By: Bobby Parikh
(Director, Content Products & Services)
Created: 10/8/09
Hello Developers!
We added new locations to the OpenStreetMap demo site today. The full list of locations on the demo site is now: Aizuwakamatsu, Japan; Berlin, Germany; Chennai, India; London, UK; Ouagadougou, Burkina-Faso; Paris, France; Pompeii, Italy; San Jose, USA; and Vienna, Austria.
Looking at this list you might wonder how we selected these locations from all over the world. Fortunately, the OpenStreetMap community is there to guide us. We just picked a few locations from http://bestofosm.org/#. Thanks Geofabrik for making this great website available!
This update also include much better looking maps. Based on the feedback we received as part of our beta program, we made modifications to the map image configuration. Zoom into downtown areas like Piccadilly Circus in London and Vienna to see the OSM data in all its beauty. [A special shout-out to thousands of enthusiastic mappers like "toaster" and "angst" for mapping areas like Fernsehturm in Berlin in amazing detail!]
Here is a high-level list of image changes made:
- Added a whole bunch of POI icons: pubs (yeah!), train and bus stations, amenities like phones and toilets, schools, colleges and universities, coffee shops, barriers etc.
- Better labels for geopolitical entities such as cities, suburbs, hamlets, etc.
- New localized map style for UK and Germany with route shields
- New line styles for walkways and pedestrian/bicycle roads
- New line styles for linear barriers
deCarta's core business is providing a mapping platform. As a developer you have complete freedom in making the maps look and behave exactly the way you want. What you see in the demo are just a few things that show what the platform is capable of doing. If you have a specific requirement, please ask--chances are that either our platform already does what you need or we'll be able to support it.
There's so much more work remaining, but it feels like we have a good foundation to start from. As always, we're eager to hear your feedback.
By: Bobby Parikh
(Director, Content Products & Services)
Created: 9/19/09
We just fixed some display issues on our server for zoom levels 7-9 on our demo site. The roads should look much nicer now for those levels.
It was a quick fix on the server. Didn't require any changes to the data.
By: Bobby Parikh
(Director, Content Products & Services)
Created: 9/18/09
Here's the scoop on routing.
For the beta release, you can route in two modes:
1. High-level routing mode: this means that you can compute routes that follow one-ways, but do not adhere to other restrictions. This is somewhat useful.
2. Pedestrian mode: This is expansion on #1. This basically means the system will ignore one-ways and turn restrictions. It'll also allow you to route on walkways and other features marked for pedestrians only.
Here's the plan for the upcoming release: our normalized data model (called Uniform Data Model or UDM for short) is capable of modeling for full turn-by-turn vehicle routing functionality, including time- and vehicle-based regulations. All applications built on our platform use this model. So the model is very rich. The question is: how rich is the source data to enable vehicle routing functionality consistently? We're investigating the OSM data attribution coverage to determine that. We are planning to find answer to this question before we launch the product next month.
In short, we have some routing modes now, but expect additional routing functionality when we launch the full product. Obviously, as the navigation attributions become richer and the coverage expands, the routing experience will become better.
By: Bobby Parikh
(Director, Content Products & Services)
Created: 9/17/09
deCarta plans to maintain OpenStreetMap data on a regular basis.
For the duration of the beta program the data will be updated as and when fixes are made to the data. After the launch in October 2009, the data will be updated on a regular schedule starting with quarterly updates.