I was a contributor for OpenStreetMap for a long time, and I advocated for OpenStreetMap for a long time, but the project has stalled while the proprietary mapping world has continued to improve in data quality. For those of us who care about Free and Open data, this is a …

This last year has been a very difficult one for civil liberties and personal freedoms.

Donald Trump, the president-elect of the United States, has promised to round up and deport illegal immigrants as well as removing legal immigrants from the US. In addition, and more importantly, he's discussed creating a …

I don't write about politics much on this blog (in fact I haven't written anything in quite a while), but Free Software is something I care a great deal about, and so when I see something fishy and scandalous, I take interest, and that's exactly what's going on with the …

If you care about Free and Open Source Software, you probably think about ways to support the people who write the programs that you rely on. In this post, I'm going to tell you what I do, and what I hope others will do too. I call it the The …

A community mapping project in New York is showing how OpenStreetMap can not only show how mapping can help people navigate, it can shape how people perceive their city.

New York City contains hundreds of community gardens. These gardens represent the the hard work of thousands of New Yorkers coming …

Some feedback about my previous import post was regarding my contention that imported data is harder to maintain. This conclusion is based on years of observation. In this post, I'll explain why I believe imported data is not the same as manually mapped data in terms of maintenance.

The standard …

I'm into my fourth week of Esperanto and I thought I'd write some reflections on the process, the struggles and successes.

The Methods

My main method of learning Esperanto is the site lernu.net and its "Bildoj kaj demandoj" (Pictures and Questions) course. In addition, I've gotten some help from …

OpenStreetMap's goal is to map the entire world, so one might assume that anything that would help give the project a leg up would be welcome, but what many potential importers find is that the OSM community, in particular the more senior members, are hostile to imports. Understanding their strong …

This post is about why I fear French, and what my attempt at taking this problem on has taught me. This is one of the most personal blog posts I've made in several years, but in it are lessons for nearly everyone, especially if you are considering learning a second …

Reading the feedback from my Why The World Needs OSM post has been enlightening. One criticism of OSM that has come up multiple times is the concern about edit wars like those seen in Wikipedia. It's a topic that I know something about, both as a long time OSM contributor …