hello fediverse! I'm looking for openstreetmap users (or rather: editors) that would be willing to talk to me for a journalistic article (in the Luxembourgish leftist weekly "woxx") about their experience.
it doesn't matter if you edit #osm #openstreetmap a lot or only casualy, I'd just be interested to hear different voices.
(you can also just reply to this toot and tell me why you started to edit osm/whats your motivation to do it/what problems you see)
boosts more than welcome
and here is the article, thanks everybody who retooted and answered. as always, I had far more answers than I could use as quotes. https://www.woxx.lu/openstreetmap-gute-karten-fuer-alle/
@jollysea I do edits up here in Västerbotten, Sweden. OSM is a thing in the local hackerspace, which is why I started editing. I tend to use JOSM and StreetComplete mostly. proper tagging of things is always an issue. I tend to just copy tags from surrounding areas.
@jollysea I edit OSM in Australia. Sometimes this is because I'm trying to use OsmAnd to get places and find that it can't route there because there's a track not represented on the map, and other times it's so I can add detail to areas that I intend to make into printed maps.
@mattcen thanks! What are you using those printed maps for? Hiking/scouting?
@jollysea Yes, usually; hiking or camping with my Scouts. Often the OSM data is pretty good but could use a little refinement from local government (openly licensed) map data, so where it makes sense, I contribute the alternations I'd need to make in QGIS back up to OSM for others to use too (also it means I don't have to store the tweaks locally, which makes life easier).
@jollysea how much I'm editing depends a little bit on my time. During lockdown and homeoffice I had more time to go outside for a walk and find a lot of things to map. In the past I mapped a lot of buildings in cities I know using satellite imagery. If I don't have much time, I use StreetComplete every now and then to improve some features.
@jollysea Thanks for sharing! I enjoyed reading it.
@futzle thanks!
@jollysea@cybre.space didn't you do lots of things there @qbi@mastodon.social or did I mix that up?
@sugarbell @jollysea Yeah, I do some things in OSM and would be willing to talk. 🙂
@jollysea@cybre.space I edit OSm sometime when there is a mistake or a missing information in the town i live in.
The more closer to my appartment, the more i edit.
Even looking ath the "marked" thingies (don't know what they are called) and try to fix them or get the information next time i walk past that.
Unfortunately, mapping here is generally quite terrible, so when planning to go somewhere, I always have to check and see if it's been added first. If it is, awesome
If it's not, I add it myself.Keeping in mind that I'm just a casual contributor and not privy to the inner-workings of the larger OSM community, that's really the biggest problem I see. I've heard the situation is different in Europe but my area of the US has practically no street addresses and relatively few named locations so we have to either add the establishment ahead of time ourselves or use geo-coordinates, which is usually less-than-ideal.
That said, I love how open OSM is. If there's a missing location, it takes about 5 minutes to put a quick-and-dirty contribution together and maybe 20-30 if you want to be really thorough. If some information is incorrect, you can just correct it! No need to submit feedback and wait multiple days for someone at Google to get back to you about it.
It's a wonderful project with a lot of awesome tooling. It just needs some more contributors
@jollysea Hello, I contribute to #osm #openstreetmap to help the knowledge of the world : describe the reality of my town, define the landscape, precise materials, etc.
I think I can use a part of my life to contribute to the "commons" (things that are "used" by everybody). It makes me happy if my work can help 😃.
@jollysea Not sure if I'm relevant, since I'm on the wrong side of the pond, but I mostly contribute because I love the idea of open source/data, and I don't have the skill to contribute to many other projects.
The best part about OpenStreetMap is how easy it is to make useful contributions. While you do occasionally go down wiki rabbit-holes (ex: what is the tag for this feature?), the vast majority of what needs adding is simple, easy, and easily noticeable on the map. It's very rewarding
@jollysea I started using OSM because of Google privacy concerns, and because it supported offline maps.
I make occasional edits to keep it up to date and correct errors as I find them. I haven't been involved in any organised mapping parties etc. but I live in a big city which is already well-mapped.
@jollysea I've recently gotten into it! Mostly been mapping local areas in my town (in Ontario, Canada)
thanks to everybody, I think I have enough :D
meanwhile I absolutly have to click every one of these: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Funny_signs#Gallery_of_funny_signs_and_other_funny_stuff