this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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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.

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[–] Squibbles@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I've submitted a few corrections before. Garmin or Strava used it for mapping runs and I quite liked it because in my area their maps of trails were actually much more complete and up to date than Google maps. For example in one nature park the current trails were shown on osm but Google showed a completely different set. I later came across a really old and faded sign in the park that showed trails that lined up with what Google showed despite them not existing any more. The new trails WERE shown on a pdf the city provided on their website but I guess they must have never been submitted to Google or something. Fortunately there must have been some dedicated OSM users in my area who were inputting updates.

[–] TheNumberOfGeese@feddit.uk 5 points 1 year ago

It brings me a lot of joy to contribute to OSM. I haven't written anything other than the occasional script for years, so it feels good to help the community in ways like this instead.

I've sunk so many hours into it. Either "armchair mapping" with OSM and the imagery overlays, or (more fun) wandering with the android Street Complete app to fill in gaps when I'm out and about.

[–] pgetsos@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I contribute as much as I can, mostly through StreetComplete. I see it as a hobby when it isn't too hot/cold outside, to take a walk around my area and map houses and addresses. I find it super important

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[–] kbity@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

OsmAnd actually works pretty well in my experience, at least in the UK. It's not always up to date or fully-detailed but it's far from useless and I appreciate that. It's my primary map program on my phone.

[–] kenoh@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

I am a mod (and main poster) at c/castles and include an OSM link with all my posts.

[–] digdilem@feddit.uk 4 points 1 year ago

Yes, I've populated most of my local area, and every time I go for a walk or bike ride, I add as much detail that I can. I also find it very enjoyable and it's pretty cool to see features I added show up in all kinds of mapping services that use its data

Osm now has the clearest and most detailed maps for walking that I know, and I use them in preference to the UK's ordnance survey maps, which don't scale so well on electronic devices.

[–] LLovegood@mujico.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use organic maps, based on openstreetmap, it has more information than i expected but still much less than google. It’s almost on par with apple maps where I live, both significantly worse than google.

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[–] Flaky@iusearchlinux.fyi 4 points 1 year ago

I rarely use any maps, but OpenStreetMap is used by Rate Your Music to show where artists you've rated at least once came from.

[–] SymbolicLink@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Used: yes

Contributed: no

I know I know, I am sorry. Just started using it a few months ago (through Organic Maps on iOS), and honestly have started using it more than Google/Apple Maps. This is a good reminder for me so get off my ass and start contributing.

[–] AmyCupcake@lib.lgbt 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Thank you very much for your efforts, there’s a lot of inertia about mapping places with low amounts of detail. Remember to reach out to your local OSM communities for advice, and the OSM wiki.

[–] KellyThomas@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I used OSM tiles when creating webmaps sometimes and they can be great.

That said it's coverage is inconsistent. This area around a highschool has really high detail footprints for the houses so I think it might have been part of their IT class at some point.

https://imgur.com/a/8PA8xBS

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[–] Maiznieks@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Me and it was so cool. My (approx 25k inhabitant) town had like 5 roads and one of them was completely wrong. I rode ~20km every few days on a bicycle trough all streets, uploaded gpx and drew roads. I think it was around 200+km to draw all streets, but the end result was so satisfying.

I have updated plenty of poi data since then, i love the idea that data is open and can be used by anyone. Yes, there are better and more feature complete solutions, but this one is about community. Btw osm had more frequent updates and when there were major road construction in our capital city, all navigatiom systems but osm were useless, it updated on a daily basis and was always accurate.

The power of community, we can only make it better.

[–] ntzm@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago

I do a lot, we also use the OpenStreetMap data for my work. I enjoy it but it's definitely lacking in some areas, and there's no app that really comes close to being a Google Maps replacement sadly.

[–] ezmack@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

There used to be a mobile game that would have you go around and complete tasks to fill out the map (still might be idk). That's pretty much what google did with ingress

[–] Obi@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wait Google was using ingress submissions as data to Google maps? First I hear of that, crazy.

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