetarium
- Hack for Chicago at 1871
More information about these events will be released soon.
- OpenStreetMap Hack Weekend: If you know your way around a compiler, feel comfortable with JSON and XML, or know the difference between an ellipsoid and a geoid, then the Hack Weekend is for you. We’re looking for those with technical know-how to help make a difference in OpenStreetMap’s core software by writing patches and new software to help make mapping faster and easier.
- Safe Communities Hackathon at Google: The City of Chicago is partnering with Google to host a hackathon centered around community safety on May 11th.
- Work for Chicago’s Department of Innovation and Technology – Make the awesome happen: The City of Chicago is hiring a new Managing Deputy Chief Information Officer to help run the city’s enterprise applications. The City of Chicago’s efforts in releasing data and leveraging technology have been the keystone to the entire civic innovation effort in Chicago. If you’ve got the chops, drop what you’re doing and apply now.
Datasets of the week: Energy Usage and alternative fuel locations
In honor of Earth Day, the City of Chicago released two new data sets.
The first is a new API that lets users see what the energy usage is throughout the city. This data set uses data aggregated by ComEd and People’s Gas to display energy uses by census track pairs. (For privacy concerns, the City doesn’t want to release data that can point out energy use for just one building. By having the data by census tract pairs, it protects privacy while still giving great information on the city’s energy usage.)
This data set also comes with an API. As with all new API’s released by the City, this API is well documented telling developers what all the fields are, what the error messages mean, and giving samples of code that use the API.
The other data set that was released is alternative fuel locations. This data set will be particularly important to companies that want to make electric cars more viable in the city.
Come join us next week at OpenGov Hack Night! Every Tuesday at 6:00pm inside 1871.
Edit Your Neighborhood On OpenStreetMap
They’ll be two opportunities for residents to help improve OpenStreetMap. The first is an OpenStreetMap Mapathon designed to help new mappers learn OpenStreetMap.
OpenStreetMap is an open source map that anyone can edit. Users can add data to the map including information about their favorite restaurants, cultural venues, and more.
We took some time out to talk with Ian Dees to show how easy it is to edit your hood with OpenStreetMap. The video is a quick step-by-step walk-through of how to make edits to the map.
OpenStreetMap can be edited using a free tool called idEditor. The editor will automatically find your location when you sign in. At this point, you can search for a location in the address bar or just explore around the map.
For our example, I had noticed that one of my neighborhood restaurants wasn’t showing on the map.
Using the idEditor, Ian was able to show me how to quickly add information to the building.
If you’d like to help edit your neighborhood, then join us this weekend for the OpenStreetMap Map-a-thon.
The OpenStreetMap Map-a-thon is a national event designed to teach new mappers the tools to improve the OpenStreetMap in your area.
Chicago’s Map-a-thon will be April 20th and 21st at 1871 on the 12th floor of the Merchandise Mart, 222 Merchandise Mart Plaza from noon to 6pm. Food and drinks will be provided by the Smart Chicago Collaborative.
You can RSVP at on the Chicago OpenStreetMap meetup page.
