User:LA2/Diary for Q2 2006

From OpenStreetMap Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

LA2's OpenStreetMap Diary for the 2nd Quarter of 2006

June 30, 2006: I've driven and drawn rv 45 from Karlstad via Grums, Säffle, Åmål, Mellerud, Uddevalla, Vänersborg, Vargön, Trollhättan to Lilla Edet, rv 42 from Trollhättan via Vårgårda to Borås, rv 41 via Kinna to Varberg, E6 and old E6 via Falkenberg to Halmstad, rv 26 via Oskarström and Gislaved to Jönköping, lv 132 to Aneby. My original plan was to continue rv 45 from Lilla Edet to Göteborg, but I changed my mind and made a detour, leaving a 40 km radius zone around Göteborg. There should be enough volunteers in Göteborg to cover that area.

June 20, 2006: Johan Thelmén uploads more tracks. I draw lake Siljan: Mora, Rättvik, Leksand, Insjön, Gagnef with Rv 70 to Borlänge and Rv 80 to Falun. There is more to draw from Falun towards Gävle, Enköping, Västerås. And north from Falun and south from Fagersta.

June 18, 2006: User:Dutch, who has done a tremendous work in Copenhagen, has also provided the first tracks in central Malmö, some pedestrain streets. There are many samples but it's not very clear exactly where the streets are. Johan Thelmén, Falun, has uploaded more tracks from Dalarna. I draw the loop Mora-Särna-Idre-Funäsdalen-Sveg-Mora with Rv 70, 84, 45 and Lv 311, with only a few gaps.

June 15, 2006: Photo of OSM founder Steve Coast speaking on June 13 at the Where 2.0 Conference. See also the [presentations, speakers and the OpenStreetMap session.

June 9, 2006: Nice evening for a bike tour along Göta Kanal, the canal built across Sweden in the 1810s. The middle picture shows the hand crank for this rolling bridge at Ljung castle, not far from Linköping.

LA2-canal-bridge.jpg LA2-canal-crank.jpg LA2-canal-moon.jpg
Click on the images for enlargements.

June 13, 2006: Hey, new tracks (not mine) for Örebro (Biltema), Nora, Hällefors (länsväg 244), Lesjöfors, Vansbro, Järna, Falun (länsväg 293, riksväg 50), Borlänge, Ludvika, Smedjebacken (riksväg 66), Hedemora, Avesta, Fagersta, Sala (riksväg 70), Heby, Uppsala (riksväg 72).

I have now finished the tracks I collected ten days ago. Servers have not been as slow as I feared. Nora, Zinkgruvan, Hova and Hjo are new places.

The GEOnet Names Server (see Potential Datasources) is a freely downloadable database consisting of a single table with 25 columns. Each row describes a point in geography: its name, its location, and its class. The classes (field 10 and 11) are described here. The table below shows how many records there are of each kind. There are duplicate records for name variants, for example Sweden should have far fewer than 57 ADM1 (län) and 586 ADM2 (kommun). Note that GEOnet uses country codes that differ from Internet top domains (da > dk, gm > de, sw > se).

Fields 10-11 Country Comment
A- da fi fo gm ic no pl sw Administrative divisions
A-ADM1 22 25 5 28 10 22 66 57 First-order administrative division: U.S. states, German Bundesländer, Swedish län
A-ADM2 286 45 14 90 1 7 0 586 Second-order administrative division: U.S. county, Swedish kommun
A-ADM3 0 298 103 503 0 0 0 0 Third-order administrative division: This would be parishes for Sweden, but there are none in GEOnet. Neither are parishes included as PRSH
A-ADMD 0 606 0 851 336 748 2 3 Administrative division of unknown level
A-PCLI 6 9 0 5 6 9 15 8 Independent political entity
A-PRSH 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 Parish
H- da fi fo gm ic no pl sw Hydrography
H-AIRS 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Seaplane landing area. There is one in Norway.
H-ANCH 2 0 1 3 3 0 0 3
H-BAY 223 569 36 86 191 814 18 1032
H-BAYS 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
H-BGHT 28 2 7 3 16 33 0 0
H-BNK 20 0 12 80 59 344 7 14
H-BOG 67 47 1 34 183 61 0 865
H-CAPG 0 0 0 0 28 38 0 0
H-CHN 7 212 0 208 3 73 10 161
H-CHNL 0 55 0 1 0 13 0 56
H-CHNM 168 51 15 11 32 1225 0 133
H-CHNN 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
H-CNL 2 11 0 396 0 7 111 13
H-CNLD 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
H-CNLN 12 76 0 3 0 5 15 51
H-CNLQ 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
H-CNLX 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0
H-COVE 29 400 20 18 208 2145 0 688
H-CRKT 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
H-CRNT 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
H-DCK 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
H-DCKB 1 0 0 2 0 31 2 70
H-DOMG 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 0
H-DPRG 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0
H-DTCH 0 0 0 513 0 0 3 0
H-FISH 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
H-FJD 1 0 37 0 229 1578 0 26
H-FJDS 0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0
H-FLLS 1 1 3 7 108 154 0 58
H-FLTT 31 7 0 80 1 1 0 0
H-GLCR 0 0 0 6 55 187 0 12
H-GULF 0 8 0 0 0 0 12 7
H-GYSR 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
H-HBR 168 10 0 191 13 34 24 53
H-INLT 6 95 7 59 28 93 0 245
H-LBED 10 2 0 12 3 0 0 0
H-LGN 25 2 1 45 56 0 13 3
H-LK 188 5747 17 2540 640 8012 1789 12684
H-LKC 0 0 0 4 1 0 0 0
H-LKS 0 191 0 15 82 670 0 117
H-LKX 0 156 0 10 0 4 8 76
H-MOOR 1 40 0 507 0 0 0 0
H-MRSH 19 211 0 456 0 1 24 5
H-NRWS 0 2 8 1 0 21 0 60
H-OVF 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
H-PND 1 2 32 679 4 24 28 1
H-PNDS 0 0 0 46 2 2 2 0
H-POOL 0 0 0 17 0 0 0 0
H-RDGG 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
H-RDST 6 0 1 10 0 0 2 3
H-RF 65 177 0 18 99 1822 2 725
H-RK 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
H-RPDS 0 188 1 0 2 20 0 119
H-RSV 0 0 4 132 0 0 33 0
H-RVN 2 0 7 82 36 4 0 0
H-SD 12 322 5 0 2 138 0 288
H-SEA 0 8 0 0 3 1 0 6
H-SHOL 467 184 0 91 25 1408 4 2216
H-SPNG 7 0 2 98 24 0 0 0
H-STM 489 1541 168 8207 1181 3127 1624 3399
H-STMA 0 2 0 10 5 0 0 1
H-STMB 0 2 0 0 0 0 3 0
H-STMC 0 0 0 22 1 0 0 0
H-STMD 0 0 0 0 5 0 18 0
H-STMH 0 0 0 0 22 0 0 0
H-STMI 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
H-STMM 0 0 0 2 19 1 0 2
H-STMQ 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0
H-STMS 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0
H-STMX 0 3 0 19 0 7 9 4
H-STRT 23 162 37 13 0 41 2 57
H-SWMP 0 20 0 36 0 0 3 2
H-WLL 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0
L- da fi fo gm ic no pl sw Land use
L-AREA 2 12 0 1637 4 46 0 3
L-BTL 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Battlefield
L-COLF 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
L-CST 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0
L-FLD 0 10 0 11 0 0 0 0
L-GASF 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
L-GRAZ 0 3 0 552 184 0 0 0
L-INDS 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 2
L-LCTY 5 10 5 118 0 25 0 15
L-MVA 0 0 0 20 0 0 0 0
L-NVB 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
L-OILF 14 0 0 0 0 16 0 0
L-PRK 9 109 0 54 2 8 10 13
L-PRT 0 0 0 3 0 0 3 2
L-RES 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 0
L-RESN 0 0 0 35 0 0 1 12
L-RGN 21 24 1 119 3 44 104 76
L-RGNE 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0
L-ZZZZZ 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0
P- da fi fo gm ic no pl sw Populated places
P-PPL 8617 15314 449 78200 602 13408 53635 31214
P-PPLA 20 20 0 20 0 23 50 30
P-PPLC 3 4 3 1 1 3 6 2
P-PPLL 910 8 0 2307 0 155 0 1
P-PPLQ 0 0 4 3 0 0 7 0
P-PPLX 139 346 0 2336 1 96 2436 319
R- da fi fo gm ic no pl sw Roads
R-CSWY 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
R-RD 0 0 0 18 0 0 0 0
R-RDB 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0
R-RYD 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0
R-ST 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
R-TNLRR 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 0
S- da fi fo gm ic no pl sw Spots and facilities
S-AIRB 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 Airbase
S-AIRF 58 0 1 524 0 2 42 172 Airfield
S-AIRH 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 6 Heliport
S-AIRP 7 0 0 24 0 6 75 17 Airport
S-AIRQ 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 Abandoned airfield
S-ANS 0 0 0 25 0 0 0 12 Ancient site. See also HSTS, RUIN
S-BCN 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 Beacon. See also LTHSE
S-BDG 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 Bridge
S-BLDG 3 0 0 1489 0 5 4 2 Building(s)
S-BRKW 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Breakwater
S-BTYD 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 1 Boatyard
S-CARN 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 Cairn, an erected heap of stones
S-CAVE 1 0 11 38 5 0 1 4
S-CH 118 0 0 4 2 978 0 596 Church. See also CTRR, CVNT
S-CMP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 40 Camp
S-CMPL 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Logging camp
S-CSTL 28 1 0 203 0 0 0 15 Castle. See also PAL and RUIN
S-CSTM 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Customs house
S-CTRR 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Religious center. See also CH and CVNT
S-CVNT 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 Convent
S-DAM 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0
S-DCKY 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
S-EST 855 185 0 4 0 0 0 141
S-ESTY 0 0 0 4 0 7 0 0
S-FRM 2556 66 0 30333 4533 16220 20 10870 Farm
S-FRMQ 0 0 0 0 388 0 0 0 Abandoned farm
S-FRMS 1075 1 0 3 95 3272 0 7076 Farms
S-FT 13 4 0 4 0 32 0 9
S-GDN 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
S-HSE 0 9793 0 3 1 31 0 660 House(s)
S-HSEC 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 Country house
S-HSP 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 Hospital
S-HSTS 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Historical site. See also RUIN
S-HTL 3 0 0 2 0 117 0 0
S-HUT 0 0 0 819 13 381 0 6
S-HUTS 0 0 0 0 0 15 0 14
S-INSM 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 Military installation
S-ITTR 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Research institute
S-JTY 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0
S-LDNG 1 0 0 0 0 19 0 25
S-LOCK 0 0 0 1 0 4 0 0 Lock(s), in a canal.
S-LTHSE 4 2 0 0 1 9 0 188 Lighthouse. See also BCN.
S-MFG 1 0 0 0 0 4 0 1 Factory
S-MFGB 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Brewery
S-ML 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1
S-MLSW 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0
S-MLWND 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
S-MN 0 0 0 1 0 22 1 31
S-MNMT 10 0 2 2 0 0 0 0
S-MOLE 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0
S-MSTY 2 0 0 19 0 2 0 1
S-OBS 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 Observatory
S-OILT 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
S-PAL 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Palace. See also CSTL and RUIN
S-PIER 4 0 0 2 1 1 0 0
S-PS 0 0 0 4 0 23 0 4
S-PSH 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0
S-QUAY 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 37
S-RECR 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Racetrack
S-RSRT 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 68
S-RSTN 149 455 0 1436 0 355 770 240 Railroad station
S-RSTNQ 0 0 0 26 0 0 0 0 Abandoned railroad station
S-RSTP 101 173 0 70 0 0 3 405 Railroad stop
S-RSTPQ 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 Abandoned railroad stop
S-RUIN 48 0 0 317 164 0 0 26 Ruin(s)
S-SCH 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 School
S-SLCE 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
S-SNTR 0 0 0 1 0 17 0 0
S-SPA 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6
S-STNB 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0
S-STNW 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0
S-TOWR 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 3
S-WALL 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
T- da fi fo gm ic no pl sw Terrain features
T-BAR 0 0 0 23 4 1 0 0
T-BCH 18 6 2 6 19 24 0 5
T-BLDR 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0
T-CAPE 17 71 4 19 9 144 2 35
T-CFT 3 0 160 0 5 0 0 0
T-CLDA 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
T-CLF 43 1 59 128 133 15 0 17
T-CNYN 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
T-CONE 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
T-CRQ 0 0 73 11 6 10 0 0
T-CRQS 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
T-CRTR 0 1 0 1 14 0 0 0
T-DPR 0 0 0 21 0 0 17 0
T-DSRT 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
T-DUNE 20 0 0 37 4 0 0 3
T-FORD 0 0 0 0 40 0 0 1
T-FSR 0 0 0 0 18 0 0 0
T-GAP 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 0
T-GRGE 2 2 0 8 119 2 0 0
T-HDLD 35 0 95 5 114 38 0 8
T-HLL 519 1224 74 18395 1217 2660 40 6268
T-HLLS 58 77 0 796 105 47 17 110
T-INTF 0 0 0 0 0 29 0 0
T-ISL 329 8314 72 277 335 6956 47 6332
T-ISLS 31 583 13 16 75 1022 0 435
T-ISLT 11 82 0 4 0 147 0 110
T-ISLX 2 388 0 5 2 29 2 353
T-ISTH 6 1 11 1 0 7 0 0
T-LAVA 0 0 0 0 158 0 0 0
T-MND 0 0 0 1 0 0 4 0
T-MRN 2 0 0 0 6 0 0 0
T-MT 0 265 270 2550 1173 4255 566 2369
T-MTS 0 18 0 182 105 53 134 40
T-PASS 0 5 60 33 131 26 14 5
T-PEN 86 710 3 43 44 283 8 715
T-PENX 0 33 0 0 0 0 0 9
T-PK 0 15 43 225 736 2857 6 333
T-PKS 0 0 0 5 67 71 0 2
T-PLAT 0 0 0 3 1 7 7 0
T-PLDR 40 0 0 226 0 0 0 0
T-PLN 0 0 0 13 28 2 9 5
T-PROM 0 0 10 2 86 2 0 0
T-PT 215 437 400 158 415 2729 2 896
T-PTS 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2
T-RDGE 2 65 32 618 162 295 0 29
T-RF 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4
T-RK 23 1860 116 130 260 1829 0 2062
T-RKS 15 1040 25 8 149 1253 0 1467
T-SAND 1 2 0 8 54 1 0 0
T-SCRP 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 0
T-SDL 0 0 9 5 11 0 5 0
T-SHOR 0 9 0 0 9 17 0 0
T-SINK 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0
T-SLP 0 0 9 162 295 17 0 0
T-SPIT 20 3 2 3 43 1 13 0
T-SPUR 2 1 25 4 102 90 0 1
T-TAL 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 Talus slope
T-TRR 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 Terrace
T-UPLD 1 0 1 30 25 93 19 2 Upland
T-VAL 15 7 54 487 779 695 10 37 Valley
T-VALS 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 Valleys
T-VLC 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 Volcano
U- da fi fo gm ic no pl sw Underwater features
U-BSNU 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 Basin
U-SLPU 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 Slope
U-TRNU 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 Trench
U-VALU 0 0 0 0 48 0 0 0 Valley
V- da fi fo gm ic no pl sw Vegetation
V-CULT 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 Cultivated area
V-FRST 704 13 0 7221 35 4 287 30 Forest
V-HTH 33 1 0 397 277 0 0 11 Heath
V-MDW 25 4 0 11 0 11 0 0 Meadow
V-OCH 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 Orchard


June 8, 2006: With the current server slowness, it is going to take me two weeks to edit the maps from two days of driving. OSM founder Steve Coast is now off to California for the Where 2.0 conference. Since he's still the only one who can produce the planet.osm dump of the database, we had better accept that there will be no "monthly" dump for June. When I point out that this is a problem and indeed Steve's personal problem, I'm called a troll. As I fail to improve the situation, there is indeed some truth to this.

June 6, 2006: Back from a long trip and lots of maps to draw from the new tracks. Still no planet.osm dump for June. Is it summer break already?

June 4, 2006: In 2004, Swedish artist Mikael Lundberg [1] released a DVD film documenting his project "Lifeline" [2] [3], where he walked around with a GPS receiver, documenting his traces from July 2002 to December 2003.

The GPX upload has been hanging for more than 24 hours, and it's not the first time this weekend. And we're still waiting for the June dump of planet.osm.

June 1, 2006: The ten most active map editors in May 2006 (where Ben has been importing TIGER data for the U.S.) were:

Edits User
4892572 ben_tiger
16894 Gabriel Ebner
12025 ben_robbins_
11371 Jörg Ostertag
8354 80n
7523 LA2
7516 andy_j_robinson
5898 sxpert
5166 bruno dot adele
4817 gianluca
4556 blk at elementarea

May 31, 2006: OSM comes to new places: Kristinehamn, Karlskoga, Degerfors, Gullspång, Svartå, Medevi, Västerlösa, Rappestad. Road E18 connects Kristinehamn and Karlskoga to Örebro. Road Rv50 connects Askersund to E20. Fragments of Rv26 are included near Gullspång and Kristinehamn. The entire Lv204 is covered from Gullspång to Lanna/Vintrosa. Lv205 is covered from Askersund to Karlskoga. Lv243 is covered from Åtorp/Nysund to Karlskoga. Pretty much every secondary road is covered within the triangle of primary roads E4, Rv36, and Rv32.

May 26, 2006: Based on that hack and the planet.osm dump from May 2006, I make three overview maps of southern Sweden in scale 1:2 million:

May 24, 2006: I write a little hack to Print OpenStreetMap with Gnuplot.

May 23, 2006: Hoping to get a new GPS PDA and run Linux on it? Lower your expectation. Handheld Device Support Summary is a list of PDAs that run Linux, and there aren't many of them. Especially not the new ones with high-resolution screens and the new SiRFstar III chip.

May 18, 2006: Ten great New GPS Gadgets, reviewed by Forbes and commented by Wired.

May 15, 2006: Alexa has updated the 3 month average for OpenStreetMap.org and now ranks the website as 107,400. But last week's average is 35,226 so the climb will continue.

May 6, 2006: I'm now also user LA2 on LibraryThing. In a way they do for books what MusicBrainz does for recorded music. And in another way, they are completely different.

May 5-7, 2006: OSM Workshop on the Isle of Wight, for everybody except me.

May 5, 2006: On the GpsDrive mailing list, Hamish points out that GRASS version 6.1 supports "Shortest path routing respecting one way streets" see screenshots. Who will be the first to use this with OSM data?

May 4, 2006: Installation of new donated hardware. Some DNS and URLs might be broken.

May 1, 2006: The ten most active map editors in April 2006 (where Ben has been importing TIGER data for the U.S.) were:

Edits User
961984 ben_tiger
10316 Sxpert
9895 80n
8316 LA2
8057 asmodeusb
5344 andy_j_robinson
5274 gabrielebner
4989 Colin Angus Mackay
4900 rolymo
4673 andrew at findlay

April 30, 2006: Perhaps we should have a page about privacy implications of OSM and tracklog collecting. The other day, one member posted on the OSM-talk mailing list about the new powerful SiRFstar III chip that can record your GPS position indoors:

[Somebody] showed me a tracklog yesterday, where it was visible, not only where he buy his food, but also WHAT he's buying! (If you know the supermarket's layout). SirfIII and the cheap super market boxes here make it possible..

April 20, 2006: Yesterday I started to irritate people over at MusicBrainz too, keeping a similar diary for that.

April 19, 2006: Alexa.com ranks the websites of the world, based on users who have installed the Alexa toolbar in their MSIE browsers. What counts here is to become one of the world's 100,000 most visited websites, and stay so for a 3 month average. The Alexa ranking for OpenStreetMaps.org is 148,372, so there is still some way to go. But today's instant (non-average) value was 70,314. So how can OSM become more relevant? Perhaps the installation of faster servers is the top priority, so we're not turning visitors away because the website was too slow. But search hits is an important driver of web traffic and the OSM website doesn't have much text that can generate search hits. When people google for some street address in Glasgow, they don't really stumble upon OSM's map of the town. What if our map pages at zoom level 12 or 13 contained a list of the street names that were tagged in the visible area? Could this be implemented with the AJAX pan-and-zoom? Or should it be kept on a separate gazetteer website? In the planet.osm database dump of April 2, 2006, there are 17,017 name tags with 3431 different values. It is quite within reach to make 3431 different web pages, one for each unique name, and to link from there to their location on the map. But does it make any sense? People will have little use for googling for "I-95", an interstate route. Some frequently mentioned names are:

Count Name
1102 I-95
668 M9
617 A1
317 Edinburgh City Bypass
199 Sesselbahn Sternen
96 Thames Path (NR4)
68 Strada Petricani
60 Soseaua Mihai Bravu
59 River Thames
57 Linzer Straße
56 Railroad


April 18, 2006: In his latest podcast, OpenStreetMap founder Steve Coast asks Nick Hill how he first found OSM. This makes me wonder: how did I find OSM? I've kept this diary since about the first day I started here, but that doesn't answer the question how I found my way to this place. In the introduction of my wiki paper from 2002 I described how I found wikis in early 2001, but it has later turned out my friends (among them Pär Fornland and Jonas S. Karlsson) had been hinting me about the wiki concept more than a year earlier. This is analogous to the theory presented by Tor Nørretranders in the book The User Illusion, that by the time we become aware of something our subconcious has already been processing it for quite some time, albeit this is fractions of a second in that book and a year in my case. Or maybe more than a decade. 1988-1992: After I learned the details about the TCP/IP vs OSI wars in 1988, working for the summer with Marshall T. Rose's RFC1006 implementation ISODE and the British X.500 implementation Quipu, I understood that the future was in developing applications on top of TCP/IP. After IRC (1988), LPMud (1989), and LysKOM (1990, a Swedish client-server BBS), perhaps a map server would be the next big thing? I wrote a really primitive prototype that I called the Real World Interface, still a pretty good name. There were several problems: As an undergraduate student I only had access to green phosphor 80x24 character text terminals, not a graphic work station, nor satellite images, nor a scanner for digitizing printed maps; there was no current map data available for free, and old out-of-copyright maps were pretty much useless. I had to give up the idea, and instead I started a Gopher server in the summer of 1992 and in December I founded Project Runeberg, the Scandinavian e-text archive. Out-of-copyright literature is still useful and can be typed in and read using a text terminal. 1994: Later with the World Wide Web, I made a "version 2" of RWI based on static HTML web pages. It was graphic, but not as interactive (like a MUD) as I had intended RWI version 1 to be. My RWI v.2 prototype from May 1994 is still browsable. 2000: I bought my first GPS receiver at Fry's in Palo Alto in December 2000 when I was in California. It was a backpack to my Palm Pilot, came with Rand McNally maps for the U.S. and a windshield mount and never worked very well. It was not the same success as my first digital camera, that I bought at the same time. I didn't really use this GPS receiver after I got back to Sweden in February 2001. 2001: Since 1990 I've maintained a nearly daily presence on the Internet BBS called LysKOM (all in Swedish). The LysKOM conference for geographic information systems (GIS) was created in September 2001. That's the same time I was starting susning.nu and I was implementing the geographic proximity search function (that Wikipedia still doesn't have) shortly after. I was creating many pages on susning.nu with geographic coordinates, that I dug up from printed maps or from various files I found. At the time it didn't occur to me that I should capture coordinates with a GPS receiver. 2005: On March 23, 2005, there was a LysKOM thread on (the lack of) free or cheap geographical data. The opportunity of building your own based on GPS sampling was mentioned, just like theoretical possibilities are always mentioned in LysKOM, but nobody took action at this time. Later in the spring of 2005 I was experimenting with digital photography, capturing panorama views at various points along a street, trying to compile something like a Quicktime VR environment. One early view was posted on susning.nu on May 9, 2005, a tour of Gamla Linköping, my local open air museum (68 pictures, taken at 28 geographic positions, presented on 28 wiki pages). The LysKOM thread "massiv fotografering" started with message 13239540 on May 8, 2005. That's when I understood I needed a GPS receiver to keep track of where each photo was taken. This is what A9.com (a daughter of Amazon.com) does in their business directory (yellow pages, kind of). Jonas S. Karlsson (now a Google employee) was hinting me about Geobloggers and the principle of using time synchronization after the fact between the photo and GPS data, rather than directly connecting the GPS to the camera. LysKOM is full of helpful and technically skilled people, some of which had already been geocaching for years. On May 13 I reported my findings on Wikipedia-l. On May 18 I had found out that I wanted a Garmin Foretrex 201. The same day the question of free map data resurfaced in LysKOM, but there was no mention of OSM. In another wikipedia-l thread on May 23, David Gerard mentioned OSM, and this is apparently where I learned about the project. In the early morning of May 24, 2005, I subscribed to the OSM mailing lists. Later that day I borrowed a Garmin Foretrex 201 from a friend, recorded my first track, uploaded it to OSM, and started my diary here. On May 25, 2005, I wrote the first LysKOM message 13300793 about Open Street Map.

April 17, 2006: A more updated list of long segments compiled by Jörg Osterman, rearranged and commented by me. Northern Sweden: (I've redrawn E4 between Piteå and Skellefteå) 5.17 km, Northern Norway: (I've redrawn parts of the area east of Trondhjem and removed three very long line segments that didn't have tracks. They were connecting end points of existing roads, and there is a chance that they indicated tunnels, but there was no documentation of this.) 6.57 km, Central Sweden: (Rv76 east of Forsmark) 5.58 km, 5.87 km, Russia: (continue redrawing here, going north), 5.06 km, 5.28 km, 5.02 km, 7.04 km, 9.19 km, 10.95 km, 19.28 km, 5.75 km, 22.86 km, 11.70 km, 8.83 km, 5.20 km, 8.37 km, 13.38 km, 5.49 km, 12.83 km, 23.01 km, 16.86 km, 14.36 km, 17.12 km, 7.31 km, 8.77 km, 7.95 km, 5.26 km, 8.20 km, 21.56 km, 5.57 km, 8.64 km, 7.78 km, 11.89 km, 8.62 km, 21.10 km, 6.91 km, 19.87 km, 12.11 km, 37.66 km, 7.93 km, 12.84 km, 11.65 km, 9.08 km, 6.34 km, Southern Sweden: 5.93 km, 5.10 km, 5.44 km, Britain: 7.59 km, 24.44 km, 8.16 km, 9.92 km, 8.83 km, 8.08 km, 10.67 km, 6.12 km, 5.10 km, 5.59 km, 5.47 km, 5.02 km, 6.76 km, 5.76 km, 6.07 km, 6.02 km, Netherlands: 10.34 km, 10.34 km, 7.01 km, 5.43 km, 5.39 km, 6.50 km, 6.50 km, 8.02 km, 8.03 km, 6.68 km, 6.68 km, 5.43 km, 5.41 km, 5.25 km, 5.25 km, 5.06 km, 5.06 km, 8.72 km, 8.75 km, 7.27 km, 7.26 km, 5.08 km, 6.81 km, 5.07 km, 6.83 km, Germany: 5.84 km, 9.43 km, 5.70 km, 5.72 km, 9.04 km, 9.04 km, 5.79 km, 5.82 km, 7.48 km, 7.48 km, 8.10 km, 8.10 km, 6.72 km, 6.72 km, 7.58 km, 7.58 km, 5.29 km, 5.29 km, 5.01 km, 5.01 km, 6.87 km, 6.87 km, 10.06 km, 10.06 km, 10.83 km, 10.83 km, 6.75 km, 6.75 km, 5.08 km, 5.08 km, 7.67 km, 7.67 km, 5.46 km, 5.46 km, 6.33 km, 6.33 km, 5.56 km, 5.56 km, 12.09 km, 12.09 km, 7.19 km, 7.19 km, 6.03 km, 6.03 km, 11.31 km, 11.31 km, 8.04 km, 8.04 km, 7.33 km, 5.29 km, 5.29 km, 5.91 km, 5.91 km, 7.22 km, 7.22 km, 8.98 km, 8.98 km, 5.98 km, 5.98 km, 12.59 km, 12.59 km, 6.15 km, 6.15 km, 5.73 km, 5.73 km, 5.02 km, 5.02 km, 6.49 km, 6.49 km, 7.17 km, 7.16 km, 5.33 km, 5.33 km, France: 5.37 km, 6.39 km, 5.13 km, 6.07 km, Lake Michigan, USA: (I think I have redrawn all of this) 5.28 km, 11.69 km, 6.08 km, 7.07 km, 6.34 km, 6.44 km, 7.08 km, 6.77 km, 7.02 km, 6.28 km, 6.27 km, 5.95 km, 5.90 km, 5.09 km, 5.03 km, 6.59 km, 8.32 km, 8.30 km, 5.28 km, 13.69 km, 5.61 km, 12.39 km, 5.72 km, 11.09 km, 13.54 km, 6.65 km, 5.18 km, 14.39 km, 12.24 km, 10.77 km, 23.22 km, 6.11 km, 5.34 km, 6.69 km, 6.33 km, 7.04 km, 6.08 km, 10.53 km, 12.43 km, 15.64 km, 5.13 km, California: 7.07 km, 7.01 km, Brazil: 5.37 km, 6.37 km, 5.24 km.

April 14, 2006: Very long line segments identified by Jörg Ostertag, in North-west Russia: 10.95 km, 19.28 km, 22.86 km, 11.70 km, 13.38 km, 12.83 km, 23.01 km, 14.36 km, 16.86 km, 17.12 km, 21.56 km, 11.89 km, 21.10 km, 19.87 km, 12.11 km, 37.66 km, 12.84 km, 11.65 km, Britain: 24.44 km, 10.67 km, Germany or continental Europe: 10.34 km, 10.34 km, 10.83 km, 10.83 km, 10.06 km, 10.06 km, 12.09 km, 12.09 km, 11.31 km, 11.31 km, 12.59 km, 12.59 km, North America: 11.69 km, 13.69 km, 12.39 km, 11.09 km, 13.54 km, 14.39 km, 12.24 km, 10.77 km, 23.22 km, 10.53 km, 12.43 km, 15.64 km. A few observations: The two very long segments in Britain are railways, apparently drawn without any GPS samples. Some (but not all) very long segments in Russia are based on very sparse GPS samples. Some very long segments in America have plenty of GPS data, and should be redrawn. Some very long segments in Germany have very good GPS samples, where dots are placed at reasonable spacing, but line segments are not drawn between these dots, but instead very long segments are drawn. Dots and line segments are duplicated, indicating that this might be the remains of an experiment with semi-automated client software. In each of these cases I keep asking "who did this?". The weakest part of OSM is that there is no way to inspect the revision history of the map at hand, no easy way to contact the other contributors and discuss their work. Jörg's list of long segments is a really useful tool, similar to the "short articles" special page at Wikipedia. It should list all segments longer than, say, 2 km, instead of 10 km.

April 13, 2006: Steve's publication on April 2 of the big dump planet.osm.bz2 has generated a spring flood of new statistics and derivates, among them Tom Carden's map of Europe and Jörg Ostertag's statistics on the length of line segments.

April 11, 2006: In Copenhagen, Mikkel is giving a 2 hour presentation of OSM at a meeting of SSLUG.

Dan Karran presents statistics on the most mapped capital cities. Here are the top 20:

Capital Map nodes
within +/-
1 x 0.5 degree
London 41655
Stockholm 11458
Oslo 10789
Vienna 9119
Bratislava 5374
Amsterdam 4402
The Hague 4382
Douglas, Isle of Man 3014
Dublin 2776
Copenhagen 2701
Paris 2131
Luxemburg 2096
Brussels 2084
Vaduz, Lichtenstein 1971
Bern 1528
Helsinki 1364
Berlin 1230
Prague 651
Bucharest 533
Athens 446


April 10, 2006: I'm drawing Örebro-Mellösa-Kilsmo-Breven-Hjortkvarn. OSM servers are quite slow.

April 3, 2006: The ten most active map editors in March 2006 were:

Edits User
26096 80n
17461 f_mohr at yahoo
11787 Colin Angus Mackay
10718 Blackadder
4086 Sxpert
3273 nick at nickhill
2333 mikemenk at yahoo
2196 mikkel at tdx
2187 LA2
1873 christian dot graefe
Retrieved from "https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?title=User:LA2/Diary_for_Q2_2006&oldid=11739"