If you’re interested, come and help us create the best and most-up-to-date free and open map of Marikina City! It will happen this Saturday, March 20. Go to the event page at the OpenStreetMap Wiki to learn more or RSVP at the Facebook event page. See you there!

OpenStreetMap is not all about producing maps, it is also about producing accurate geodata, which can be used in applications such as routing. The image above shows a calculated route from CloudMade traversing both elevated U-turn roads at the C-5–Kalayaan interchange. These elevated U-turn roads are the first in the country and OpenStreetMap is the first map to accurately model them.

As a follow-up to the previous post, this week’s Featured image is the map of San Pablo City. This Laguna city has been mapped almost single-handedly by Ian Lopez with not much more than a GPS device (thanks to the GPStogo program). This shows that you can map even without high-resolution satellite imagery.

One of our prolific—and youngest—mappers is Ian Lopez of San Pablo, Laguna and he is studying in the University of the Philippines, Los Baños. With a unit from the GPStogo program he has made San Pablo and Los Baños one of the best-mapped places in OpenStreetMap! Almost all of the GPS traces you will see in the animation above is his work.

Check out this interview of Ian to know more about him.

Last Saturday, March 20, Maning, Rally, and I went to FEATI University to give a workshop about OpenStreetMap to the Students’ Association of Geodetic Engineering (SAGE). We were invited by Sorbi, a Geodetic Engineering student of the said university and an admirer of the OpenStreetMap project. He thought that presenting OSM to his fellow students and orgmates would provide an interesting counterpoint to all the geodetic engineering lessons they are studying.

Read more at my blog or view more pictures from the workshop in Flickr.

Shown above is the Pseud-O style OpenOrienteeringMap rendering of Ayala Center, Makati showing fine detail in the building shapes.

Interested to join? Join the talk-ph mailing list and signify your interest.

The City Government of Marikina encourages cycling as an alternative mode of transportation within the city. For this week’s featured image, we have a map where bike routes are highlighted on OpenCycleMap. And for Valentine’s Day, go biking: it’s good for the heart!

In the wake of any natural disaster, easily- and fast-obtainable mapping data is a must for assessing the situation, and coordinating rescue and relief activities and rehabilitation. After Typhoon Ondoy struck the Philipines, MapAction sprung to action producing situation maps. Some of these maps, like the one above showing depth of flooding, uses OSM road data.

Metro Manila (and surrounding areas) far and away remains the most active area in terms of OpenStreetMap editing in the Philippines. This image shows the editing activity over the course of the past 12 months created via ITO World’s OSM Mapper. Brighter areas show more recent activity.