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.
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.
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.
I’ve tried putting osm maps on my Garmin with limited success, how can I go about doing that?
There’s a list of ready-made providers of
gmapsupp.imgfiles.I’ve had the best luck with BBBike and OpenMapChest for getting pre-built map files.
Basically you have to get one of these files with all the data you want in it and then stick it on your SD card on the GPS. (The GPS should mount like a thumb drive. If you already have a
gmapsupp.imgfile on there, you might want to back it up in case things go sideways.) Some GPSes support multiplegmapsupp.imgfiles, but a lot don’t. Here’s a thread on merging.imgfiles.When I needed super fresh data, I’d download raw OSM data from Overpass and use mkgmap to build the
gmapsupp.img.Thanks a lot!
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.
Do you know of a similar app for iOS?
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/StreetComplete recommends GoMap!! and some others. Maybe one of those is also great.
Thanks!
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
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.
This is really neat and you just gave me my new hobby, thank you!
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 actually amazing. I’ve done a bit of editing as I play Pokémon Go which uses OSM for the background map. I got fed up of just looking at roads so I mapped in all the buildings, shops, parks etc near me.
This gamifies walking and exploring which I love!
☝️ How to mod games while touching grass, instead of touching code… chef’s kiss
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?
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.
Try Everydoor as well. Another StreetComplete like App that’s great for adding simple items
OSM is huge for backcountry. Hiking trails, skiing, etc. There is nothing better.
Gaia?
Are the communities for skiing and especially backcountry yet?
Not any good ones that I’ve found for backpacking
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.
Same here. I downloaded it recently to have a look and just realized how easy it is to update information for places that I frequently visit. What I like about that is that I can add information isn‘t listed in any map, because shop owners other people responsible don‘t bother (yes, people like this exist).
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.
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!
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.
I have done 14k edits over six years. I too like it for being therapeutic. I’d rather do micro-edita on osm than play another level of candy crush. Same kind of reward but you are also helping out creating something larger!
Honestly though, I don’t think osm will ever catch up to the commercial alternatives. Mostly because their harsh stance against automatic edits (and lack of version control). Also the lack of standardization is a problem. It’s very hard to create client applications because the data is structured way different in different regions.
I don’t think the aim is necessarily to compete against commercial alternatives but rather to have a backstop/fallback if/when they fail.
Also don’t forget LOTS of commercial providers use OSM data for their mapping. So eventually a lot of the data does make it into people’s hands.
Yes, I moved in St Lucia, a small Caribbean island (~620km) few years ago.
Openstreetmap already had a lot of information but nothing on the land use (forest, field …). So over almost a year I’ve worked on it to add all the forest using satellite imagery. Most of the community names were missing so I’ve also added around 100 names and plenty of roads and buildings.
I’ve also started to add all the rivers and stream using public data but this is still underway.
https://hdyc.neis-one.org/?BPierrick This tell me that I’ve done almost 100k changes on St Lucia map. It really helped me to get a better knowledge of the island.
Hey, fyi you included your username in that link which could potentially dox you
Where I live it’s much more complete than google maps, especially in the countryside.
I use, and contribute to it, quite often.
In fact, just a few months ago I added the 90% missing houses and buildings from my city (of 200,000), which took about 60 hours 😂 Totally worth it.
Keep in mind that not only do OpenStreetMap users benefit from the maps, but so do users of countless other map providers and services that rely on OSM data. 👌
At one stage, all street names were removed from my city because of changes to the license osm was using. And my suburb was blank. I got on my bike with the app on my phone, and mapped it all over about 3 leisurely rides. And I can say I’ve been past every house in my suburb at least once 😁
I also have found it better for offroad riding and walking. Also did some track mapping offroad too.
Yes and yes! Couldn’t contribute that much but I try to
I think having a highly important FOSS project that is not controlled by a company known for shutting down many of its beloved products (I’m talking about you Google) is pretty nice…
Also I think map quality is location-dependent. I live in a large metropolitan area in Southern US; OSM is usable, but there are no house/building numbers, and a good number of businesses are missing. In contrast I think the map is a lot better in Chicago which is a lot more pedestrian-friendly? Also, when I looked at Germany it seems OSM is on-par or better than Google Maps… in fact one of the larger rental websites use OSM instead of Google Maps (imagine Zillow doing it in US lol)
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.