In+ersec+ion for Spatial People

Modelling our world in 3D gets more and more important within the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project. There are several people in the community trying to push forward this development. A major problem is that OSM was not really designed for complex 3D modelling. The node/way/relation + tags based data model does not allow for complicated 3D modelling. Therefore, the community agreed to make use of external repositories containing more complex data which can be linked to OSM.

OpenBuildingModels is such a repository for complex architectural 3D building models. It is free-to-use and aims to improve crowdsourced 3D city models. Anyone can up- or download the models. They can be referenced in OSM and appear on the OSM-3D globe. A first beta version of the web platform is now online and models can be uploaded.

More info:
http://openbuildingmodels.uni-hd.de
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OpenBuildingModels
http://www.osm-3d.org

Despite being on April Fool's day, this is real recent geospatial open source / open data news.

We mentioned a few times efforts related to OpenStreetMap in 3D, now the OpenGeoData blog shares news about the new major version of OSM.globe and OSM-3D: "The "osm.globe" combines the free geodata from OpenStreetMap with digital elevation models offering a global interactive 3D experience made completely from free or crowdsourced geodata. [...] It is now also possible to drape different OSM maps or satellite imagery onto the elevation model. Further the 3D globe now can be integrated into a web-site as Java applet (featuring a JavaScript API), as well as Java Webstart application or users can download and install it as Java Desktop application."

If you're like me, you'll want to take a look at the OSM-3D screenshots and maybe the videos too.

In other news:

• APB mentions the possibility that ESRI open sources the File Geodatabase API
• Here's an entry on converting a GeoTIFF color palette to the Symbology Encoding standard
• Here's an entry on OpenStreetMap and transportation
• The City of Montreal is getting ready to open its data [in French], including geospatial datasets
• The FGT blog discusses the geo-related services in the open source Data Science Toolkit
• Here's a FAQ on the integration of MapGuide Open Source and Google Maps and part 2 of the Maestro 3.0 walkthrough
• Via mapperz, if you're looking for some April Fool's fun, take a look at OpenWhateverMap.org