User:JaimeLyn/Historical OpenStreetMap

DRAFT - WORK IN PROGRESS

Historical OpenStreetMap

 * Public URL: Proposal on GitHub
 * Bugzilla report: 62257
 * Announcement: Wikitech Mailinglist Archive

Name and contact information

 * Name: Jaime Lyn Schatz
 * Email: jaimelynschatz@gmail.com
 * IRC or IM networks/handle(s): jlschatz, @edupunkn00b (twitter) and JaimeLynSchatz on Github
 * Location: Redmond, WA, US
 * Typical working hours: 7am - 3pm (UTC-7/PDT)

Synopsis
The Wikimaps project seeks to draw together data from the OpenStreetMap and OpenHistoricalMaps projects to enable users to view maps backward through the 4th dimension: time. (Allowing users to view maps that reach forward in the 4th dimension is, sadly, out of the scope of this project. ;)


 * Possible mentors: Robert Warren

Deliverables
The Wikimaps project seeks to draw together data from the OpenStreetMap and OpenHistoricalMaps projects to enable users to view maps backward through the 4th dimension: time. (Allowing users to view maps that reach forward in the 4th dimension is, sadly, out of the scope of this project. ;)

The entire project has three main modules:

1. Enhance the iD and The_Rails_Port so that a javascript time/date slider can be added to control the time period that is of interest.

2. Enhance the ID and The_Rails_Port so that meta-data hooks are added to the code that allow for custom deployments of both software. The intent is to support their use as dedicated user interfaces to certain applications (such as medieval walking path editing) while still using a generic data source.

3. Modify the Mapnik tile renderer to handle Key:start_date and Key:end_date.

As a summer intern, I hope to work with the team to accomplish the following:

May 18 - May 24:     Investigation: Get up to speed on the current state of the iD and The_Rails_Port system

May 25 - May 31:      Begin a MVP (minimal viable product) of the time slider to ensure I'm on the right track, begin testing and integrating the time slider

June 1 - June 7:      Finish testing/integrating the time slider

June 8 - June 14:     Investigation: explore what kind of meta-data hooks will be needed to tease out the generic parts of the mapping systems

June 15 - June 21:    Start the actual enhancement

June 22 - June 27:    Planned SNAFU-fixing time, Midterm deadline June 27

June 28 - July 5:     Finish the enhancements and test the system (preferably with a local area for a reality check)

July 6 - July 12:     Finish testing and fixing broken bits

July 13 - July 19:    Planned SNAFU-fixing time

July 20 - July 26:    Introduce new start and end date keys to the Mapnik tile renderer

July 27 - August 2:   Continue integrating the keys, testing

August 3 - August 10: Testing and fixing broken bits

August 11 - August 17: Suggested pencils down, final i-dotting and t-crossing, submit report.

August 18:            Final pencils down, make plans for continued contributions

This time-breakout needs further input from the potential mentors on the project.

About you
I am an independent learner, studying software development. I first came across Wikidata while looking into possible projects for the FOSS OPW. This is actually the third time that I've looked into the FOSS OPW. I gave up on my previous attempts due to the difficulty in know where to start. (I also gave up on my sad little Windows computer but for that backstory, see my entries for last October on my blog. ;) ) There are some amazing resources out there to guide people new to Wikidata, but they can be difficult to navigate and I kept finding myself clicking in circles on the site.

I have a BA in Political Science and Economics from the City University of New York, Brooklyn College. I wanted to become a lawyer and change the world. And then I grew up. But the desire to make a big impact never left me. The main tagline of the Wikimedia Foundation, "We believe that knowledge should be free for every human being" sounds like it came straight from my own heart. (From my heart and from Shira's hacktivist mother in "He, She and It".) I want to help make that knowledge free and accessible to all.

Participation
GitHub is my homepage on my computer. It's where I stash my code and I'm learning how to use Gists and other features there to be a complete workplace for my open source/learning. I plan to use it for all of my work this summer (in fact I'm using it for this application, as well. Hence the Markdown oddities from time to time. ;) ) I'm also excited at the chance to learn other source/workflow control systems (Gerrit, etc) and will adopt whichever system the group uses.

I'm still a total n00b on irc, but I'm using the tutorials and man pages online to get up to speed. I expect it to be very useful when I have project-specific questions this summer. I'm also a heavy lurker on StackOverflow. I haven't yet been brave enough to actually ask a question there, but I have found lots of great information from searching the archives of questions. I've also done a little editing when grammar issues in questions have made them difficult to parse.

Past open source experience
I'm just getting started in making contributions, but I've helped a bit with documentation for a few educational resources:

JumpStartLabs Curriculum

Git Project from Library Code Year

Ada Developers Academy Lesson Planning Pages

I also participated in a recent Test the Web Forward event where I contributed tests for cross-browser compatibility of the ECMAScript (JavaScript) specification: TC39 Working Group Open Pull Requests from JaimeLynSchatz

Regretably, TC39 is on the fence about IP for the contributions generated at that event. See lawyer note above ;).