Today I found out that it’s actually a lot easier to contribute to Open Street Map than I thought. There are some serious gaps in house addresses in my area and I was painstakingly using the built in browser editor in the browser.
But, you can use a FOSS app (available on fdroid) called StreetComplete that makes it a lot easier to help out filling in the gaps in your local map data.
It’s really fun - kind of like Pokémon Go but you are actually making an impact 😁
I’m addicted to Streetcomplete. I’m 20.000+ edits in. I make about 100 with ease on my commute to work.
I installed it. Judging by the mass of blank info, I guess I’m the only person around here using it lol. 😳
I became nr 10 or so in my country just by adding nearly everything SC can ask in … a 10 block radius around my house.😁
once you complete every quest on your commute, what do you do?
parallel streets ✅
and then?
Not parallel streets.
that turns the commute into a promenade
That’s exactly what happened. Fortunately I have 4 different offices and I can work from ‘home’ anywhere so sometimes I go work at a friend’s place instead of working at my place.
It needs an iOS app
iOS apps generally require a $100 yearly fee to post to the app store and if they submitted a waiver as a nonprofit apple would probably take years to accept it.
Also apple has a tendency to quietly kill and/or stall small apps that pose a threat to features they incorporate into their os from what I’ve heard.
Ugh yeah the small 4-person worker cooperative I’m part of has been trying to get Apple to let us enroll in their developer program for literally weeks now. Every time we clear some other nonsense requirement, there’s a new one right behind it; and we haven’t even gotten to the “pay $100 for the privilege of undergoing this process” part yet.
I can’t believe Apple ever managed to build an application ecosystem around their products when they are so unfriendly to developers.
What? If you’re going to pay for it you just sign up and pay… If you don’t have your company registered before attempting that that’s on you. And if you’re really desperate you could just use a personal developer account which you can set up in like 1 minute. Not sure how this is an issue for you.
Is there an open street map based map app that shows live traffic? I’m trying to get my grandfather to switch to open source, and he says it’s the one feature he needs.
MagicEarth has got a live traffic layer for you.
If it is free as in beer, but not as in freedom, and is developed by a company, then what is their business model?
This is what they’ve put on their FAQ
Magic Earth is free for all our end-users but we also have a paid Magic Earth SDK for business partners. For instance Selectric.de (a supplier for navigation solutions for ambulances and fire trucks), Smarter AI (developing ADAS systems) or Absolute Cycling (using the platform on bicycles). For more info on the SDK, you can check magiclane.com.
Unfortunately, it’s not open source though.
Indeed it isn’t. But is privacy focused and sort of the best next thing.
No, unfortunately not. Getting traffic data would mean users volunteering to share location data, would need a centralized system to process everything, and would need a critical mass of users sharing said data to be anywhere near useful. The other possibility would be to pay for data from a provider like Google under an enterprise license that doesn’t require sharing data back, but I don’t know if that is even an option.
For now, I use both on my phone. I use OSM when biking or walking, I use Google Maps when driving, and I use my local transit web app when taking transit. I plan to switch my Pixel phone to GrapheneOS and to sandbox Google services that I still need. That being said, the ultimate way around needing traffic information is to try to live in places and in such a way that driving is not very necessary, but I know that is a huge ask for a lot of people.
EDIT: To be clear, MagicEarth does have live traffic as @Schlemmy@lemmy.ml pointed out and is based on OSM, but is not itself open source.
time for some kind of anonymizing location data sharing service, peer to peer or federated protocol? that might be interesting, or sketchy, not sure which.
I don’t really know or use Open Street Map, so I wonder:
Can everyone just manipulate the map data? Is there some sort of control mechanism or is it easy to incorporate fake data?
I’m asking because this seems to be a really fallible concept, where people with malicious intents would have an easy way to disturb Open Street Map.
Yes, but similar to Wikipedia (where the same holds true) the forces fo good and honest seem to prevail.
Personally I think a great combo is mapping stuff out with the phone where you can survey the place and have GPS, and then sending those changes to a computer to polish in JOSM if needed (e.g. when you’re building new ways and want to make their geometry nicer) which is a lot more powerful editor and more comfortable than doing it on a touchscreen.
But whichever editor you prefer, I concur that mapping is very fun and also useful. :)
(And a lot more straight forward than trying to make a change in Apple or especially Google Maps…)
Oh heck yea! My neighborhood is better mapped on OSM than Google Maps even now! Very fulfilling to see.
My shed is mapped in OSM.
Meanwhile Google maps has not got the shed and has the entirety of my property about 10 ft east of its actual location. Essentially terraced up to a neighbouring property even though it’s not connected to that property and there is an alleyway.
But I suppose I could say that doesn’t really matter for street navigation, which is what Google maps is actually for.
Naaah mate… it can matter a lot lol. We have a road closure (for the past few months) in our neighborhood. Google maps still hasn’t updated it. I routinely see drivers driving up to it and getting annoyed for having to turn back. This wouldn’t have happened had they used OSM tho!
kind of like Pokémon Go but you are actually making an impact
I caught the whole first generation + my favorite Celebi. How’s that for an impact?
I just installed StreetComplete because of your post and it’s a lot of fun! I guess I’ll be doing this on my walks from now on :-)
Honestly, thanks for your post. It inspired me to actually download the app and i solved a bit of issues around my area today.
It’s actually fun and it also helps other people and increase the quality of OSM overall. This could motivate me to also just go for a walk instead of hanging in front of my computer so again: thx for your post <3
Another recommendation, especially for addresses and points of interest, is https://every-door.app/
It’s not as pretty as StreetConplete but it’s fine to work with.
Hmm. I dislike that it uploads every thing as a separate change. I much more prefer editing the whole area and saving it as one neat package, rather than posting hundreds of “this is road is made of asphalt” posts.
So it’s not for me, but if that helps to make OSM better, I’m all for it!
Maybe I could make a separate account without neat history and from time to time click some icons in the app though. That probably wouldn’t bother me as much.
There is a “road” near my house in OSM that does not exist and OSM is always trying to route me though it, which is very annoying. Is there any way to mark them for removal? StreetComplete doesn’t seem to have that capability.
You could use the editor on the website which although messy, would work fine for removing a road on mobile. Or you can use an app like Vespucci which is more advanced, but it also has a bit more of a learning curve. Or you can create a note like others have recommended but depending on the activity in the area might not be seen for a while.
Wow you’re right! I didn’t know they have an online editor. I thought the app is the only way to submit changes. I’m able to delete the section of the road that don’t actually exist in my area, let’s see if the changes will be accepted. Thanks!
Yep, StreetComplete is one of the many editors for OpenStreetMap! Just to name a few:
Mobile (Android & iOS Mixed):
- Vespucci.
- EveryDoor
- Go Map!!
Desktop:
- iD (the online editor on the website)
- RapiD
- JOSM
- Level0
And many more! There’s a list on the OpenStreetMap wiki.
This is my pastime whenever I don’t have anything to do online. It’s fun to point something on OSM and remembering the establishments you’ve walkthrough.
It seems like a very helpful service. I don’t use cell data which means no GPS to contribute to it. I only use apps through wi-fi exclusively.
Pretty sure you can download the maps ahead of time, GPS doesn’t require data, then upload the fixes when you get home.
does it need cell-data? why? that surprises me; but then again maybe not . . .
It does not.
If you’d like to be able to search for house addresses in osmand+ you can download these map packs… A total life saver…
