Mapping a Small Town
08-19, 16:30–16:50 (Europe/Rome), Auditorium B

Christopher Beddow takes us on a journey of how to map a small town using a variety of tools. The goal was to test and prove how much OpenStreetMap can be enriched using RapiD buildings and roads, and Mapillary map features, traffic signs, and imagery.

He evaluates a small town in the western United States that is far from any mapping community and has very little data, and demonstrates how a vivid dataset can be added to OSM. In addition, he compares this to a small town in Switzerland, demonstrating how new details can still be added to a place that is heavily mapped by a strong local community.


Mapping is a time consuming task, and challenging for an individual to do without a community or a team. However, many tools exist to enhance the capabilities of any lone map contributor, and also multiply the mapping power of a team.

Christopher Beddow takes us on a journey of how to map a small town using a variety of tools. The goal was to test and prove how much OpenStreetMap can be enriched using RapiD buildings and roads, and Mapillary map features, traffic signs, and imagery.

He evaluates a small town in the western United States that is far from any mapping community and has very little data, and demonstrates how a vivid dataset can be added to OSM. In addition, he compares this to a small town in Switzerland, demonstrating how new details can still be added to a place that is heavily mapped by a strong local community.

Leaving this talk, you will understand how to use RapiD, Mapillary, and your own creativity to adapt your own locality into a comprehensive part of OpenStreetMap.


Talk keywords

mapillary, rapid, pois, qgis, rural

Subtitle

A Full Test of AI-Assisted OSM Tools

See also: Slides (7.2 MB)

Christopher Beddow is a data analyst working on products related to OpenStreetMap and Mapillary. He is part of the basemaps team at Meta, is a longtime contributor to OSM and Mapillary, and has a special interest in mapping pedestrian routes, rural areas, and mountainous regions. He is from Montana, USA and lives in a small town in Switzerland. Chris is a member of the Swiss OSM association and loves to ski, hike, and ride trains. He is open to collaboration on projects, talking maps over espresso/apero, and meeting mappers from around the world. Find him on twitter: @cbed32

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