A mapping party was held in Stratford-upon-avon in September 2008[1] and most of the streets and many of the amenities are now mapped but there is still a lot more that can still be done to improve the map.
Stratford is now the location for the big AGI GIS conference (23-24 Sept) which will bring together some 600 geographic information professionals.[2] There will be talks by the OS, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo etc as well as a strong 'Geoweb' stream hosted by Chris Osborne - ITO World and neogreography talks by Andrew Turner (Fortius), Andy Alan (CloudMade), John McKerrell (MapMe.at), myself and others.[3] We (ITO) started planning a conference-based mapping party on the afternoon of the first day for delegates arriving early. 1) We will recruit people attending the conference who get there early to take a sheet of walking paper and go and note down all the amenities in an area from which we will enter into OSM during the conference. 2) We will hire a few bicycles locally and then with we or people we recruit who arrive early will go and do a GPS survey of some areas that are short of roads. 3) I hope we can get the NaPTAN import for Warwickshire completed before then so we can review the town at the same time. Any reasons not to? 4) We can add bus routes by visiting to the bus station and hopefully finding a few helpful bus drivers to draw out the routes for us on walking papers. 5) And.... we intend to hire a plane to take aerial photos. Yup, I have checked with a company that offers 'Scenic Pleasure Flights from Wellesbourne Airfield, near Stratford upon Avon' [4] this morning and they sound very good indeed. We have established that It would cost £230 for a one hour 'aerial photography' flight (the pilot can fly at about 1500ft to 3500ft on an agreed path and can bank the plane to allow a good view to be gained from an open side window). 6) Finally of course we will eat a cake which will be provided! So... the flight. I was then speaking to Peter Stoner of National Traveline about a number of issues and mentioned this little plan of ours and that ITO was prepared to pay half the costs for the trip and he immediately offered to provide the other half which was very good of him. It is clear that Traveline are our firm friends now and will help us along where they can. So.. we have a plan and we have a plane and a pilot and it is paid for but we still need a photographer with a reasonable camera who is confident about using it can be available in the area when the weather is good. The photographer needs to be available on 3 dates between now and the 22nd Sept to have a reasonable chance of good weather on at least one of those days. Should we offer this as a little way of saying thank you to someone who has done a lot of work for OSM to date? If so, the who??? Suggestions please. Regards, Peter Miller ITO World Ltd [1] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Stratford-upon-Avon/Mapping_Party [2] http://www.agi.org.uk/bfora/systems/xmlviewer/default.asp?arg=DS_AGI_ABOUTART_73/_page.xsl/94 [3] http://www.agi.org.uk/SITE/UPLOAD/DOCUMENT/Events/AGI2009/AGI09Programme.pdf [4] http://www.avonaircentre.com/index.html _______________________________________________ Talk-GB mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-gb
