As of this year, since I am living further from campus, I have started riding my bicycle to school, which means sticking to designated bicycle riding areas (i.e., not Bruin Walk) if I don’t want to get a ticket, but also finding spots to lock up my bike. Surprisingly, this can be difficult, especially when you are not thinking clearly because this will be the third time you are late to work this week or because you slept through your alarm and want to catch at least the last five minutes of discussion so you can get marked for attendance. Not that either of those have ever happened to me. While reading “Anatomy of a Web Map” and Jim Detwiler’s “Introduction to Web Mapping,” I was dying to see if there would be any online interactive maps that would revolutionize my life completely introduced. Well, this isn’t completely true, but I checked out OpenStreetMap and was thoroughly impressed with the site. OpenStreetMap allows users full control, much like Wikipedia, to edit the content on the site. I registered with the site (which is for free), and allowed the site to find my location (hopefully you all are okay with this too), and boom. Of course at first it just looks like your average web map, but it is user friendly, not only in navigation, but also in the data that it presents. Different landmarks, buildings, and fields are labeled with appropriate symbols; pedestrian walkways are also distinct from roads. Sure, most of this information can be shown on other web maps, but then I saw the bicycle symbol for bicycle parking. Victory! Finally, a resource where I can locate bicycle parking spots for my convenience so I never have to worry about finding a spot to lock my bike when I only have five minutes to get to class or work and waiting for the elevator always takes at least four. What this really means is that a map like this is open to possibilities. Take a look at Wikipedia. You can find information you never even knew existed in a simple search and click of a button. Professors may not like it when you cite Wikipedia, but it definitely more often than not points you in a great direction, whether this is by providing resources or simply making you think in a certain way. Just like Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap has the same possibilities since it is ran by the users. Unlike other public API maps, this map can be some personalized and humanized that it could even help you find the nearest toilet. This would require a smart phone app, which probably already exists, but this is not the point, it is the principle. This map could be a great tool for tourism: tourists would be able to know all the hidden gems and lore of where ever they go, as long as users took time to contribute. I will take stand and do my part, starting with bicycle parking spots. Will you?
Take a look here at an ATM point; also notice the bike symbols, and how many people have edited it (bottom left corner)