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.
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.
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.
Anecdote time: I was just in Yorkshire (first time in England) heard about the idea of public footpaths so we found one, walked it and had a picnic. Loved every second, ended up going through a sheep field then a cow field. Can’t wait to go back
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?
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.
This is what I use! It’s like RPG quests in real life but about really boring subjects. Eg. What surface is the pavement on a nearby street. Or is there a bin next to this bus stop
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. Most of my contributions are “drinking water” (public water fountains) and “restrooms”
I’ve been meaning to ask: what’s the appropriate POI for a normal 115/220 power outlet socket?
Contributed a very little. Been using it ina Top metro city for .ore than a year. Heavily reliable.
Hi! Wrong sub? No worries, our
subredditcommunity (!openstreetmap@lemmy.ml) is right here as well!Did you also know that Apple Maps and Bing Maps use OSM data too in some areas, for some types of categories? Bing even has cloned an OSM-editing program.
Furthermore, you can use https://mapcomplete.osm.be to add shops or other POI. (Obligatory shill as I’m the main dev of that one ;) )
pietervdvn
I use OsmAnd~. Mainly to analyze my skating routes (average speed, distance, etc) and planning sightseeing routes when on vacation.
For finding commute an app from local public transport is still the best and google maps are better than osmand, but for navigation on foot it’s very good. And you can download the region earlier, so when you use it, you don’t need that much data.
I found OsmAnd~ to not only be good on foot, but also on bike. It sometimes plans more aggressive routes than google which saves time (side streets for less distance, opposite directions on one ways…). Take this with a grain of salt though, because I ride primarily in NYC.
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 😀
Im currently using streetcomplete, which is an app that gamifies the experience of fulfilling OSM gaps. It’s like playing pokemon go but you are hunting a street with isle. I found this recommendation here in lemmy so im passing forward, I loved it
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.
I use it quite often, but only recently began contributing. And as they (very) wisely say at the bottom of the wiki (https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Editing_Standards_and_Conventions ):
WARNING: OpenStreetMap is highly addictive Take frequent breaks, there is a lot to be done.
Currently at 319 contributions on OpenStreetMap since the 22 of December 2022 some part of south Italy are not mapped at all so I’m trying my best to make at least usable.
If someone want to contribute to osm StreetComplete let you add simple tags to already existing tags and let you add stores with a monstrous simplicity!
Anyway tell your girlfriend that apple maps and bing maps use data from openstreet map and are huge contributors to the project, in fact the default map when you edit in osm is from bing!
