OpenStreetMap

TuanIfan

Mapper since:
March 12, 2012

Hi my name Tuan (Tony) and I am part-time cartographer and a mapping nerd.

I live in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and work as a marketing assistant at a local Vietnamese newspaper. Work involves understanding the local marketing, so I can apply a bit of my mapping skills into my tasks and make it easier.

I have been an OSM contributor for 7 years and I am a crazy mapper.

Why do I love OSM and mapping?

  • I have a passion for maps since my childhood, and I could spend hours “reading” a map. Printed maps and large heavy atlas books were my close friends at home.

  • I came to OSM in 2012, after a few weeks of contributing to Google maps in its Mapmaker project. I was pissed off my the negative attitude of moderators in the Vietnam group. OSM was different and welcoming, and contributor-friendly.

  • Thanks to Potlatch 2 and OSM Wiki, I have learned more about the mapping language and basics of it.

  • an OSM Mapper in Melbourne recommended JOSM to me in 2013, and since then I have used it more than iD.

  • Since I began mapping particular localities (by enriching the area’s map), I had to browse through various books and historical resources to gain understanding of the area. Therefore I have a chance to learn the region’s history and cultures.

Mapping activities:

  • I contribute to OpenStreetMap in my free time, usually when I am home or at weekends.

  • Sometimes I go out to do survey where I add points of interests (POIs) into the map.

  • Other times, I stay home or in library, drawing roads and adding facilities into the maps.

Main objectives:

  • Never leave a town, city or place without streets

  • Drawing streets is not enough, make it “living” by enriching it

  • Mapping is art and passion and a hobby.

  • Mapping helps save the world, as HOTOSM.org has shown.

  • A cartographer is a person who makes rich and beautiful maps which can be applied by many people to gain knowledge and benefit their lives and work.

Main tasks in ENRICHING a map:

I believe a map with streets is not enough. It should be enriched in the following way:

  • adding amenities : schools, hospitals, city council or local government offices,

  • natural features : parks, mountains, and lakes and rivers

  • draw buildings for main facilities : hospitals, schools and government councils and public buildings.

  • draw administrative boundaries.

  • Name everything you draw.

Current concentration:

  • Hà Nội : adding amenities and buildings around the urban districts (the core urban districts) of Hà Nội, Government Centre, Hanoi Old Citadel, Old Quarters and surrounding districts

  • adding multilingual names localities, amenities and roads in Chinese, Indonesian and Russian (when I cannot use a computer).

Past concentrations:

VIETNAM

AUSTRALIA

Platforms:

  • JOSM: mainly.
  • Go Map!!
  • iD: rarely do I use it.
  • OSMAND : for viewing map in many languages and seeing contours.

Rankings:

Education

  • I have a master’s degree at The University of Melbourne
  • Major : International Relations
  • Additional language study : Bahasa Indonesia

Location & Contact

Feel free to connect with me, and catch up for a beer or coffee anywhere. And yes, add my Facebook for better communication.