Engineering Working Group

One of the foundation Working Groups, the Engineering Working Group assists and guides the community-driven development of OSM-related source code and tools. It is recognised that there is a steep learning curve and wide set of knowledge required to develop OSM software. The primary aim of this working group is to reduce those barriers by facilitating learning and helping new developers to join and participate in the OpenStreetMap development community.

This includes:

• Running events that help developers connect with people with ideas (e.g: designers, usability experts).
• Creating and maintaining resources to lower the barrier to entry into the OSM development community.
• Guiding the development process by suggesting priorities and setting goals.
• Providing assistance for Developer Events.

This does not include:

• Managing development resources such as servers (see Operations Working Group).
• Setting strategic direction (see Strategic Working Group).
• "Delivering" code to any time scale.

Typical activities

EWG typically acts as a technical forum, and meetings generally cover areas including:

• Review of patches / PRs and discussion of how to improve them.
• Improvements to documentation and other technical information.
• Knowledge sharing and technical problem-solving.
• Gathering feedback and building consensus on technical approaches.
• Finding ways to improve our knowledge of and build motivation of new contributors.
• Helping people run developer events by giving advice and financial assistance. See Developer Events for more information.

Thinking of joining?

Great! EWG is a completely open meeting on IRC, see #Meetings below for details. As much of the discussion is highly technical, it is highly beneficial to have a good background in programming and some experience of the OSM data model and technology stack. However, we welcome anyone who wants to help out - come along and see if it's a good fit for you.

Who we are

The EWG meetings are open to anyone who wants to attend, so there is no fixed membership. Based on those who attended the most meetings, the membership list would be:

• Matt Amos
• Paul Norman
• Kai Krueger
• Shaun McDonald
• Andy Allan
• Tom Hughes
• Ian Dees
• Richard Fairhurst

2013 Plan

Contact

You can get in touch with members of the EWG by attending a meeting, or by sending an email to "engineering at osmfoundation dot org".

Meetings

Meetings take place most Mondays at 17:30 UTC on the OFTC IRC channel #osm-ewg (Help on using IRC)

Minutes

Minutes for meetings (& IRC logs) in reverse chronological order:

2014

Minutes link	Topics / notes	Draft / Approved
17th November 2014		draft
10th November 2014	admin, osm2pgsql, website
3rd November 2014	osm2pgsql, routingjs
6th October 2014	osm2pgsql
29th September 2014	-
22nd September 2014	SOTM
15th September 2014	osm2pgsql docs
8th September 2014	SOTM, osm2pgsql
1st September 2014	-
18th August 2014	changeset comments, imagery blacklist
14th July 2014	API 0.7
7th July 2014	-
30th June 2014	API 0.7, bug reporting improvements
23rd June 2014	osm2pgsql, osm-carto, cgimap, API 0.7
16th June 2014	-
9th June 2014	"big resources"
2nd June 2014	-
26th May 2014	"big resources"
19th May 2014	"big resources"
12th May 2014	"big resources"
28th April 2014	OSM100, RANDA
4th April 2014	-
31st March 2014	-
24th March 2014	OWL, meeting admin
17th March 2014	meeting frequency
10th March 2014	DST, routing, EWG effectiveness
24th February 2014	hack weekend, GSoC, dev DB
17th February 2014	GSoC, osm2pgsql
10th February 2014	Routing
3rd February 2014	Routing
27th January 2014	Routing, blogs, osm2pgsql threading
20th January 2014	Routing, Groups
13th January 2014	hack weekend write-up, EWG contact email
6th January 2014	osm2pgsql threading, hack weekend write-up

2013

Minutes link	Topics / notes	Draft / Approved
16th December 2013	osm2pgsql threading, xmas
9th December 2013	hack events, osm2pgsql threading
2nd December 2013	hack weekend, user testing
25th November 2013
18th November 2013	redesign branch
11th November 2013	no meeting
4th November 2013	code4osm, hackdays, osm2pgsql
28th October 2013	hackdays, time change, osm2pgsql
21st October 2013	EWG remit, developer documentation
14th October 2013	Hack event funding, developer documentation
7th October 2013	2013 review, developer documentation
30th September 2013	Switch2OSM Carto, postgis dumps
23rd September 2013	Hackday retention
16th September 2013	Trac tickets, Rails 4
9th September 2013	JSON, issue trackers
19th August 2013	translations, switch2osm
12th August 2013	welcome branch
5th August 2013	continuous integration, MapUI issue
29th July 2013	API latency / consistency, continuous integration
22nd July 2013	carto, labelling issues, merge publicity
15th July 2013	low zoom tiles, rails_port docs, testing
8th July 2013	/changes deprecation, pgsnapshot cgimap backend
1st July 2013	rails_port install docs, /changes deprecation
24th June 2013	git practices, /changes, carto, hstore
17th June 2013	hackday retention, notes filtering
3rd June 2013	rails_port README, Carto, OWL, Routing
20th May 2013	rails_port README, Carto benchmarking
13th May 2013	rails_port README, Carto benchmarking
6th May 2013	help.osm.org i18n
29th April 2013	Carto style
22nd April 2013	osm2pgsql, READMEs
15th April 2013	Carto style, osm2pgsql
8th April 2013	re-writing rails_port in Go
1st April 2013	long lines rendering issue
25th March 2013	2013, role
25th February 2013	2013, role
18th February 2013	2013, role
11th February 2013	notes/bugs branch tickets
21st January 2013	Osm2pgsql dev
14th January 2013	Retrospective, development server
7th January 2013	Retrospective / Planning

2012

Minutes link	Topics / notes	Draft / Approved
17th December 2012	Getting started / documentation
10th December 2012	Getting started / documentation
3rd December 2012	Getting started / documentation
26th November 2012	Junior jobs / Getting started
19th November 2012	Notes/bugs branch
12th November 2012	Notes/bugs branch
5th November 2012	Vector tiles
29th October 2012	Clickable POIs and notes branch
22nd October 2012	TTT review continued
15th October 2012	TTT review continued
8th October 2012	TTT review
16th April 2012	license change, design
9th April 2012	license change, design
2nd April 2012	license change, design
26th March 2012	license change
12th March 2012	TTTs review
5th March 2012	TTTs review
27th Febuary 2012	UX, license change
20th Febuary 2012	routing, license change, coding standards
13th Febuary 2012	routing, license change, vector tiles
6th Febuary 2012	license change, routing
30th January 2012	review/catch-up, MT deputization
23rd January 2012	S2O
16th January 2012	S2O, TTTs review, patch processes
9th January 2012	TTTs feedback, clickable POIs
2nd January 2012	2012 plan review, TTTs feedback

2011

Minutes link	Topics / notes	Draft / Approved
26th December 2011	No meeting	-
19th December 2011	Budgeting continued: F2F, SOTM & hack weekends
12th December 2011	Incentives, budgeting, communicating TTTs
5th December 2011	No meeting	-
28th November 2011	Further setting goals & tasks
21st November 2011	Board requests, setting goals & tasks.
14th November 2011	Rails 3 PPA, promoting hack event
7th November 2011	Blocked apps page, Communicating
24th October 2011	DB schemas, IRC block tile
17th October 2011	Rails 3, talk-de feedback
10th October 2011	tile usage policy
3rd October 2011	Rails 3, barriers to tile rendering
26th September 2011	osm2pgsql bugs, ubuntu PPA
19th September 2011	piwik, planet.osm.org, build farm
5th September 2011	trace categories & new bugs page
29th August 2011	rails port install, trac tickets, workshops
22nd August 2011	Start-up meeting