I’ve tried using it over the years but I never liked it because there was no information. So last night I looked at my local city and there is almost no information at all. I spent a few hours last night adding buildings and restaurants and removing incorrect items. It was actually kind of fun and therapeutic and I plan to do more of it tonight. My girlfriend thinks it’s dumb and I’m wasting my time because Google maps and Apple maps and Bing maps exists but she just doesn’t understand open source.
Edit: Apologies, I just realized this question is not Linux specific.
Yeah. Story time:
In the England we have ancient rights-of-way laws but a lot of private landowners try to block footpaths that cross their land. If a landowner can argue a footpath hasn’t been used in (I think) two years they can have it removed, but in 2025 all the existing footpaths will be made permanent and indelible except with explicit local government permission so between now and then a lot of landowners will be rushing to get paths removed.
I’ve made a point of walking every footpath in my area and making sure they’re all documented on OSM. If any of the landowners try to get a path removed I have my GPS tracks as proof of use.
Edit: FWIW, I find OSM to be the best map for rambling. Google and Apple don’t come close and OSM even gives Ordinance Survey a run for it’s money.
That’s really nice! Thank you for your service!
Was that plan scrapped from what I can tell? https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-60418555 Is there still risk of the right of way paths being fenced up/privatized fully?
I’ve been editing OSM for years. (896,339 edits in 3,427 changesets, apparently!) For me, it’s all about the free data. I once got a thank you note from someone who worked for a city with a particularly large municipal park. I’d added almost all the trails to the park and other information, and they’d used it to produce a printed map for the general public. Exactly the kind of thing I’d hoped for!
Personally, I do a lot of dualsport motorcycling and most backcountry maps around here are subpar. I map tons of trails and 2track and put them on the Garmin so I know where I’m going.
OSM is also great in lots of Europe–tons of detail.
JOSM is great.
Someone just recommended Organic Maps for the phone–it’s way snappier than Google Maps, but still not great with finding addresses.
That’s really cool to hear about the parks. Most of the parks around here are pretty well mapped out. Presumably the local community is pretty strong.
I really want to produce something for my city’s NET and BEECN emergency response programs. They already have a few different maps, but not one unified map. My ideal is a map that could be taken offline or printed to spec.
What an awesome story to hear. I’ve been playing around with Organic Maps on my phone. I’ll have to look into JOSM.
Yeah josm is a lifechanger when you get used to it.
https://streetcomplete.app/ is a fun way to contribute to OSM and do something else instead of just “walking” if you want to get outside a bit.
This is seriously awesome! Thank you for suggesting this.
I have added a small amount of area around my city but this will make it much easier to fill in the gaps.
Just to piggy back on here Every Door (https://every-door.app/) is so awesome if you wanna add/update shops and other small points of interest on the go. Highly recommend it.
OSM is huge for backcountry. Hiking trails, skiing, etc. There is nothing better.
Gaia?
I regularly use OSM data through Organic Maps (mostly for larger European cities). The app is really polished and is a joy to use. So far I’m not missing any features from Google Maps.
I’ve also updated some faulty business hours for some restaurants so I guess I’ve contributed back.
E: With the recent developments in the world of free online services (YouTube blocking ad-blockers, Google lying to their customers about its TrueView ads, Twitter rate limiting free access, the Reddit API fiasco), I wonder how much longer we can take free services like Google Maps for granted. Having an open alternative may become even more important in the future.
Yes I use OSM almost exclusively and have contributed to it.
Where I live, in Germany, OSM is pretty much on the same level as Google Maps and way better than Apple Maps. Sometimes there is outdated info but you can quickly correct it. Sometimes I double check stuff with GM. Some information is even better than GM. But I think Germany has a pretty strong OSM community, at least in my city.
I use Organic Maps on iOS.
Doesn’t Apple Maps use data from OSM? Edit: They actually do. At least in Denmark.
Kinda, the information is definitely not the same.
It might be specific data and not everything, that Apple uses from OSM.
OSM is an awesome project I agree it is fun contributing to it but it is not as useful yet due to what you describe, details.
Finding addresses and other specific information is very hit or miss in some areas. Especially in the US where no one really cares about it other than tech corporations using it for quick info like street layouts.
My entire city has address numbers missing and for a long time I used an app on my phone (StreetComplete) to fix address numbers and other various details. But it can be overwhelming very quickly depending on how outdated or not updated your place is. Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time by the way.
Contributed a very little. Been using it ina Top metro city for .ore than a year. Heavily reliable.
We use OSM quite a bit for various things at my job (transport logistics software). We’re generally concerned with UK cities, where the coverage is quite good, however we often find little things which aren’t quiiiite right and make a fix or two.
It’s a really cool project, overall
I travel quite a bit, both for work and for pleasure, so when I have an hour or two to burn I take a walk around and make some contribution with StreetComplete.
It seems like I’ve found a new way of being a tourist.Removed by mod
Thank you very much for your efforts, there’s a lot of inertia about mapping places with low amounts of detail. Remember to reach out to your local OSM communities for advice, and the OSM wiki.
Yes, all the time. Great job helping out the project! Contributing is super valuable, even if it’s just a bit.
Check out if you haven’t, the app “Street Complete”. It allows you to really quickly add information to OSM in a fun gamified way.
It automatically finds your location and gives you little pop-up questions like, “what kind of crosswalk is here?” And, “where is this fire hydrant located?”
I go on walks in my area and will contribute that way too.
Once you want to bulk edit on the go, use “every door”. “SC” or “SCEE” (feature richer SC) aren’t designed to update a large area quickly. (Check out each app when you become a serious mapper or want to make a real difference. Knowing the osm tools (and josm ofc) is highly important for efficiency.
I decided to give it a try over the weekend on a road trip, through the apps Organic Maps and Go Map!! I really liked Go Map!! except that it crashes occasionally, and won’t restart until your reinstall it :( loosing all the GPS tracks and unsubmitted data :(( If it was more stable, I’d recommend it to everyone.
I use it all the time with OSMand. and i have contributed to OSM for years. I just had a look - i start in Sep 2010 (13 years!) and all of my edits (except for a humanitarian tracing excersice for mozambique) i have been to. it is a niice spread:
Ooohh!! Please, post a bit in the lemmy community as well.
Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn’t work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: !openstreetmap@lemmy.ml
done 😀
