Last month, we announced the Detroit Mapping Challenge, with a goal of making the Detroit region the best openly mapped region in the world. We've been planning and discussing the challenge in the DETROIT channel over on the OSMUS Slack and on GitHub repo and we're excited to announce some ways you can particpate!
Local mappers are organizing a mapathon to tackle some editing tasks throughout the Detroit Region. The mapathon is hosted by DETROITography, WSU Department of Urban Studies and Planning, Maptime, and Mapbox. Please RSVP to the event!
Point of Contact: Alex B Hill
When: Wednesday, September 19th 6-9pm
Where:
Wayne State University, Stilgenbauer Computer Lab
State Hall, Room 223
5143 Cass Avenue, Detroit, MI 48202
The US Tasking manager is a fork of the popular HOTSOM Tasking Manager. It allows mappers to define tasks by uploading a geojson file which get gridded into managable areas for mapping. For the Detroit Mapping Challenge we created a grid of city blocks using open parcel data to define right of ways and centerline data to define block segements. Each task for the challenge is defined by neighborhood boundaries as defined by the City of Detroit. We've been testing the workflow in the Corktown Section of Detroit, and have created an addtional set of tasks around the downtown area.
Mappers that participate in the challenge will notice some new functionality in ID. For the first time, ID users will be able to define a Vector Tile Layer as a backround layer. This awesome new feature comes courtesy of Princi Vershwal, a Google Summer of Code intern at Mapbox. You can read more about the mechanics of this from the ID Changelog or this blogpost. A great way to test this new feature out is veryfing City of Detroit Parks boundaries and names. Using [this] vector tile layer, an editor can zoom into any of the city's 309 parks and confirm the names, boundaries, and hopefully add a few missing ones.
In addition, one of the main goals of the Detroit Mapping Challenge is to improve the POI coverage in the region. This includes commercial and industrial businesses, restaraunts, and any other point of interest. Using the new ID Vector Tile Layer feature mentioned above, editors can add either of 2 layers created for this challenge. The first is business information provided by the City of Detroit. The seconds is an export of POI's from alltheplaces.xyz. Both of these layers have the location of the point with the business name and addresses as supporting labels. Using these in conjunction with Bing Streetside Imagery, OpenStreetCam, and Mapillary Street-level images, anyone can participate from around the world.
There are many ways to participate in the Detroit Mapping Challenge and we hope you'll join us!