GIS on your phone

Your smartphone can do GIS! This course teaches you how.

[you do need a smartphone - sorry!]

Android is preferred. All apps are free.

classes

1. take back your data!
2. download your Google Location History at Google Takeout
3. convert to GeoJSON
4. examine attributes, map
5. GPX art
6. go to geojson.io
7. digitize and download a vector layer that you will walk along in real life
8. get geopaparazzi
9. go outside
10. start recording GPS
11. walk the vector you digitized
12. stop recording GPS
13. export geojson from geopaparazzi
14. map both on CartoDB using torque
15. crowdsource streetview
16. get Mapillary
17. start taking photos
18. upload and check
19. understand OSM community expectations
20. community editing good practice
21. learn about how to use tags with taginfo and the wiki
22. basic rules 1. "Go outside and map!" 1. "be bold" - but . . . 1. "map what's on the ground" 1. only map what is verifiable 1. nothing that used to exist, only things that exist now 1. one feature per OSM element 1. if something changes, edit the geometry and/or attributes of an existing feature to reflect that change. 1. It is best to map in person with a GPS. Aerial imagery is often deceitful because . . .
    1. it may suffer from position error greater than that of GPS
    2. imagery is often old. The world changes and OSM should be up to date.
    3. building footprints have to be moved to the actual base of the building. In other words, compensate for the angle at which the imagery was captured.
23. MapGive - contribute to OpenStreetMap (not mobile)
24. take the iD editor tutorial
25. go to http://mapgive.state.gov/
26. select a project
27. use the HOT OSM tasking manager
28. OsmAnd or Vespucci - contribute to OpenStreetMap (mobile)
29. get OsmAnd ( or Vespucci )
30. go outside
31. contribute to OSM
32. offline web map tiles
33. OsmAnd ( offline tile download limit )
34. gvSIG mobile ( no download limit! )
35. get custom MBTiles on your phone!
36. get historical map or aerial photo of your area
37. georeference that map using control points in QGIS
38. use gdal2tiles.py on it to make a directory of web map tiles
39. use mbutil on output directory of tiles to make an MBTiles file
40. load MBTiles file into your phone and display in geopaparazzi
41. go outside and visit historical places using your custom web map tiles as context!
42. take photos of these places on Mapillary
43. contribute to OpenHistoricalMap!
44. load the MBTiles of a historical map or aerial photo you made earlier for geopaparazzi
45. open JOSM
46. install the MBTiles plugin
47. load your own MBTiles file into JOSM ( alternate method is to load image directly )
48. change the API connection parameter to http://www.openhistoricalmap.org/api/ so we contribute to openhistoricalmap.org
49. start digitizing features like roads and buildings and provide tags using your MBTiles for context ( can be as simple as building=yes )
50. upload changes to OpenHistoricalMap!
51. get custom SpatiaLite database into your phone!
52. in QGIS, convert the vector contributions you made to OpenHistoricalMap into a SpatiaLite database (just a single file with your layers!)
53. in geopaparazzi, load the MBTiles you made earlier of a historical map or aerial photo
54. in geopaparazzi, load the SpatiaLite database you just made of your OpenHistoricalMap contributions
55. go outside
56. as you explore, open Mapillary and take photos of places that have changed, for example buildings that are no longer there

Resources

mobile

• Mapillary
  • take geotagged photos to build an open source street view
• geopaparazzi
  • overlay your own . . .
    • MBTiles files
      • your own web maps!
    • GPX tracks
      • vector!
    • SpatiaLite layers
      • raster and vector in a SQL database!
    • or load a web map tile source by URL
      • but seriously you want to take advantage of that offline goodness
  • digitize!
  • take photos and notes!
    • but you should really be taking your photos with Mapillary
  • record GPX!
• MapBox
  • for iOS only - the Android one just displays web map tiles for now

on the web

• geojson.io
  • digitize vectors, upload, add attributes, and share
• MapBox
  • MapBox Studio - vector tile styling
  • TileMill - still awesome for making MBTiles files
• CartoDB
  • easiest possible way to make a web map
    • even animate with torque if you have a timestamp field
• uMap
  • easy web maps
• geocolor.io
  • like geojson.io but for choropleth maps
• OSRM
  • routing with OpenStreetMap

utils of awesome

• geojson-merge
  • exactly what it says. love that.
• geojson-join
  • join tables like CSV to geojson files
• mbutil
  • make MBTiles web map tiles from any raster
    • (with gdal2tiles.py)
• mapshaper
  • your topologically aware friend

reference

• mapschool.io
  • what's GIS? with pictures.
• mapmakers-cheatsheet
  • should I make a map? if so, how should I style it?
• epsg.io, epsg-registry
  • what's my projection? what projection should I use?
• simple open data
  • how to do open (geo) data
• semantic versioning
  • understand how to assign version numbers to your code and data

devices

• riffle
  • water monitoring in an old plastic bottle
• infragram
  • ground level remote sensing with a modded camera
• mapknitter
  • mosaic and orthorectify aerial photos you take!

The Importance of Being Social

( a trivial task for serious people )

• github
  • latest most awesome code
• twitter
  • latest news about all the coolest tools and people, and how and why they do their work

twitter handles to follow

• @Mapbox
• @mapillary

talks to pay attention to

• http://www.macwright.org/presentations/
• https://github.com/morganherlocker/talks