The Phoenix Linux Users Group (PLUG) and AzGeocaching will be teaming up to do an OpenStreetMap training and Mapping party.
What is OpenStreetMap you ask....
OpenStreetMap creates and provides free geographic data such as street maps to anyone who wants them. The project was started because most maps you think of as free actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use, holding back people from using them in creative, productive, or unexpected ways.
Contributors to OpenStreetMap take handheld GPS devices with them on journeys, or go out specially to record GPS tracks. They record street names, village names and other features using notebooks, digital cameras, and voice-recorders.
Back at the computer, contributors upload those GPS logs showing where they travelled, and trace-out the roads on OpenStreetMap's collaborative database. Using their notes, contributors add the street names, information such as the type of road or path, and the connections between roads.
That data is then processed to produce detailed street-level maps, which can be published freely on sites such as Wikipedia, used to create handheld or in-car navigation devices, or printed and copied without restriction.
This starts out at PLUG's East side meeting 1 which is held on the second Thursday of every month, the 14th of this month, with an introduction to OpenStreetMap given by a OpenStreetMap representivive Hurrican McEwen, on what is OpenSteetMap and how to use it.
Then on the 16th and 17th, there will be mapping parties2 using Boulders On Broadway as a base camp.
1
Phoenix Linux users group location and time
When: Second Thursday of each month at 7:00PM
Where: Sequoia Charter School, 1460 S. Horne, Mesa AZ
Enter by the drive way gate just south of Holmes Ave. Meetings are held on the south end of the fourth building on the left, room 402.
What to expect:
- 6:30 - mingling/networking and last minute setup
- 7:00 - Formal meeting starts with announcements and other plug business>/li>
- 7:15-7:30 - Presentation(s)
- 9:00-9:30 - Clean up and CAT (Chat About Technology) at the local Filibertos. (We sit around and talk about Linux over Mexican food)
2
OpenStreetMap mapping party location
Where: Boulders on Broadway, 530 W Broadway Rd., Tempe, AZ 85282-1311
The restaurant is directly west of the marker right on the north-east corner of Broadway and Roosevelt.