4 ms·

I became the #1 mapper in New Zealand

25 points by edward 4y ago

Waterluvian 4y ago
Citizen cartography is cool and fun and would be far more popular if people believed they weren’t just feeding a corporation’s profit. I believe that public participation in open source GIS datasets is only limited by UX. The author framing this as “a side quest while you walk” is on to something.
- edent 4y ago
  Yup. I used to feed in to Google Maps back when it launched that feature. But I slowly realised that I was only enriching someone else.
mngnt 4y ago
I am #3 in a similarly sized country, I was #1 for a few weeks about a year ago. It should be noted that this is "only" streetcomplete. Many mappers don't use it at all - instead mapping in JOSM or iD and greatly outperforming StreetComplete folk. According to HDYC [1], the author of TFA is currently ranked at 37 in New Zealand. I don't know if HDYC can show historic data. All that said, this is not a competition. It's just fun to enhance the maps and see the enhancements in real life - better driving directions, more naturally shaped roads, sidewalks being replaced with stairs where needed, traffic lights and pedestrian crossings showing up where they should. The gamification is only a cherry on top. Now I have to go out, score a few hundred edits and maybe grab #2. [1] https://hdyc.neis-one.org/?Terence%20Eden https://hdyc.neis-one.org/?Terence%20Eden
- edent 4y ago
  That's a really cool visualisation - thanks for sharing :-)
8jy89hui 4y ago
It looks like StreetComplete is Android only. Does anyone have suggestions for a good iOS friendly alternative?
- kevingrahl 4y ago
  The best I know of is “Go Map!!” https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Go_Map https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Go_Map!!
- smcleod 4y ago
  As far as using OSM - I highly recommend Organic Maps, it doesn't offer editing features but It's great to use, the maps are all downloadable for 100% offline use and open source. It was made by the devs behind the original maps dot me (before it changed hands). https://organicmaps.app https://organicmaps.app https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps
- habi 4y ago
  Go Map!! can do everything, as mentioned by kevingrahl in a comment, but https://every-door.app/ https://every-door.app/ is also very cool and very useful for small, quick edits of POIs. BTW: EveryDoors author is https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Zverik https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Zverik

25 points by edward 4y ago

Citizen cartography is cool and fun and would be far more popular if people believed they weren’t just feeding a corporation’s profit. I believe that public participation in open source GIS datasets is only limited by UX. The author framing this as “a side quest while you walk” is on to something.

edent 4y ago
Yup. I used to feed in to Google Maps back when it launched that feature. But I slowly realised that I was only enriching someone else.

mngnt 4y ago

I am #3 in a similarly sized country, I was #1 for a few weeks about a year ago. It should be noted that this is "only" streetcomplete. Many mappers don't use it at all - instead mapping in JOSM or iD and greatly outperforming StreetComplete folk. According to HDYC [1], the author of TFA is currently ranked at 37 in New Zealand. I don't know if HDYC can show historic data. All that said, this is not a competition. It's just fun to enhance the maps and see the enhancements in real life - better driving directions, more naturally shaped roads, sidewalks being replaced with stairs where needed, traffic lights and pedestrian crossings showing up where they should. The gamification is only a cherry on top. Now I have to go out, score a few hundred edits and maybe grab #2. [1] https://hdyc.neis-one.org/?Terence%20Eden https://hdyc.neis-one.org/?Terence%20Eden

edent 4y ago
That's a really cool visualisation - thanks for sharing :-)

8jy89hui 4y ago

It looks like StreetComplete is Android only. Does anyone have suggestions for a good iOS friendly alternative?

kevingrahl 4y ago
The best I know of is “Go Map!!” https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Go_Map https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Go_Map!!
smcleod 4y ago
As far as using OSM - I highly recommend Organic Maps, it doesn't offer editing features but It's great to use, the maps are all downloadable for 100% offline use and open source. It was made by the devs behind the original maps dot me (before it changed hands). https://organicmaps.app https://organicmaps.app https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps
habi 4y ago
Go Map!! can do everything, as mentioned by kevingrahl in a comment, but https://every-door.app/ https://every-door.app/ is also very cool and very useful for small, quick edits of POIs. BTW: EveryDoors author is https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Zverik https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=Zverik