this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
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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 😁

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[–] Schlemmy@lemmy.ml 96 points 2 years ago (4 children)

I'm addicted to Streetcomplete. I'm 20.000+ edits in. I make about 100 with ease on my commute to work.

[–] moreeni@lemm.ee 27 points 2 years ago

You are a hero

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 22 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I installed it. Judging by the mass of blank info, I guess I'm the only person around here using it lol. 😳

[–] joeldebruijn@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.😁

[–] agent_flounder@lemmy.one 7 points 2 years ago

I am never getting lost in my own neighborhood again!! (Me irl)

[–] gonzoknowsdotcom1@monero.town 11 points 2 years ago (6 children)
[–] nexussapphire@lemm.ee 31 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] lukecooperatus@lemmy.ml 26 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Rexios@lemm.ee 7 points 2 years ago

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.

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[–] 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 2 years ago

Check out Go Map!!, it's also open source and has a similar feature to StreetComplete with its quests, at least from what I've heard about how StreetComplete works.

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[–] kambusha@feddit.ch 6 points 2 years ago

Cool! Never seen this before. Just downloaded and signed up.

[–] Xel@mujico.org 27 points 2 years ago

Just did around 150 contributions, looks fun so I might complete more quests tomorrow

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 18 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Schlemmy@lemmy.ml 18 points 2 years ago (3 children)

MagicEarth has got a live traffic layer for you.

Magic earth is great

[–] thehellrocc 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Unfortunately, it's not open source though.

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[–] nawordar@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

If it is free as in beer, but not as in freedom, and is developed by a company, then what is their business model?

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[–] thejevans@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] sixfold@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] rikudou@lemmings.world 17 points 2 years ago

kind of like PokΓ©mon Go but you are actually making an impact

I caught the whole first generation + my favorite Celebi. How's that for an impact?

[–] ExLisper@linux.community 17 points 2 years ago

I didnΒ΄t realize editing OSM is so easy. I just logged in, did a short tutorial and fixed one intersection where a week ago the app told to do an illegal turn. Awesome!

[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I use Organic maps, and it's easy to add and edit places with.

[–] Schlemmy@lemmy.ml 13 points 2 years ago

MapComplete is more about tagging.

[–] redcalcium@lemmy.institute 12 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)

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.

[–] Tiuku@sopuli.xyz 22 points 2 years ago

You can always long press on a problematic place and leave a freeform note. A more experienced mapper can then fix the issue.

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[–] moitoi@feddit.de 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm contributing at my level. But, when I see all the errors, issues and missing object around me, it's a full time job for at least one months.

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[–] MixedRaceHumanAI@lemm.ee 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Suoko@feddit.it 11 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Maps.me and organicsmaps apps are great too to edit osm. You can also replace google maps and its navigator which is great because if you don't find something on maps.me, you can immediately add it.

[–] UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Oh heck yea! My neighborhood is better mapped on OSM than Google Maps even now! Very fulfilling to see.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] 2xsaiko@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 2 years ago

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...)

[–] Zacryon@feddit.de 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

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.

[–] brainlessnick@feddit.de 17 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yes, but similar to Wikipedia (where the same holds true) the forces fo good and honest seem to prevail.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 2 years ago

Even more than on Wikipedia. The problem with Wikipedia is it tries to use a wiki to write about contentious issues like politics, culture war, religion, national conflicts etc. too and wikis just aren't a very suitable mechanism for that. OSM tries to limit itself to completely objective facts about the world, wikis are very well suited for that.

[–] schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 2 years ago

It is a wiki. While anyone can add fake data, there are monitoring tools to make sure that if someone does that, others will notice and remove it again.

[–] Takios@feddit.de 6 points 2 years ago

I recently contributed a business change and got a message a few hours later that I had made a mistake and a small explanation on how to fix it.

This probably depends on the area, but at least changes in my area seem to be monitored by good people.

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[–] Extrasvhx9he@lemmy.today 8 points 2 years ago (4 children)
[–] JackGreenEarth@lemm.ee 5 points 2 years ago

As far as I am aware, yes.

[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

To contribute changes, yes. You still can share information as an anonymous user with OSM Notes, but then you need to be clear and a bit exhaustive. You can add a note that says "7-eleven" and a mapper can easily add it later, but for a restaurant called "The Coast", for example, you need to explicitly write in the note that it is a restaurant serving seafood, details of the address and opening hours would be great too.

[–] Schlemmy@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago

A OSM account, yes. You can join with OpenID if you want.

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[–] domesticstreetcat@feddit.ch 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

StreetComplete is awesome and so easy to use.

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[–] MorganCS@discuss.online 7 points 2 years ago

This is a blast, thanks for the recommendation

[–] MazonnaCara89@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago

And rember Pokemon Go uses osm for their data so you are making an impact on them too.

[–] c0mmando@links.hackliberty.org 5 points 2 years ago (5 children)

If you'd like to be able to search for house addresses in osmand+ you can download these map packs.. A total life saver..

https://github.com/pnoll1/osmand_map_creation

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Yep - been using it for a week or two myself. Nearly 400 points so far!

[–] agile_squirrel@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

I just started using it but I made a mistake on one of my submissions. Is there any way to undo or edit a submission made in the app?

Edit: There is an undo button on the bottom left in the app.

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[–] ovec@lemmy.wtf 5 points 2 years ago (4 children)

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.

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