Hello, all! I just found out about openstreetmap.org yesterday, and I can see a huge potential for its use in Dubai. The construction happens so rapidly here that any map you actually purchase becomes obsolete in around 3 months. The problem usually is that you see a discrepancy in what the map shows and whatās actually there, so you can say āOh, I hope they come out with a new mapā¦ā OR you can log in to open street map and change it yourself. Fantastic!
Tonight I purchased a bluetooth GPS device and Iāve been mapping my neighborhood for starters. Iām finding this project to be very fun to contribute to, especially since I get great data when I actually leave the house! The GPS wasnāt expensive and itās actually really really accurate.
Are there any areas in Dubai anyone would like to see traces of, or any type of amenity? Bus stops are definitely on my list, but is there anything else? Requests please!
Spent the last few hours figuring out PathAway for Windows Mobileā¦ it isnāt without its problems, but itās a seriously complex piece of software. Managed to export openstreetmap images and calibrate them. Good times! Going Geocaching tomorrow to blow off some steam and have a good time in a HUGE park I havenāt had the ātimeā to visit in the 5 years Iāve been here.
p.s.
Thanks to everyone whoās created the Dubai maps via satellite images. Itās off the shoulders of giants that I fill in the missing piecesā¦
Welcome, nice to see you are so enthusiastic! Be careful not to fall victim to OSMCMD (OpenStreetMap Compulsive Mapping Disorder)
Regarding mapping, just map the things you like to map. I find that āruleā important to keep interested in the project But I guess that gathering streetnames for the streets who were mapped through satellite imagery is very valuableā¦
Gathering street names is an excellent idea, however, Dubai is in the middle of a numbering/naming changeover at the moment. We donāt even have postal addresses, which is why everyone here has a PO box. No mail delivery to your home.
Thanks for the encouragement. Itās hard to describe why merely mapping the street shapes is so important here. Check out Al Barsha 1 after Tuesday if you want to see what I mean.
Iāve been in this neighborhood for 5 years, but due to construction, everything is always new. Crazy stuff you find when you can trace where you are. Openstreetmap is a good place to store the changes for my personal mapping, just to help myself get around, and as a side effect, everyone gets the map.
Hi msghmr: If your taking requests then a complete map of āthe worldā would be great to see! in any form!..maybe a kayak is needed? More realistically, the area around Burj Dubai will probably be highly valued, as I imagine this will attract huge amounts of people. (Iām not sure of itās location, so it may already be a mapped?)
Mapping the coastlines of the world on Kayak has been my secret mission all alongā¦ Kayaking quietly ~50cm from the coastline has itās advantages in the summer.
hi, iāve recently attended an OpenStreetMap event in Beirut. I am based in Dubai and look forward to contributing to this vibe. I might have made a mistake of deleting a street while adding info today, that was in the jumeira area. apologies, a new learnerās mistake.
have started a facebook OpenStreetMap UAE group. i look forward to meeting at some point to share some of our ways of approaching the map and to consolidate our efforts.
working on the burj dubai area tooā¦