OSM 'Minutely' Tile Updates: Thanks CloudMade!
Another great OSM Mapping Party is underway in Tempe Arizona. Brandon of CloudMade came out to run the show, with local hosting by James Fee of RSP Architects. Coffee, pizza, libations, and Open Source GIS provided a great foundation for lively discussion on the practical and philosophical aspects that OpenStreetMaps provides.
Of particular interest was a question posed by a first time OSM'er, who wondered why we had to wait a week for the tiles to render, just to see the results of some type of experiment that we might be trying out in the digitization and attribution of features in the map. Well, no one could really give him a good answer other then, 'it's just the way it is'.
It appears though, that CloudMade has provided us with an answer just the other day. The Minutely Updated Tile Server is updated 'every minute from OpenStreetMap diffs'. The results can be seen below. The first image depicts the standard weekly update view while the bottom image depicts the minutely render. Note the presence of the additional buildings on ASU's Tempe Campus.
[caption id="attachment_241" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Above: OSM Weekly Update"]
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[caption id="attachment_242" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Above: CloudMade's Minutely Updated Tile Server for OSM"]
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Check out the full post from CloudMade's blog here: http://blog.cloudmade.com/2009/01/23/nearly-live-tiles/