OSM Outshining GDAL and MapServer?
I meant to write this last week, but ran out of time. Stefano Mazzocchi writes:
My holy grail hiking/exploring map should have points of interests, morphology (contours/rivers/lakes), access roads and trails ... in that order of importance.
The best way, of course, would be to build your own and I did research a bit into ways to do that, but I had to give up pretty early on: there is a lot of software on how to get data in and out of your Garmin but not a lot of freely available mapping data and, worst, there was no community where people would get together and share experience and tools.
Until OpenStreetMap came along, that is.
Actually, the GDAL and MapServer communities were doing this kind of stuff well before OSM started, but it's interesting that a technically savvy person starting from scratch today might find the OSM community first and completely overlook the old timers.
Comments
Re: OSM Outshining GDAL and MapServer?
Author: Kristian
I don't think it's that exceptional. GDAL and MapServer are software-oriented communities with map-related software. OSM is a map-oriented community with some software on the side. It stands to reason that they are more active on the mapping front, especially as getting OSM maps onto Garmin units is a core skill for many OSM mappers. There must be lots of people in the GDAL/MapServer community for which this has only tangential interest.Re: OSM Outshining GDAL and MapServer?
Author: Dylan Beaudette
Not sure if this is a good comparison - GDAL / Mapserver are tools, OSM is more about the data. The first thing that came to mind after reading your headline was GMT (http://gmt.soest.hawaii.edu/) - however that would be more useful at making paper maps. Then again, I want paper maps when hiking / exploring as the screen on a GPS is too small for any real planning, and you are at the mercy of the batteries.Re: OSM Outshining GDAL and MapServer?
Author: Artem Pavlenko
re :GDAL and MapServer are software-oriented communities with map-related software. Kristian, I don't think you're right here, Yes, there are developers (specially GDAL) but statistically Mapserver is a user driven community. There aren't many developers, innit ? There ain't no innovation there either. OSM community is by far more diverse/exciting space. Join in, have fun :)Re: OSM Outshining GDAL and MapServer?
Author: Artem Pavlenko
re: Not sure if this is a good comparison - GDAL / Mapserver are tools, OSM is more about the data. Dylan, you're right OSM is all about data, but we also have tools associated which might surprise you ;)Re: OSM Outshining GDAL and MapServer?
Author: Sean
LOLCODE - LOL = MAPFILE That cracked me up, Artem.