Open Street Mapping (OSM) Party Karura Forest

luchiri@upande.com — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:33:02 +0100

Having been involved on the technical aspects of project mapKibera last year, it was a good opportunity for Upande to get involved in some actual ground work, data collection. Last year Mapkibera group led by Mikel Maron, managed to comb Kibera in a combined 5 days. The product was a detailed up to date map of Kibera from entire road network, water points, schools, community centres, to the locals’ favourite pint dens.

Organizers and partners

The Map Kibera team led by MRead More...

Geoweb Developers needed

mark@deblois.nl — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:12:58 +0100

Upande is currently looking for an experienced geoweb developer. Someone to help us build high quality geoweb applications. We use the latest technology to create applications of outstanding quality. The ideal candidate must be able to work independently and translate the customer’s wishes into a range of available geoweb applications built on several architectures.

Qualifications and experience:
* A higher professional or university education in GIS, Geography or ICT
*Read More...

Mapping Karura Forest

mark@deblois.nl — Sat, 22 May 2010 15:11:19 +0100

Karura Forest has had many negative associations with many Kenyans in the past, due to crime, killings and disappearance of people there in the past. As a result of this, Karura Forest is an area 'off bounds' for many people, despite the unique forest that it is with many indigenous plant and tree species, as well as a wide variety of birds monkeys and other mammals which Professor Wangari Maathai of the Green Belt Movement played a key role in saving.

Hopefully this limited accesRead More...

Mobile Web East Africa 2010

luchiri@upande.com — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:29:01 +0100

I got the pleasure to represent Upande at the Mobile Web East Africa, 2010 Seminar; held on the 3rd and 4th of February.

Though meant to be an East African affair, I couldn’t help but notice the absence of our neighbours’. I.e. Rwanda, a fast growing ICT country, Uganda, Burundi and Tanzania and the heavy presence of South African presentations (probably due to MWA09).

Web programmers needed

mark@deblois.nl — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 06:32:55 +0100

Upande is currently looking for an experienced web developer. Someone to help us build high quality web applications. We use the latest technology to create applications of outstanding quality. The ideal candidate must be able to work independently and translate the customer’s wishes into a web application.

It is important that you feel comfortable in a small company with an informal atmosphere and friendly colleagues and that you enjoy keeping tabs on the latest technological deRead More...

MapMaker vs OSM

mark@deblois.nl — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:46:44 +0100

In a previous post on Upande.com, OSM technology used in MapKibera.org was described. One may wonder how the OSM model compares to Google MapMaker which is Google's 'editable Google Maps', and of which all vectors can also be downloaded for free for non commercial use.

OSM differs in the fact that it is mainly built up with GPS on the ground by local experts. This is more accurate though also more time consuming than tracing on top of satellite imagery, which is characteristic of GoogleRead More...

MapKibera

luchiri@upande.com — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:07:14 +0100

MapKibera.org is an initiative by OpenStreetMap's Mikel Maron and Jubal Harpster to map East Africa's biggest informal Settlement in detail. One of the partners is JumpStart who supports social development through strengthening infrastructure and institutions critical to creating employment opportunities and encouraging the development of private enterprise. Their goal is to work with local communities to implement employment, training, and programs that provide working opportunities and promRead More...

Fusion Tables now supports polygons and lines too

mark@deblois.nl — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:15:24 +0100

Online databases such as MySQL and PostgreSQL are very popular for storing large amounts of data online, including geometry fields for storing points, lines and areas. Google has recently launched an online database like product called Fusion Tables which allows one to store large amounts of data in the cloud, analyse the data, link it to other tables, etc. Some really powerful features include viewing the data on a map, charting, views, and export to KML for integration with map products. UnRead More...

Google Maps has directions for Kenya

mark@deblois.nl — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:48:25 +0100

Google Maps has had good coverage for large urban areas in Kenya for about 1,5 years now, with content improving every few months. Although I have not seen it announced anywhere yet, Google Maps for Kenya now has driving directions enabled. This means one is able to determine the shortest distance for example from A to B, say Nairobi to Mombasa. Well there is only one way to drive to the coast from Nairobi isn't there?! So how about going across town, say from UN to Kilimani? The result is noRead More...

MapKibera

mark@deblois.nl — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:00:00 +0100

Mikel Maron, one of the board members of the Open Streetmap Foundation who is heading the MapKibera.org initiative, has asked me to speak to the big team tomorrow who are carrying out the actual mapping work in Kibera at the moment. Mikel did a great presentation on the work so far at the Break Away event last Saturday, where I was also speaking. I am looking forward to interacting with their exciting work, which is unique globally and which also relates to some of the UN-Habitat work I am doingRead More...

Speaking at The Break Away event

mark@deblois.nl — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:33:07 +0100

Upande is going to be present at the Break Away event at the Nairobi National Museum this Saturday. Tonee has been kind enough to ask me to speak, which is a great honour and very exciting of course. The theme is to 'Harness the Internet and DO YOUR THING', with a focus on web, mobile and e-commerce. I am still grappling with the catch phrase somewhat, but ideas are starting to bubble. Looking forward to Saturday!

For those interested, the slides I used can be accessed here.

&nbsRead More...

AfricaGIS

mark@deblois.nl — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:52:39 +0100

AfricaGIS is the biannual conference for everyone involved in the world of GIS in Africa. I am attending the conference on behalf of UN-Habitat, particularly looking to build relationships with current and new partners, to get the latest on technological advancements, particularly Google mapping technology. There are some exciting things coming up I believe which I will blog about through this platform. I will also try to blog about other interesting announcements, developments, etc. from the Read More...

Welcome to Upande.com!

mark@deblois.nl — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:00:00 +0100

I have the pleasure of announcing upande.com which offers services and consultancies in interactive web mapping, GIS and ICT, with a strong focus on their use in the African context.

Through this website we will initially only be blogging about everything related to this field of work, recent developments and opportunities, as well as sharing interesting and powerful use cases which will hopefully inspire others.

Google's geo products such as Maps, Earth and Map Maker will fRead More...

Blog entries

Open Street Mapping (OSM) Party Karura Forest

Geoweb Developers needed

Mapping Karura Forest

Mobile Web East Africa 2010

Web programmers needed

MapMaker vs OSM

MapKibera

Fusion Tables now supports polygons and lines too

Google Maps has directions for Kenya

MapKibera

Speaking at The Break Away event

AfricaGIS

Welcome to Upande.com!