Baltimore OSM Party

Today I attended an OpenStreetMap party organized by CloudMade. I had previously contributed to OSM some, but I had never attended a mapping party. It was great to meet other people who were interested as well as learn a little bit better how to use JOSM to edit. Previously I had primarily utilized OpenStreetMap’s web interface for editing, but JOSM seems to be the way to go. It was much faster to edit locally rather than through the web, which isn’t a surprise. Previously I hadn’t liked JOSM, but I just didn’t have the workflow down.

During my data collection I worked with a math teacher from the Baltimore area. It was good to work with someone who was local because I would have had a hard time knowing where to start. We were a great team, because she was familiar with the area and I was familiar with the use of GPS.

Starting point of data collection.

We started out at the Stieff Silver building and walked around the nearby neighborhood. I don’t feel like I have a great system down yet, but I was able to collect some data. We ended up making a couple corrections to some streets and to add information for some points of interest. One area we came to I still don’t feel like I have figured out all the way. There was a street sign that had Chestnut Ave and Field Street on it, but there was an arrow over Field Street pointing up a grassy hill. I believe the dirt road at the top was Field Street, because there appears to be houses addressed to it but I’m still not absolutely sure. I’m going to compare some aerial photography to the GPS trace and see if it provides some insight. If you look in the center of the below photo the grassy area in the center is where the Field St sign appears to be pointing, very confusing.

In the center of the picture is the Chestnut/Field Street Sign beyond it is where the sign points.

Overall the OSM mapping party was my favorite event I’ve been to in a while. It is great to meet different people and get to do something I love to do, map! I believe I’m going to get a GPS with a voice recorder, that seems to be the easiest way to handle things.