Christopher Beddow

"Symmetry is what this kind of mapping aims for: not mapping in a way such that the map is symmetrical to the world, but in a way that the map is symmetrical to what humans know about the world." #gischat #eochat #AugmentedReality #geodata worldbuilder.substack.com/p/the-fractal-…

Playmap.ch has been a cool project for me over the past month. I took a problem I have: OpenStreetMap apps alone don't let me instantly show playgrounds nearby. Nor toilets. Nor playgrounds with toilets, and BBQs. Now I want to expand it to map stuff parents need.

@shiri_shh I built playmap.ch as an easy way for parents to find playgrounds nearby with toilets and barbecues. Currently for Switzerland only but I am considering to make a global version with more amenities for families with kids. Would you use this?

what are you working on? Drop your product below ⬇️ I'll repost a few and help you get in front of more eyes.

@1Umairshaikh I have been working on playmap.ch a map of playgrounds around Switzerland Coming to Germany, Italy, and France soon. Anyone else want the map in their area too?

What are you building this week? Drop your project URL Let’s drive some traffic

@johnthu Awesome! I had some people ask about adding attributes and playgrounds but not familiar with OSM, so I am thinking about enabling submission directly on the website too then I can go add those from time to time or make notes.

@cbed32 As a father, I added several playgrounds around by.

Over the past few weeks I built playmap.ch which uses OpenStreetMap data to show playgrounds across Switzerland. Also uses OSM data on toilets, BBQ, opening hours, private access, and dogs allowed. I hope to launch in 🇩🇪🇮🇹🇫🇷 soon too and maybe more.

@mapeadora @OSMLatam Voy a intentar a asistir!

@cbed32 @OSMLatam 27-29/10/2026

¡Comunidad OSM Latam y del mundo entero, Ciudad de México y su Día de Muertos, les espera con muchísimo cariño y ansias por compartir y mapear juntos en comunidad! ¡Nos vemos en CDMX! #OSMLatam #SotMLatam2026 #OpenStreetMap #Mexico

@yohaniddawela My worry is: how is it useful? It greats non-ground truth. I wanted to do this but just make the landscape be snowy, rather than artificial high resolution. But even then it's risky for anyone to use for terrain reference and real decision making, even just for a casual walk

High-resolution satellite imagery is incredibly expensive to acquire. But there is a way to turn free, medium-resolution data into high-quality images using AI. ESA just released a framework to make this accessible to everyone:

Beaches, Trains, and Greece w/Spatial Data+ChatGPT -- how to find the best beach town reachable by train from Athens, with map data and AI. My latest writeup, and the links seem to work on here now! worldbuilder.substack.com/p/beaches-trai…

@andyyen @piotrmiecz Would you guys consider making a privacy focused Maps product? This could reduce risk of a lot of geo tracking of users across product suites that have calendars, chat, email, maps... I can pitch you my idea 😉

@piotrmiecz Nothing inherently "wrong" with the concept, I just would not trust the same government officials that are trying to introduce indiscriminate mass surveillance in Switzerland, with not using e-ID for mass surveillance, age verification, and other forms of digital control.

e-ID passed in Switzerland by around 20'000 votes. Had we emailed our users in Switzerland, NO could have won, but we didn't want to interfere with the democratic process. However, state-owned companies interfered by funding the YES campaign. Calls for a new vote are justifiable.

⏰Reminder! Final submissions for the Satellite Embedding Dataset Small Grants Program are due by September 30. Don't miss your chance to accelerate scientific inquiry and publication of Satellite Embedding use cases with a small grant! Apply here: bit.ly/3VwMXs5

@ProtonPrivacy @SD6Aslone Can we build Proton Maps here in Switzerland? I am up for it!

Proton offers a European, privacy-first stack: Swiss HQ, European hosting, end-to-end encryption, zero-access architecture, open source, easy migration. We're also proud supporters of the #EuroStack, because one of the best ways to defend European values is to invest in European companies. Learn more → proton.me/blog/eurostack… 5/5

Switzerland prides itself on independence, yet 68% of listed firms run on US email (the gateway to the whole tech stack). 🇨🇭 Independence is hard if your infrastructure is controlled abroad. Let’s talk about it 👇 1/5

@BerlinSoul @Death1nFire @allie__voss I think you are grossly misreading what I wrote haha. Very few Swiss speakers of German have competent French, and very few Swiss French speakers have competent German. Sorry that upsets you 😀

@cbed32 @Death1nFire @allie__voss very few Swiss people spoke German and French. The majority of Swiss are native speakers of Swiss German (62%) while 23% of Swiss people speak predominantly French. Are you telling me from your limited personal experience that those official national statistics are wrong?

It’s funny because this attitude is why so many European languages are dying They tell English speakers “do it perfectly or not at all” and English speakers go “Sure, fine, it was never necessary anyways I was trying to be polite” Enjoy your English and Arabic classes I guess

@BerlinSoul @Death1nFire @allie__voss I am not Swiss but I live there and people between regions very often use English as their common language, especially younger people. People travel more abroad than to other language regions they say. I know more French than most my Swiss German town does.

@cbed32 @Death1nFire @allie__voss 23% speak French as their 1st language. So either you’re not Swiss at all & just make stuff up. Or you’re Swiss and know nothing about your own country at all. Not sure which is worse…🤷‍♀️

@BerlinSoul @Death1nFire @allie__voss Swiss are rarely fluent in more than their own language and maybe English. Very few speak French and German.

@Death1nFire @allie__voss Language learning but they learn other languages instead. The Swiss, for instance are often fluent in German, French, Italian and English due to the country having the first three languages as official ones. In South Tyrol, a northern province of Italy, most people are bilingual

Something nice to realize about Europe, Japan, maybe a few more places is that train travel is very practical This makes travel for family visits or leisure or business much easier with young kids. It also facilitates tourism. More trains, everywhere please!

Check out my latest writing, about how things must be seem for the very first time in order to be mapped: substack-proxy.glitch.me/articles/open-…

@_fat_ugly_rat_ Check out @mapillary too! Crowdsourced and in some weird places Google doesn't reach sometimes, even if not all of perfect 360 hi def

And the fact its actually regularly updated in a lot of places is also insanely cool

If you think about it, Google Streetview is one of the absolute coolest things humans have ever created

Winterwonderland ❄️ in #Arosa. Im Schanfigg ist in den vergangenen 48 Std. ein guter halber Meter #Neuschnee gefallen. Im #Meteoblog lesen sie heute Abend eine Zusammenfassung der Schneelage in den Schweizer Alpen. 📷 baerenland.roundshot.com/#/

@markessien Many Swiss banks do this by default, it can take a few days, but you can pay a fee to do instant transfer

The solution for this - banks should have a "slow transfer" account. Any money money from there cannot instantly be shifted, but moves slowly for at last 7 days. This allows customers freeze it. Customers always informed via phone, sms, whatsapp once a slow transfer is done