open orienteering map

[madmike]

Have you tried it Andypat? I've planned half a dozen low key events with it without problems.

[Simon E]

This is something you need to try before you can really judge it. SLOW use it for their Street-O series in London through the winter regularly getting around 100 entries. HH have used OOM for the HARC evening series of races in St Albans, Hatfield and Harpenden. Here are some examples so you can get an idea of what is involved.

OOM Street-O map of Hatfield.
OOM Pseud-O map of Central St Albans

(I have just discovered that I can't post more than 3 URLs in a message. If you go to the Events Index link on the above page and the look at any of the HARC races you'll find some more examples.)

You can also read the article I wrote to describe what is involved in putting on an OOM event.

You need to accept that you aren't getting a 100% accurate map to IOF standards. What you are getting is a very easy way to put on a low-key event which is perfectly acceptable and enjoyable, and can help provide local events with minimum effort.

[Adrian]

Two of HOC's night street events last winter were on OpenStreetmap O-maps, including mine in West Bromwich: http://reentrant.wordpress.com/2010/11/ ... mwich-day/

It is indeed fantastic, but OpenStreetMap is a curate's egg. It took me two days to check one map, so it's labour-saving but definitely not labour-free. In some places too much work has been done, while in other areas not enough work has been done. For example, in the area around my house some eager soul has added all the back alleys, even though they're all gated and inaccessible, so at present the map isn't useable for this area. Meanwhile, go down into Worcestershire and you'll find towns that are half-finished.

[andypat]

Have you tried it Andypat? I've planned half a dozen low key events with it without problems.

Yes - I went on it straight away to look at the area I'm currently mapping for Urban/Sprint which has a 50/50 mix of housing estate and parkland. Neither map function seemed to have sufficient detail to me to make it that useful for my area.

I wonder if its better in Cities? I cant get back on today on my work laptop to check out some of the examples above but will do so.

I do think its a really good idea and hopefully can be built upon.

Edited to add:
I've had a look at the links now - I think maybe i've misunderstood Mrs H original point then (mind you it was a little vague ). I thought this was being touted as potential base map info for making ISSOM maps of urban areas, rather than as you guys have used it - a map in its own right. Its obviously perfectly fine for the latter as far as it goes - in fact newcomers might even find these maps easier to understand. But as a source of base info for creating ISSOM maps I think I'd find it lacking - at least in our area. There are more useful sources out there.

[FRBlackSheep]

It completely depends on what you are trying to achieve, if you are putting on a high level of Urban event of course the mapping is going to have to be to a greater level.

However the beauty and genius of this system is the ease of accessibility and use to quickly and easily produce interesting and fun courses/races with little manpower and time constraints.

A good example of this was the birthday BBQ held over the weekend by a SLOW member who produced a 12k 'trail' challenge using this technology, the race itself was fantastic and still led to a serious amount of map 'geeking' between the orienteering and non-orienteering guests alike. The OOM system meant that a quality standard of map was produced with control points marked easily and simply leading to a good informal race being held with ease, introducing non-orienteers into the 'fun' element of the sport.

In summary this system is perfect for informal events where the emphasis isn't on top quality mapping but on a fun interesting event.

(Oh and it was the inaccurate mapping of paths in the wood that led to me running an extra 2.5k and coming last, not my inability to navigate at all).