It’s been a little while since I’ve posted, so I thought I’d distil some of the maps and activities I’ve been up to in the last few months into a neat little summary. For the latest, you can always follow our Facebook or Twitter pages.
Te Reo Māori Open Data
A big part of my Te Reo Māori mapping efforts has been the ongoing effort to populate OpenStreetMap (OSM) with as many Māori language names as possible across New Zealand. While the database has been open source and freely available to download from OSM, it’s not something everybody knows how to extract.
To make the data accessible, you can now download OSM extracts of Te Reo place names in shapefile format from my Open Data page, including place names, rivers, lakes and mountains.
Christchurch Shooting Proceeds
A big thank you to everyone who bought the Kia Kaha Christchurch heart decals. Thanks to your efforts, proceeds from their sale collectively raised $624.68 for Christchurch Shooting Victims! As the Givalittle fund had closed by the time the final figures came in, the amount was instead donated to the Our People, Our City Christchurch Foundation fund which also supports the victims.
While the decals were available for a limited time on the online store, they can still be bought from the Shopology store in Christchurch’s Arts Centre.
NZ State of Cartography Seminar
Earlier this year I was asked by the New Zealand Cartographic Society to contribute to New Zealand’s National Report to the International Cartographic Association (ICA). This was followed by a day of seminars hosted by the NZCS at the National Libary at the end of June, where I presented on what I’ve been up to since I started. There were some really awesome talks from other organisations who also contributed to the report, and it was great to catch up and meet new people attending. Bring on GeoCart 2020!
Otago Peninsula Map
Here’s my take on a vintage style tourism map of Dunedin and Otago Harbour, inspired by this Rotorua example.
Building Footprint Maps
LINZ recently released their awesome NZ Building Outlines dataset, which of course meant it was time to make some maps with them! Here’s a set showing Christchurch and Wellington:
#Maptime Christchurch
Anyone that’s been following me on Twitter might have seen me talk about the Maptime chapter that myself and a couple of others have set up. It’s a pretty casual meetup for map enthusiasts to discuss OpenStreetMap and open-source mapping, and to share our work, usually over a drink.
Follow the Christchurch MapTime Facebook page to keep up with our events!
What do you want to see?
As I move away from primarily doing private commissions, I want to instead focus my time on doing more fun and interesting maps.
What kind of maps do you want to see me create? Let me know via Twitter at @themapkiwi!
