OSM & Online

Time Machines

Building the world’s most

detailed, universal, and out

of date, map

SotM US 2012

Portland, OR

13 Oct 2012

Jeff Meyer jeff@gwhat.org

What’s an Online Time

Machine?

A general-purpose tool

that takes you back to a

specific place and time.

Basic Controls:

Geo Box Time Box Content

Mapping Across Time…

It’s Not

a New Idea

…And it’s not

Just about Historic

Maps

2009

2009

2009

2004

Economic Q: Why Hasn’t It Caught

On in OSM?

Plenty of other stuff going on

Including day jobs

Mapping today still unsolved

Many Hard Questions

Soylent problem:

History is… people!

xn + yn = zn

Why Now?

Increased Expectations

Tools getting

better Mapping & Web

Grasp always exceeds reach

Temporal Mapping Is HOT

What OSM Can Do Now

A lot!

Community support (OSM-H)

Tagging advice (Buildings)

Common

Environment (Rails port)

TAGGING

…aaaah, Tagging.

We love you so.

OSM History

Tags

Historic=yes? Nein!

Start_date=yes? Hell yes!

That’s not enough – many

unresolved issues.

Frankie Roberto’s deck is the word on

this topic.

Issues

Date Convention

Event Model

Building Model

Authoring tools

Processing Tools

1850

Manchester sequence Frankie Roberto

1900

1950

2000

The Playa

on OSM

Mikel Maron

Panic Time For Most Potential History Contributors

Changing frames of reference

2012 San Francisco Pastmapper NOTE: Shoreline

1853 San Francisco Pastmapper

OldSF.org

1875 1897 1906 1943

Shorelines Do Change

Seattle Burke Museum

Dubai OSM

AUTHORING

Much can be done in OSM

Lots of historic geodata doesn’t “fit” into osm

Still a pain for

time series

Styling matters… same data, different

style = different story

RENDERING

Quick Rendering Demos

•  Mapstory.org: http://mapstory.org/maps/270

•  Pastmapper.org

•  Oldsf.org

•  SVG Rendering

•  Torque Demo: http://geocommons.com/maps/157204

•  Geocommons: http://geocommons.com/maps/157204

Moving Forward on Moving Backward

•  Tag start_date!

•  Osm-h discussion

•  Try some test cases

•  OSM-H Sandbox

•  Get outside US

•  Getting started

•  Sanborn Maps

•  Real Estate maps

•  Warp (easy), compare, edit, repeat

Background Info

Key References & Contacts

•  OSM-H mailing list: lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/historic

•  Frankie Roberto’s Mapping History Presentation: www.slideshare.net/frankieroberto/mapp-history-on-open-street-map

•  Shekhar Krishnan & Schuyler Erle’s Open Historical Maps: isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic39008.files/Shekhar_Krishnan_ABCD_GIS.pdf

•  Aaron Cope’s paper on Building=yes �www.museumsandtheweb.com/mw2012/papers/buildingyes

Sites to Check Out Online

•  MapStory: www.mapstory.org

•  Pastmapper: www.pastmapper.com

•  OldSF.org: www.oldsf.org

•  NYPL Map Warper: http://maps.nypl.org/warper/

•  Library of Congress American Memory Map Collection: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html

•  USGS Historical Topographic Maps (lots of good city & shoreline info: http://cida.usgs.gov/hqsp/apex/f?p=262:1:150662570906122

Your local library. ; ) Seriously! It’s quite a “site”!

•  Insurance Maps – Sanborn

•  Real Estate Maps – e.g. Kroll or Baist in Seattle -

•  Business Directories – e.g:

•  San Francisco – Adams – from Pastmapper.com - http://www.archive.org/stream/awmorgancossanfr1852awmo#page/n7/mode/2up

•  Seattle – Choir – http://cdm15015.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15015coll2/id/8573

2012 Seattle OSM

1856 Seattle Hand Drawn

Main

First

1878 Seattle Bancroft Birds-Eye 1856

1895 Seattle USGS

1856

1908 Seattle USGS

1975 Seattle USGS