Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) Maps

Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) Maps are like Google Maps but better, for schools especially, as they work offline (including satellite photos!) and avoid all the advertising.

INVITATION: If you can help ongoing efforts to polish maps for children in offline schools in all countries, directly contributing to beautifying OpenStreetMap (VIDEO) thereby bringing Earth to life for all, please get in touch below.

  1. IIAB Map Packs use vector (not bitmap) techniques to display attractive, high-resolution maps for your continent — or similar regions: (most are 6-to-30 GB, older Map Packs at [1] [2] [3])

    Every IIAB Map Pack includes:

  2. IIAB Maps also offer High Resolution Satellite Photo Regions, letting you add 4 more levels of zoom (up to zoom level 13, offering pixel resolution of approximately 19 x 19 m) within as many square regions (100x100 km, 300x300 km, or 1000x1000 km) as your community finds useful. Also from Sentinel.

    That’s a 16X improvement in linear resolution — which is a 256X improvement in photographic information density!

  3. IIAB Maps let you Search Worldwide for cities/towns/settlements that have more than 1000 people (127,654 are included).

Please see the README just below for more on the state-of-the-art as of May 2022, for IIAB 8.0. For nuts & bolts details as to how this came together, see these sections below: How do I upgrade an IIAB Map Pack?, Where are IIAB Maps stored?, What might future IIAB Maps bring?, Credits, Software (Source Code) and Links & Advanced Topics.

What’s New with IIAB Maps?

Please see the new IIAB Maps README accompanying IIAB 8.0.

How do I install Map Pack(s) and Satellite Photo Region(s) on IIAB 8.0+ ?

  1. If you have not yet done so, install Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) 8.0+ (a pre-release is fine!) from https://download.iiab.io

  2. OPTION A: Skip all details below, and just install a continent/region!

    OPTION B: Continue following all steps below — if you prefer a deeper understanding…

  3. Browse to your IIAB home page (typically http://box or http://box.lan) and click on Install IIAB Maps (typically that’s http://box/osm-vector-maps/installer/) to choose the Map Pack you want — and then later any Hi-Res Satellite Photos Region(s) needed by local communities.

  4. Follow the visual instructions — example screenshot: Screenshot

  5. Copy and Paste the gray line into your IIAB Terminal:

  6. Keep an eye on the downloading progress at the command-line there, every now and then, to make sure it’s moving along.

  7. Here’s a working example of IIAB Maps in action, so you know roughly what to look forward to: http://iiab.me/maps

  8. Help your local community, students and teachers put geographic literacy (http://box/maps) to work — for their environment and their lives:

    1. Sit down with them to explore the Map Pack(s) and Hi-Res Satellite Photos Region(s) you’ve arranged.
    2. Learn together how to search for any city or town worldwide.
    3. Drag-and-Drop Map Overlays (any relevant GeoJSON file) onto the map in your browser. For example download then try this GeoJSON file, to explore the shape of gerrymandered US Congressional districts: https://eric.clst.org/assets/wiki/uploads/Stuff/gz_2010_us_500_11_20m.json
    4. Ask students to take photos that matter to them in their community — then Right-Click on the map (http://box/maps) to add those photos and descriptions to the map. Choose “Add Data Point” after right-clicking, and then later “Export Points” to share with others.

How do I upgrade an IIAB Map Pack?

Upgrading is not supported — please install IIAB 8.0+ if you want new maps!

ADVANCED: if you want to understand how IIAB Maps are evolving in 2022, keep an eye on:

Finally, if you can help contribute to this important community effort, please do contact us so we can explain more!

In the weeks/months after installing your IIAB Map Pack, you might notice that a new Map Pack is published, e.g. if you monitor this “map catalog” link showing the latest available:

- http://download.iiab.io/content/OSM/vector-tiles/map-catalog.json

See also recent copies of our map catalog (map-catalog.son) within subdirectories like 2020-08-10 here:

- https://github.com/iiab/maps/blob/master/public/

IIAB Maps is beginning to move to “perma_ref” names (see /etc/iiab/map-catalog.json and /etc/iiab/regions.json on your IIAB, with symlinks in /library/www/html/common/assets/) to allow you to upgrade Map Packs more automagically in future.

Note that IIAB Map Packs changed from the .zip format to the .mbtiles format in 2020, as part of the IIAB 7.2 release, so we are in transition, please stay tuned!

_2020-10-12: For a preview of upcoming map catalog changes, see PR iiab/maps#41 and https://github.com/georgejhunt/maps/blob/addbase/public/2020-10-06/modify_catalog.py.

Where are IIAB Maps stored?

IIAB Map Packs (.mbtiles files) are usually published in several places, as outlined here:

After you’ve downloaded and installed a Map Pack (How do I install Map Pack(s) and Satellite Photo Region(s) on IIAB 8.0+ ?) its 3 files (hi-res vector maps for the “continent” in question, lo-res vector maps = 2.0 GB osm-planet_z0-z10_2020.mbtiles, lo-res satellite photos = 1.2 GB satellite_z0-z9_2020.mbtiles) will be stored in this directory:

In the past (i.e. up to IIAB 7.1) Map Packs contain both program and data, and were unzipped into a subdirectory of:

An example (generally containing many gigabytes!) would have been:

If you too are a map hacker interested in contributing, please contact us, so we can explain more.

Customizations

  1. Anyone who browses to http://box/maps generally sees the continent/region most recently installed — centered in their browser — at a zoom level suitable for that continent/region.

    If you want to re-center this initial viewport browser experience for all users (e.g. to a different latitude/longitude, and/or to a different zoom level) you can edit this file:

    /library/www/osm-vector-maps/viewer/init.json

  2. Installed continents/regions are outlined in 💚 green rectangles 💚.

    Installed satellite photo regions are outlined in 💛 yellow/orange squares 💛.

    To brighten the yellow/orange squares, change Line 441 of /library/www/osm-vector-maps/viewer/viewer-bundle.js from color: 'rgba(250, 200, 20, .2)', to:

    color: 'rgba(250, 200, 20, 1)',

    To de-emphasize the yellow/orange squares, change it to:

    color: 'rgba(250, 200, 20, .05)',

    Similarly — to adjust green rectangle appearances, change line 456 from color: 'rgba(67, 163, 46, 1)', to any RGB color and opacity/transparency.

  3. You might also want to take a look at the 15 bounding boxes below: (used to display the above green rectangles)

    /library/www/osm-vector-maps/viewer/assets/bboxes.geojson

    Example: 4 of these 15 bounding boxes make up the overall (non-contiguous!) region named “spanish_speaking_regions”.

Known Issues

As of May 2022, recent issues included:

If you get completely stuck, don’t hesitate to contact us !

What might future IIAB Maps bring?

INVITATION: If you can help ongoing efforts to polish maps for children in offline schools in all countries, directly contributing to beautifying OpenStreetMap (VIDEO) thereby bringing Earth to life for all, Thank You! Read more at (#877) and please do get in touch to learn more!

Thanks for your help evolving this into a continuously more friendly community product, as Usability Engineering begins right here — thanks to all who can assist! Background: Internet-in-a-Box is a volunteer community that greatly welcomes your suggestions and contributions !

Credits

Much of the original work on IIAB Maps was coordinated by Braddock Gaskill and Joel Steres in 2012-2015.

More recently George Hunt refined city search, moved to vector-based Map Packs, and added satellite photos — leading to major advances in September 2018 (IIAB 6.6), July 2019 (for IIAB 7.0), June 2020 (IIAB 7.1), October 2020 (for IIAB 7.2) and April 2022 (for IIAB 8.0).

Thank you also to Tim Moody, Jerry Vonau, Adam Holt, Anish Mangal, Avni Khatri, Mir Rodríguez Lombardo, Minh Nguyen, Paul Norman, Jérôme Gagnon-Voyer, Nick Doiron & other volunteer professionals from the OpenStreetMap community who are making this tremendous, ongoing progress possible!

Repos & Source Code

In reverse chronological order: