CodeAcross 2015 (Part 2) Louisville, KY

Part 2 of our CodeAcross 2015 event is Saturday, March 21st!

Let's continue the work we began and load more addresses and buildings into Open Street Map for the American Printing House for the Blind!

• Read our Detailed Blog Writeup

We loaded about 1/6 of the data in the city (http://tasks.openstreetmap.us/job/50) since our Feb 21 and have continued working to load 25% of it. The data is already helping visually impared folks around the city!

See what they have to say:

"This is simply amazing that it shows up so quickly. I am amazed to see the power of CDA and what a group of dedicated people can actually accomplish. It is amazing how much actually got done in one day. We can easily tell!" - Larry at APH

"I'm amazed! I was testing on a bus around the time the CDA added the data north of Brownsboro Rd, and when it showed up, I thought I was running the wrong build of our app. Should have checked my email before trying to confirm I was running the right build!" - Rob @ APH

Help us finish the job!

Learn from our previous volunteers who didn't know what they were doing, and now can help you learn mapping!

For this event, loading addresses and buildings for APH, there is actually zero programming needed. All you need is a laptop, following written and spoken instructions, and an attention to detail. Any other skills are just a bonus.

Get started now!

Preload and config your laptop with the tools you need for Saturday.

Complete item #2 How to Start in our Contributor Guide (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Louisville,_Kentucky/Building_Outlines_Import/Contributor_Guide#How_to_start) right now. You can do this for your neighborhood!

Expect a day of learning, writing, programming, design, mapping, and collaboration related to Louisville building and address data. We can use your help and have things for you to do regardless of your skillsets and background!

Food will be provided and the event will be free. RSVP now since space is limited.

More Background

Louisville's American Printing House for the Blind (http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aph.org%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFwFsoJJSCIMui-nA4_RTjhokw0Bg) is an international institutuion. Using open data, they have created an app that helps blind and visually impaired people navigate cities safely!

APH uses Open Street Map (http://www.openstreetmap.org/) (OSM) standardized layer data to import into their app. They load data into OSM from open data portals that have an open data license. The app uses audio to announce important locations as visually impaired people walk around.

Right now they either don't have, or have to pay for, good data about buildings, street addresses, parcels, sewer drains, manholes, power poles, parking meters, and street crossings.

The app is called Nearby Explorer (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.aph.avigenie) and is a $99 Andoid App.

With the data they can 1) improve walking and driving safety of visually impaired people, 2) possilby charge less for the app, 3) serve as a model for other US city's open data, thereby increasing their coverage area.

The CDA (http://www.civicdataalliance.org/) has volunteered to help APH work with OSM to import the data properly (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Louisville,_Kentucky/Building_Outlines_Import), a process that is both technical and bureaucratic (mass data imports need much coordination with the OSM community (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Guidelines#Discuss_import_with_community)). We also want to host Code for America's national Code Across hackathon (http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.codeforamerica.org%2Fevents%2Fcodeacross-2015%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNFc0eTLyAC6VDrkJxoFn7Pc08__ZQ) February 21 at the APH facilities and make it the focus of Louisville's Code Across event (http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.meetup.com%2FLouisville-Civic-Data-Alliance%2Fevents%2F219829803%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNE0X_LftGSLB7E1Urrew4hyFP2LOA).

Additionally, if successful, APH employees are happy to speak this summer at the national Code for America Summit (http://www.codeforamerica.org/summit/) and share this great open data success for APH, Louisville, and the CDA!

We could use your help! Thanks. Keep up to date and help with the prep work over at our forum (http://www.civicdataalliance.org/forum/?place=msg%2Fcivicdataalliance%2FJDkgh-uc2so%2FFoQZuypzZZEJ).