7 ms·

Happy Birthday OpenStreetMap

424 points by molly_radstowe 3y ago

molly_radstowe 3y ago
OSM is 19 years old: we're launching an online fundraising campaign to support its future
tetris11 3y ago
Doesn't OSM have corporate donors? (I'd be happy to know it's not reliant on them)
- twelve40 3y ago
  even if it does, a bunch of accessible data you can develop with is a godsend. Even if it were a completely commercial service, i'd still be happy to have some competition over the couple of monopolies that are left in this space.
  - tetris11 3y ago
    I'm just hoping it doesn't turn into the Wikimedia Foundation, yearly begging for substantial funds whilst its many thousands of diligent contributors continue to work under the impression that they're doing a public good, but instead are enriching someone else's product
    - stareatgoats 3y ago
      One can't do public good without enriching someone else, it comes with the territory. It's ok.
      - dandellion 3y ago
        Maybe one would prefer to enrich those with limited resources like students and low-income people, without economically enriching a bunch of elites encroaching some non-profit organizations.
    - Borg3 3y ago
      Now worries. OSM have open data. Just mirror PBF files. Once something bad happen to OSM itself, you can easly respawn new instance. All building blocks are open source.
      - Aachen 3y ago
        That was also the first thing that came to my mind, but then I realised the same goes for Wikimedia The power is in the brand/execution, not the code/idea Either way, I'm glad that it's both open data and open code (Wikipedia: creative commons; OpenStreetMap: open database license; both: some open code license) so that we at least have options, should it be necessary, even if it's an uphill battle to divert attention from a spoiled brand
      - matkoniecz 3y ago
        Sadly, coordination problems are not so easy to solve. "Just mirror PBF files." is easy, mirroring community is harder. But, yes it reduces some risks. And enables for example https://www.opengeofiction.net/ https://www.opengeofiction.net/ and https://www.openhistoricalmap.org/ https://www.openhistoricalmap.org/ which use OSM stack for fantasy and historical mapping. And OSM open data is used very widely.
    - mtmail 3y ago
      Wikimedia has about 350 employees. OpenStreetMap foundation afaik 2: one remote office admin and one system administrator. No offices. It’s very lean budget wise.
      - Helmut10001 3y ago
        Here it says 8 [1]. Still very interesting, I did not know! [1]: https://www.datanyze.com/companies/openstreetmap/353811364 https://www.datanyze.com/companies/openstreetmap/353811364
        mtmail 3y ago
        Yes, 8 might be correct. https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/3/3c/FY2021_Full_accounts.pdf https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/3/3c/FY2021_Full_acc... "The average number of employees during the year was 7 (2020 - 7)" I doubt the 12.4 million revenue. The 2021 financial report listed turnover of £350,000 with surplus of £160,000 and £740,000 in reserves.
        stereo 3y ago
        Hi from the OpenStreetMap Foundation chairperson. We have one employee (our site reliability engineer), one external admin assistant, one external developer for the iD editor, and one external bookkeeper. The "8" on that site probably counts the board of directors, who are seven volunteers.
      - matkoniecz 3y ago
        If anyone is interested in general budget see https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board/Minutes/2023-02/Budget https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board/Minutes/2023-02/Bu... For paid staff see https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Contractors_and_employees#Long_term_paid_individuals https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Contractors_and_employee... (note that for example accountant is not contracted full-time) (and yes, donations are welcome! See https://donate.openstreetmap.org/ https://donate.openstreetmap.org/ if you want to help) disclaimer: I am an unpaid volunteer on OSMF board
      - stereo 3y ago
    - james_in_the_uk 3y ago
      Wikimedia is mostly Creative Commons licensed. Not sure that "enriching someone else's product" is entirely fair?
    - NoboruWataya 3y ago
      The two are not mutually exclusive. It's not like corporations are paying the Wikimedia Foundation to deprive others of your contributions. And you are also benefiting from the fruit of corporate donations.
    - kaba0 3y ago
      This also comes up regularly and I believe it is completely mistaken: wikipedia does ask for more funds than necessary, which is actually a sane tactic when you can never know what will happen a year later and when you don’t have any other kind of income. Also, how is it not public good, and how does it enriches someone else’s product? I’m fairly sure the world’d biggest encyclopedia that is freely available to anyone on the Earth can be considered a public good, can’t it?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
- mtmail 3y ago
  It's called corporate members https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Corporate_Members https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Corporate_Members Goes from 750 Euro per year up to 30.000 per year. Those prices were raised in 2023. (disclaimer: I work for a silver sponsor)
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- stereo 3y ago
  Hello, I'm the OSM Foundation chairperson. Indeed, we benefit from the support of corporate donors, and their contributions are immensely valuable. This support often aligns with mutual interest in free maps, and sometimes extends to participation in working groups, such as the communication or licensing working group. What sets OpenStreetMap apart from other map or data providers is its diverse and rich community. You're right that relying solely on a few large corporate donors could lead to challenges in maintaining OSM's strength, resiliency, and independence. That's why we're trying to attract a diverse income stream, including a broad base of support from individual donors. Every small donation reaffirms that OSM will remain a collective effort, which all contributors play a part in shaping and preserving. https://supporting.openstreetmap.org https://supporting.openstreetmap.org is our fundraising site.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
thriftwy 3y ago
I wonder if posting photos from Kabul celebration three years ago may be incriminating for its participants in the current political climate.
- q87b 3y ago
  What are you insinuating?
- stereo 3y ago
  Mapping is still happening in Afghanistan. The political climate is certainly not making things easier for mappers there, but the biggest problem seems to be the recent loss of free and open Maxar imagery, which my numbers say was used by about 90% of edits to the map there. https://osmstats.neis-one.org/?item=countries&country=Afghanistan https://osmstats.neis-one.org/?item=countries&country=Afghan...
  - thriftwy 3y ago
    Posting may be OK, but I hope thay those two ladies in the picture found their way out.
freyfogle 3y ago
To celebrate OSM's birthday this week's guest on the Geomob podcast was long-time contributor Andy Allan (amongst much else, maker of the OpenCycleMap rendering of OSM) to reminisce about the early days. https://thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-193 https://thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-193
matsemann 3y ago
My job uses OSM for route planning, and contributes back changes, road closures etc. as that directly benefit us when planning the next day. It's a great system where everyone benefits. On the private, I've lately been biking/hiking lots of trails with a 360 camera, and uploaded to Mapillary as CC-BY-SA (and google street view). To make a kind of street view, but also to use the data to improve trail/mtb/biking routes in OSM. I hate planning a route and ending up having to carry my gravel bike. Or someone taking their stroller for a leisure hike on a gravel road in the woods suddenly finds out some part of it is unwalkable. Or the opposite, taking the mtb for a ride and not getting any fun. It's quite fun, a good excuse to try new roads every time I'm out just to map it.
- unnervingduck 3y ago
  I've been thinking of recording imagery too with an action camera, using a phone for that purpose hasn't been too good in my experience because it's shaky, especially on forest trails. Also what do you think of KartaView? I'm not sure whether to trust the Meta owned Mapillary, even though the current data has an open license.
  - matsemann 3y ago
    I use a gopro max, a 360 camera. Not the best quality since it's 5.6k pixels shared in all directions, but quite nice. A 360 video gives "true" streetview navigation compared to uploading pictures. My problem with KartaView is that there is no new images in my city since ~2019, and very little is covered. So no one here uses it. While someone needs to start, I guess, it wont be me. The municipality where I live has however mapped >800 km of city streets themselves in Mapillary, so it's a good source to expand on and where I can fill in the gaps with cycling related stuff. https://www.mapillary.com/app/user/BYM_OlaJuulHolm?lat=59.927252777778&lng=10.764069444444&z=17&x=0.024930086208298008&y=0.615337117046707&zoom=0&pKey=224795516434683&focus=photo https://www.mapillary.com/app/user/BYM_OlaJuulHolm?lat=59.92...
    - unnervingduck 3y ago
      Thanks, that makes sense. In my town the usage of either one is so marginal I don't think it matters which I use. And even if I decided to visit the nearest city and start from scratch with KartaView, more recent data wouldn't obviously hurt. And I've got time hah. As I'm just a beginner I don't think a 360 camera is worth it just yet, they are quite expensive compared to regular ones. And I can imagine putting it on my helmet would get some attention from bypassers, unlike a normal camera mounted on the handlebar.
wink 3y ago
Probably offtopic, but is there a good way to use OSM for on-the-fly route finding on Android (pref bike)? I like to fiddle with stuff just like the next HN commenter, but last time I tried this with OsmAnd I quickly gave up, it's not in the same league as Google Maps, it's not even the same sport. What I want: "Open the app, search for a destination, hit a button and get shown a route from my current location". Did I just hold it wrong?
- NoboruWataya 3y ago
  It's prety easy to do this on Organic Maps. Open app, search for destination, select "Route To" and then select bike option. Searching isn't as accurate as Google and I would guess the routing doesn't consider the same real-time data as Google does, but in terms of UI at least it's easy to get there.
- kitebive 3y ago
  You could try Organic Maps, then. It's way simpler than OsmAnd, but it lacks some features for bike routing (and routing in general). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.organicmaps https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.organicmap...
- pietervdvn 3y ago
  Maybe Organic Maps? https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/
  - kitebive 3y ago
    Just want to point out that this user is the creator of the wonderful tool MapComplete (https://mapcomplete.osm.be https://mapcomplete.osm.be) which helps you adding more information to the data available in the OSM database. If you have some free time and have local knowledge of your area, I really suggest giving this tool a try, you can choose between multiple themes (which will show different quests) and add info that you know the most.
- matkoniecz 3y ago
KolmogorovComp 3y ago
Tangential, but does someone knows which data Apple map uses, and at which frequency it’s updated? It’s plainly outdated by some months for some streets of my city, but unable to report it directly via the app, so wondering if fixing OSM would have the same effect (I’ve not yet checked if the errors are also on OSM)
- capableweb 3y ago
  Seems there is a bunch of different sources, but mainly TomTom: > The main provider of map data is TomTom, but data is also supplied by Automotive Navigation Data, Getchee, Hexagon AB, IGN, Increment P, Intermap Technologies, LeadDog, MDA Information Systems, OpenStreetMap, and Waze. https://web.archive.org/web/20160118101039/http://gspe21.ls.apple.com/html/attribution-8.html https://web.archive.org/web/20160118101039/http://gspe21.ls.... (Original: http://gspe21.ls.apple.com/html/attribution-8.html http://gspe21.ls.apple.com/html/attribution-8.html)
- stereo 3y ago
  The data Apple uses depends on the country. In Denmark, for example, it's OpenStreetMap. OpenStreetMap asked Apple what it would take for them to use OpenStreetMap elsewhere. "Make it the best data there."
nologic01 3y ago
Along with Wikipedia and Linux maybe the top three projects of the open source movement. The most solid indicator that alternative, benign, do-no-evil visions for organizing our information landscapes not only exist, but are extremely effective. Long live and prosper and may thousand more siblings follow in the paths OSM has opened up.
- capableweb 3y ago
  Adding to the list, some things are greater than just standalone projects. In this case, the Wikimedia community does a lot more than just Wikipedia, which is also greatly beneficial for everyone, same with the Linux Foundation, Apache Software Foundation and more.
matheusmoreira 3y ago
Happy birthday. What's the easiest way to contribute data to it using my phone? I want to start mapping my city but I really have no idea how to do this. Any google maps style app that asks you questions about your surroundings?
- severine 3y ago
  Street Complete! https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete
  - capableweb 3y ago
    Would be wonderful if something similar exists for iPhone. There seems to be a few apps that are trying to make something in that direction but aren't as polished/nice to use as Street Complete.
    - stereo 3y ago
      Have you tried Every Door? It's a similar micro-editor for iOS: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Every_Door https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Every_Door For more complete editing, I like to use "Go Map!!" https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Go_Map https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Go_Map!!
      - habi 3y ago
        Go Map!! recently introduced “Quests”, which are a bit like StreetComplete.
  - UtopiaPunk 3y ago
    StreetComplete is fun! I was riding the bus the other day, and I opened the StreetComplete app. I noticed that most of the bus stops had incomplete information, so as we rode by I answered questions like "does this bus top have a shelter" for each stop as we went by. It's very easy to use, and I get a feeling of making the world a tiny bit better.
petespeed 3y ago
Any solution to provide live traffic overlay on OSM?, that Google does via crowdsourcing (I think).
molly_radstowe 3y ago
If you're using or benefitting from OSM data, you should make a donation. The project has grown so large, that more money is needed for improvements and site stability. It's not just the data, either, it's the API, the tile service. etc. https://supporting.openstreetmap.org/donate/ https://supporting.openstreetmap.org/donate/

molly_radstowe 3y ago

OSM is 19 years old: we're launching an online fundraising campaign to support its future

tetris11 3y ago

Doesn't OSM have corporate donors? (I'd be happy to know it's not reliant on them)

twelve40 3y ago
even if it does, a bunch of accessible data you can develop with is a godsend. Even if it were a completely commercial service, i'd still be happy to have some competition over the couple of monopolies that are left in this space.
- tetris11 3y ago
  I'm just hoping it doesn't turn into the Wikimedia Foundation, yearly begging for substantial funds whilst its many thousands of diligent contributors continue to work under the impression that they're doing a public good, but instead are enriching someone else's product
  - stareatgoats 3y ago
    One can't do public good without enriching someone else, it comes with the territory. It's ok.
    - dandellion 3y ago
      Maybe one would prefer to enrich those with limited resources like students and low-income people, without economically enriching a bunch of elites encroaching some non-profit organizations.
  - Borg3 3y ago
    Now worries. OSM have open data. Just mirror PBF files. Once something bad happen to OSM itself, you can easly respawn new instance. All building blocks are open source.
    - Aachen 3y ago
      That was also the first thing that came to my mind, but then I realised the same goes for Wikimedia The power is in the brand/execution, not the code/idea Either way, I'm glad that it's both open data and open code (Wikipedia: creative commons; OpenStreetMap: open database license; both: some open code license) so that we at least have options, should it be necessary, even if it's an uphill battle to divert attention from a spoiled brand
    - matkoniecz 3y ago
      Sadly, coordination problems are not so easy to solve. "Just mirror PBF files." is easy, mirroring community is harder. But, yes it reduces some risks. And enables for example https://www.opengeofiction.net/ https://www.opengeofiction.net/ and https://www.openhistoricalmap.org/ https://www.openhistoricalmap.org/ which use OSM stack for fantasy and historical mapping. And OSM open data is used very widely.
  - mtmail 3y ago
    Wikimedia has about 350 employees. OpenStreetMap foundation afaik 2: one remote office admin and one system administrator. No offices. It’s very lean budget wise.
    - Helmut10001 3y ago
      Here it says 8 [1]. Still very interesting, I did not know! [1]: https://www.datanyze.com/companies/openstreetmap/353811364 https://www.datanyze.com/companies/openstreetmap/353811364
      - mtmail 3y ago
        Yes, 8 might be correct. https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/3/3c/FY2021_Full_accounts.pdf https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/w/images/3/3c/FY2021_Full_acc... "The average number of employees during the year was 7 (2020 - 7)" I doubt the 12.4 million revenue. The 2021 financial report listed turnover of £350,000 with surplus of £160,000 and £740,000 in reserves.
      - stereo 3y ago
        Hi from the OpenStreetMap Foundation chairperson. We have one employee (our site reliability engineer), one external admin assistant, one external developer for the iD editor, and one external bookkeeper. The "8" on that site probably counts the board of directors, who are seven volunteers.
    - matkoniecz 3y ago
      If anyone is interested in general budget see https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board/Minutes/2023-02/Budget https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Board/Minutes/2023-02/Bu... For paid staff see https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Contractors_and_employees#Long_term_paid_individuals https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Contractors_and_employee... (note that for example accountant is not contracted full-time) (and yes, donations are welcome! See https://donate.openstreetmap.org/ https://donate.openstreetmap.org/ if you want to help) disclaimer: I am an unpaid volunteer on OSMF board
    - stereo 3y ago
  - james_in_the_uk 3y ago
    Wikimedia is mostly Creative Commons licensed. Not sure that "enriching someone else's product" is entirely fair?
  - NoboruWataya 3y ago
    The two are not mutually exclusive. It's not like corporations are paying the Wikimedia Foundation to deprive others of your contributions. And you are also benefiting from the fruit of corporate donations.
  - kaba0 3y ago
    This also comes up regularly and I believe it is completely mistaken: wikipedia does ask for more funds than necessary, which is actually a sane tactic when you can never know what will happen a year later and when you don’t have any other kind of income. Also, how is it not public good, and how does it enriches someone else’s product? I’m fairly sure the world’d biggest encyclopedia that is freely available to anyone on the Earth can be considered a public good, can’t it?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
mtmail 3y ago
It's called corporate members https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Corporate_Members https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Corporate_Members Goes from 750 Euro per year up to 30.000 per year. Those prices were raised in 2023. (disclaimer: I work for a silver sponsor)
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
stereo 3y ago
Hello, I'm the OSM Foundation chairperson. Indeed, we benefit from the support of corporate donors, and their contributions are immensely valuable. This support often aligns with mutual interest in free maps, and sometimes extends to participation in working groups, such as the communication or licensing working group. What sets OpenStreetMap apart from other map or data providers is its diverse and rich community. You're right that relying solely on a few large corporate donors could lead to challenges in maintaining OSM's strength, resiliency, and independence. That's why we're trying to attract a diverse income stream, including a broad base of support from individual donors. Every small donation reaffirms that OSM will remain a collective effort, which all contributors play a part in shaping and preserving. https://supporting.openstreetmap.org https://supporting.openstreetmap.org is our fundraising site.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

thriftwy 3y ago

I wonder if posting photos from Kabul celebration three years ago may be incriminating for its participants in the current political climate.

q87b 3y ago
What are you insinuating?
stereo 3y ago
Mapping is still happening in Afghanistan. The political climate is certainly not making things easier for mappers there, but the biggest problem seems to be the recent loss of free and open Maxar imagery, which my numbers say was used by about 90% of edits to the map there. https://osmstats.neis-one.org/?item=countries&country=Afghanistan https://osmstats.neis-one.org/?item=countries&country=Afghan...
- thriftwy 3y ago
  Posting may be OK, but I hope thay those two ladies in the picture found their way out.

freyfogle 3y ago

To celebrate OSM's birthday this week's guest on the Geomob podcast was long-time contributor Andy Allan (amongst much else, maker of the OpenCycleMap rendering of OSM) to reminisce about the early days. https://thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-193 https://thegeomob.com/podcast/episode-193

matsemann 3y ago

My job uses OSM for route planning, and contributes back changes, road closures etc. as that directly benefit us when planning the next day. It's a great system where everyone benefits. On the private, I've lately been biking/hiking lots of trails with a 360 camera, and uploaded to Mapillary as CC-BY-SA (and google street view). To make a kind of street view, but also to use the data to improve trail/mtb/biking routes in OSM. I hate planning a route and ending up having to carry my gravel bike. Or someone taking their stroller for a leisure hike on a gravel road in the woods suddenly finds out some part of it is unwalkable. Or the opposite, taking the mtb for a ride and not getting any fun. It's quite fun, a good excuse to try new roads every time I'm out just to map it.

unnervingduck 3y ago
I've been thinking of recording imagery too with an action camera, using a phone for that purpose hasn't been too good in my experience because it's shaky, especially on forest trails. Also what do you think of KartaView? I'm not sure whether to trust the Meta owned Mapillary, even though the current data has an open license.
- matsemann 3y ago
  I use a gopro max, a 360 camera. Not the best quality since it's 5.6k pixels shared in all directions, but quite nice. A 360 video gives "true" streetview navigation compared to uploading pictures. My problem with KartaView is that there is no new images in my city since ~2019, and very little is covered. So no one here uses it. While someone needs to start, I guess, it wont be me. The municipality where I live has however mapped >800 km of city streets themselves in Mapillary, so it's a good source to expand on and where I can fill in the gaps with cycling related stuff. https://www.mapillary.com/app/user/BYM_OlaJuulHolm?lat=59.927252777778&lng=10.764069444444&z=17&x=0.024930086208298008&y=0.615337117046707&zoom=0&pKey=224795516434683&focus=photo https://www.mapillary.com/app/user/BYM_OlaJuulHolm?lat=59.92...
  - unnervingduck 3y ago
    Thanks, that makes sense. In my town the usage of either one is so marginal I don't think it matters which I use. And even if I decided to visit the nearest city and start from scratch with KartaView, more recent data wouldn't obviously hurt. And I've got time hah. As I'm just a beginner I don't think a 360 camera is worth it just yet, they are quite expensive compared to regular ones. And I can imagine putting it on my helmet would get some attention from bypassers, unlike a normal camera mounted on the handlebar.

wink 3y ago

Probably offtopic, but is there a good way to use OSM for on-the-fly route finding on Android (pref bike)? I like to fiddle with stuff just like the next HN commenter, but last time I tried this with OsmAnd I quickly gave up, it's not in the same league as Google Maps, it's not even the same sport. What I want: "Open the app, search for a destination, hit a button and get shown a route from my current location". Did I just hold it wrong?

NoboruWataya 3y ago
It's prety easy to do this on Organic Maps. Open app, search for destination, select "Route To" and then select bike option. Searching isn't as accurate as Google and I would guess the routing doesn't consider the same real-time data as Google does, but in terms of UI at least it's easy to get there.
kitebive 3y ago
You could try Organic Maps, then. It's way simpler than OsmAnd, but it lacks some features for bike routing (and routing in general). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.organicmaps https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.organicmap...
pietervdvn 3y ago
Maybe Organic Maps? https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/app.organicmaps/
- kitebive 3y ago
  Just want to point out that this user is the creator of the wonderful tool MapComplete (https://mapcomplete.osm.be https://mapcomplete.osm.be) which helps you adding more information to the data available in the OSM database. If you have some free time and have local knowledge of your area, I really suggest giving this tool a try, you can choose between multiple themes (which will show different quests) and add info that you know the most.
matkoniecz 3y ago

KolmogorovComp 3y ago

Tangential, but does someone knows which data Apple map uses, and at which frequency it’s updated? It’s plainly outdated by some months for some streets of my city, but unable to report it directly via the app, so wondering if fixing OSM would have the same effect (I’ve not yet checked if the errors are also on OSM)

capableweb 3y ago
Seems there is a bunch of different sources, but mainly TomTom: > The main provider of map data is TomTom, but data is also supplied by Automotive Navigation Data, Getchee, Hexagon AB, IGN, Increment P, Intermap Technologies, LeadDog, MDA Information Systems, OpenStreetMap, and Waze. https://web.archive.org/web/20160118101039/http://gspe21.ls.apple.com/html/attribution-8.html https://web.archive.org/web/20160118101039/http://gspe21.ls.... (Original: http://gspe21.ls.apple.com/html/attribution-8.html http://gspe21.ls.apple.com/html/attribution-8.html)
stereo 3y ago
The data Apple uses depends on the country. In Denmark, for example, it's OpenStreetMap. OpenStreetMap asked Apple what it would take for them to use OpenStreetMap elsewhere. "Make it the best data there."

nologic01 3y ago

Along with Wikipedia and Linux maybe the top three projects of the open source movement. The most solid indicator that alternative, benign, do-no-evil visions for organizing our information landscapes not only exist, but are extremely effective. Long live and prosper and may thousand more siblings follow in the paths OSM has opened up.

capableweb 3y ago
Adding to the list, some things are greater than just standalone projects. In this case, the Wikimedia community does a lot more than just Wikipedia, which is also greatly beneficial for everyone, same with the Linux Foundation, Apache Software Foundation and more.

matheusmoreira 3y ago

Happy birthday. What's the easiest way to contribute data to it using my phone? I want to start mapping my city but I really have no idea how to do this. Any google maps style app that asks you questions about your surroundings?

severine 3y ago
Street Complete! https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete
- capableweb 3y ago
  Would be wonderful if something similar exists for iPhone. There seems to be a few apps that are trying to make something in that direction but aren't as polished/nice to use as Street Complete.
  - stereo 3y ago
    Have you tried Every Door? It's a similar micro-editor for iOS: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Every_Door https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Every_Door For more complete editing, I like to use "Go Map!!" https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Go_Map https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Go_Map!!
    - habi 3y ago
      Go Map!! recently introduced “Quests”, which are a bit like StreetComplete.
- UtopiaPunk 3y ago
  StreetComplete is fun! I was riding the bus the other day, and I opened the StreetComplete app. I noticed that most of the bus stops had incomplete information, so as we rode by I answered questions like "does this bus top have a shelter" for each stop as we went by. It's very easy to use, and I get a feeling of making the world a tiny bit better.

petespeed 3y ago

Any solution to provide live traffic overlay on OSM?, that Google does via crowdsourcing (I think).

molly_radstowe 3y ago

If you're using or benefitting from OSM data, you should make a donation. The project has grown so large, that more money is needed for improvements and site stability. It's not just the data, either, it's the API, the tile service. etc. https://supporting.openstreetmap.org/donate/ https://supporting.openstreetmap.org/donate/