OpenStreetMap

Adam Franco

Mapper since:
February 18, 2008

Adam Franco is an active hobbyist mapper from Vermont, USA who enjoys mapping our highways and byways. Adam joined the board of the OSM-US foundation in February 2022 and is currently serving as Treasurer.

A software developer since 2002, Adam primarily focuses on web applications written in PHP, Javascript, and Python while also writing a smattering of software in other environments and languages. In the geography space, Adam is the author of the Curvature program, which analyzes the geometry of highways in the OpenStreetMap dataset to detect curves and ranks each segment based on how many curves there are. Curve detection by Curvature The highways are then filtered to include only the most twisty segments in the output. Additional filtering is done to exclude segments marked with surface tags that indicate that they are unpaved. The resulting highways are viewable in an in-browser map or color-coded KML/KMZ files that can be opened in GoogleEarth or other programs for viewing.

Initially getting into OpenStreetMap by adding road surface tags so that Curvature can better filter out dirt roads, Adam has gotten totally hooked and now finds himself improving the map in many ways, from adding trails and land-cover, tweaking road alignments, and more. :-)

When not creating virtual systems, Adam enjoys designing and creating things in the physical world — from wood furniture to photography. When his mind tires of the creative process, Adam focuses his energies on Aikido, dancing, cycling, motorcycling, skiing, and other out-of-door pursuits.

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