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anutensil TheSkyNet Skuld ...and 3 more 2014 The Rise of OpenStreetMap (thenextweb.com) submitted 9 hours ago by pmciano 318 comments share top 200 commentsshow all 318 sorted by: best [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 90 points 6 hours ago* I'm not going to argue whether it's worth it or not, but for the people who are interested you can check it out very easily, and get involved to the degree you want. Simply go to http://www.openstreetmap.org/ to see the map data. That's just a vi ew of the data, not the only visualization possible; it's made for contributors mostly. Look up where you live for example. If you see a mistake, you can indicate it using the marker icon on the right. Dr op it where the mistake it and describe it; you don't need any account. If you want to improve the map yourself, you just need to create an account. It' s very well guided, and all is done in the browser, no need for additional softw are. Obviously advanced contributors use more complicated software, but you don't nee d any of that to make contributions. Edit: I'll add that it's quite satisfying to see your additions and fixes coming up in various mapping applications later. Edit2: Here's a view of the default editor (that's a random French village), so you can see that's it's not technical at all. It's all in the browser and you ca n edit things easily. Move nodes around, add roads, whatever. The Bing satellite imagery is overlaid to make it even easier. permalink [ ]Ghune 45 points 4 hours ago When Google ask for volunteers, they monetize on your work. OSM gives free acces s to many different maps (biking, wheelchair, city maps, hiking, etc.). There ar e many ways people can contribute: just add a shop where you live, update those that have changed, etc. You can also bring your smartphone on a hike and add it so everybody will be able to do it (that's what I personally do a lot). FInally, you can download an offline version of OSM on your smartphone, which is great if you have to go somewhere where you may not have a signal (forest, high mountains, etc.)

permalink parent [ ]b00ks 4 points 2 hours ago Care to elaborate on the process? I'd love to create maps with my phone, but only really know how to do it via goo glemaps or runkeeper (etc). permalink parent load more comments (2 replies) [ ]norwegiantranslator 6 points 4 hours ago If you want to improve the map yourself, you just need to create an account. It's very well guided, and all is done in the browser, no need for additional s oftware. Do you know what Android apps can be used to add to or alter OSM? permalink parent [ ]Serial_Chiller 8 points 3 hours ago You could use Vespucci, for example. I never tried it though because I think a r egular PC is much better for editing OSM data, partly because of the bigger scre en, but mostly because touchscreens are no replacement for mouse and keyboard. E diting OSM data is very similar to working with graphics software and nobody wou ld do that on a phone or tablet either. What I do use on my Android phone is OSMpad. It's a little tool that allows you to tag houses with house numbers. This way I can just walk down a street and set the house numbers right there on my phone. permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 1 point 3 hours ago No sorry, I haven't looked at that. I think Osmand has some tools for it, but th ere's certainly more. I know there are apps to log a GPS trace that you can later import on your compu ter to map from it, but that's something different than mapping directly from th e terrain. permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) [ ]judgej2 3 points 2 hours ago So, is there an Android app I can use to map streets? Around my home are many ba ck-alleys and footpaths (the front of my house is on a footpath and not a road) that are not mapped. I would be happy to walk the area and name the traces, if i

t is easy to do so. I installed a GPS route mapper on my Tomtom years ago, and it must have thousand s of miles of routes in it now (not normalised to the Tomtom maps). I have simpl y never found an easy way to transfer it to Open Streetmap. permalink parent [ ]gearh 5 points 1 hour ago MyTracks for android saves tracks. permalink parent [ ]judgej2 1 point 1 hour ago Ta. I'll give that go. permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 3 points 2 hours ago There are some apps that do this, like Vespucci, but I haven't investigated more because it's a bit of a pain to do that on a phone anyway. The simplest for you to map those is to use the online editor, and add those str eet from your computer. You can place them easily since the view is overlaid wit h satellite imagery. Since you're from the area you can tag them with names easi ly. Otherwise, since you're willing to go around to map, mappers typically use a dev ice or app that logs their trips and produce a .gpx file. Then they input it in the editor and map with it. You'll really find more info on the wiki. I'm a bit short on details here I'm af raid. permalink parent [ ]judgej2 1 point 2 hours ago I'm surprised about being able to trace the satellite images. I would have thoug ht that would make it a derived work of something that someone has paid a lot of money for and has deep pockets to protect it. permalink parent [ ]realpheasantplucker 3 points 2 hours ago IIRC, Yahoo Maps was an early commercial contributor to OSM. They offered their satellite imagery for free to help the project. Maybe Bing is doing the same in this context..? permalink parent

[ ]judgej2 2 points 1 hour ago* The online editor is just brilliant! I have mapped out a load of service roads a nd footpaths around my area, some of which I have given them their proper names that even Google didn't have. Unsure whether footpaths are supposed to join roads where they meet, and if so, how, if they happen to open into a large paved area on the corner of a street, b ut I'll make some enquires into that. We also have access to some maps of the historic wagonways that run through the area (these took coal from the mines further North to the coast, along 5+ mile t racks on a gentle incline, pulled back and forth by very long ropes - this was b efore steam trains!). I'll see if those can be added as a layer, as I know the g uy that did a lot of the mapping. Also we have access to many historic maps of the area through some close work we are doing with English Heritage. It is really exciting just thinking about what layers can be added to OSM :-) I also have all the UK counties I traced from maps a number of years ago for a p roject. The counties were overlaid as polygons onto Google Maps, but they can be converted into any coordinate system makes sense. Just not got around to releas ing them since the project moved on. They were quite detailed, with many thousan ds of coordinates traced from historic and satellite images. permalink parent [ ]maxerickson 2 points 1 hour ago All types of roads that cross at the same level should share a node. Crossings o ver bridges and through tunnels should not be connected. For the second question, the 'logical' footpath continues across the area. There are ways to map areas, but it is also sufficient to just extend the sensible pa ths through the area. permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 1 point 1 hour ago* Bing has an agreement with OSM so that we can map from it (but not from Bing Map s). permalink parent [ ]atakomu 2 points 1 hour ago If you have tracks. You can upload it to openstreetmap and leave it there. The y ou can (on a PC) trace over them and tag it as street/path/etc. Beginners guide. I started adding data to OSM when I updated a map which was wrong now I am usin g it on Garmin because cycle paths are much better on OSM then on Garmin maps. permalink parent

load more comments (2 replies) [ ]advisednorthward 1 point 3 hours ago I'm curious if you (or anyone else reading this) knows of some good examples to search for on the map. Just wondering what is possible with this vs. google maps . permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 11 points 3 hours ago A lot more things are mapped compared to Google. Google focuses on roads and bus inesses. OSM maps everything that's mappable. You get paths, trails, power lines, buoys (for boats), even individual trees in some parks, farming areas, cable cars, bike paths, airport taxiways, speed camer as, pedestrian crossings, individual red lights, old mine entrances, glaciers, d isaffected railways Take a look here, it's really everything. With a search you're really just searching for cities and businesses. For that y ou won't find much interest compared to Google Maps. The viewer on the official website is actually a bad example of implementation f or consumers also, the search tool isn't very effective. permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) [ ]purekaffeine 5 points 2 hours ago Just look anywhere that has walking trails OSM is almost always far superior to Google, at least here in Australia. I would rarely rely on Google Maps' walking trail data for on-foot navigation but OSM I know the data for walking trails is often based on people who've walked the trail with a GPSr so it's going to be ac curate within metres not to mention that it won't send me to a dead end or some obstacle. permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) [ ]atakomu 4 points 1 hour ago ATM is one of the thing that is mapped. Then you have Cycle maps. Wheel chair ma ps. With OSM data you can also do multi transport routing with OSS product OpenT rip Planner. Every map you see on first link is from the same OSM data only diff erent things are shown. One great thing is you can take map with you without internet connection on smar tphone, or Garmin devices. You can also do car or bicycle routing without intern et connection. You can download all OSM data and style it anyway you want and show only the thi ngs you want. Or you pay someone else to do it for you to use a map for a brochu re. None of this is possible with Google maps.

permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) load more comments (1 reply) [ ]textima 273 points 7 hours ago* A quest to conquer Google s mapping empire OpenStreetMaps isn't really directly comparable to Google Maps, it's an open geo graphical database which anyone can build on, not a single consumer product. If you compare OpenStreetMap.org to Maps.Google.com, clearly google comes out on to p (apart from poorly mapped areas, footpaths, etc), but that's not the point. Wh en all of this geographical information is available freely, any developer with a good idea can write a product around it. Google provides access to its APIs, t o use its finished product within various contexts, but it is only Google itself who can go back to its core data, and write some completely new application. Probably the best example is WheelMap.org, which uses the OpenStreetMap database to store and display information about wheelchair accessibility. You can't rely on a single monopolistic company to undertake this kind of innovation, they hav e neither the ideas as the rest of the community, nor, necessarily, the willingn ess to spend money developing a product which may well not be very profitable. A nd, once the information has been gathered, and is available openly, you can the n take it and reprocess it. You could produce maps which show which parts of a c ity or a country are most wheelchair friendly, you could produce applications th at only send people along through wheelchair accessible routes, and so on. In ot her words, rather than allowing people to play with a nicely polished black box, these sorts of open databases give the entire community a way to get into the g uts of the thing, and innovate from the ground up. permalink [ ]pig-newtons 53 points 5 hours ago that's the point though. They're not providing you with yet another map website but a database of info that anyone can use to make their site. If everyone does start to use then then it conquers google and we hopefully get better features because people can focus on improving how you use the data rathe r than tackling the monumental task of collecting the same data someone else has already collected. permalink parent [ ]dnew 28 points 5 hours ago It doesn't need to conquer google. Plus, google can do things that openmaps is g oing to have trouble doing too, like tying search results into location results, showing where your friends are on your own map, reevaluate driving directions w hen people avoid following the driving directions (e.g., noticing you need to go look for a one-way sign if you keep telling people to turn right and they keep turning left), giving you traffic information, etc. Google does a lot of stuff with automation that would take a lot of people to do manually (like figure out which house numbers are where on the street, noticing

a new Starbucks has opened close by so directions to "starbucks" gives you dire ctions to the closest one, etc). But in any case, I don't know that "conquer" would be the right word. There's no reason there should be only one source of map data. Of course someone could put all this on top of open map data, but just having the data without tying it all together is less valuable. permalink parent [ ]Vik1ng 15 points 4 hours ago* Google does a lot of stuff with automation that would take a lot of people t o do manually It doesn't take that many people. One dedicated person can easily map a small vi llage or his neighborhood. like figure out which house numbers are where on the street But this is also a task that at some point will be pretty much done. House numbe rs don't really change and there aren't that many new ones. A lot of cities in G ermany already are have above 90% coverage. noticing a new Starbucks has opened close by so directions to "starbucks" gi ves you directions to the closest one, etc Actually chances are someone with OSM will be faster as he will notice it, pull out the smartphone, open a editing app and it's done within minutes. permalink parent [ ]olga_ravn 15 points 3 hours ago I don't know why you were downvoted, but I can confirm your points. I mapped my village and surrounding area with house numbers and everything using a gps and t hen later bing satellite images (which are free to use). It took a few months, a nd it was fun most of the time :) I can say that my area is more up to date than commercial alternatives because I know which road is going to be closed for con struction in a month so I'm ready to edit the map when it happens, and where a n ew restaurant is opening, or some building which was demolished to make way for. .. etc. A large number of people with local knowledge is hard to beat. permalink parent [ ]SgtSmackdaddy 3 points 2 hours ago Actually chances are someone with OSM will be faster as he will notice it, p ull out the smartphone, open a editing app and it's done within minutes. Therein lies the problem. What prevents griefiers from opening that same map and declaring a penis store is now open for business there? Or less noticeably sayi ng there is a new starbucks where in fact there is none. permalink parent

[ ]ICanBeAnyone 12 points 2 hours ago That argument really takes me back to the early days of Wikipedia. permalink parent [ ]Ripdog 4 points 2 hours ago Same thing that stops Wikipedia vandalism - editors reviewing other peoples edit s. When the population of editors on a wiki is sufficiently high, this works wel l. permalink parent [ ]dsgnmnky 3 points 2 hours ago That's a, for false, bound why OSM depends on the goodwill of the community. Take a look at Wikipedi example. Sure, someone can edit an entry to something that is completely but there are so many people using the service that somebody somewhere is to notice the false information quickly and reedit it.

permalink parent [ ]emacsen 2 points 1 hour ago Edit Wars in OpenStreetMap: http://blog.emacsen.net/blog/2014/01/17/edit-wars-in -openstreetmap permalink parent [ ]marx2k 4 points 2 hours ago House numbers don't really change and there aren't that many new ones. Let me introduce you to American urban sprawl.. :) permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) load more comments (6 replies) [ ]marx2k 1 point 2 hours ago Plus, google can do things that openmaps is going to have trouble doing too, like tying search results into location results Do you mean reverse geolocation? http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Nominatim permalink parent [ ]dnew 1 point 2 hours ago I mean stuff like you search for "popular movies" and it prefers showing popular

movies playing in theaters near you. Or stuff like "concerts" showing concerts in your city by bands you've listened to on youtube. My point being that it's wrong to think of google maps as being only for map dat a. it's more like it's an additional dimension to everything they do. permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) [ ]death-by_snoo-snoo 2 points 2 hours ago Can you edit it? Add in streets and whatnot? permalink parent [ ]Ripdog 3 points 2 hours ago Of course! OpenStreetMap is entirely built from free data provided by people lik e you. Not sure what owlpellet was talking about, the latest OSM editing tool is extremely easy to use. Click here for the editor. There's also an extensive wik i if you get stuck. permalink parent [ ]owlpellet 1 point 2 hours ago* Yes. At the moment, it's a fairly technical process, akin to patching open sourc e code. OSM is working hard to create editors > has already released editors < t hat are more inclusive of people at all ability levels. permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 8 points 2 hours ago* At the moment, it's a fairly technical process, akin to patching open source code. It's not so difficult at all, it's all very graphical and online. Once you've cr eated an account, you go to a zone and click "edit". The first time you'll have a quick walkaround and then you can directly edit. It's really easy actually. Edit: Here's a view of the default editor. As you can see it's all in the browse r and you can edit things easily. Move nodes around, add roads, whatever. The Bi ng satellite imagery is overlaid to make it even easier. permalink parent [ ]owlpellet 1 point 1 hour ago Hot damn, that editor has come a long way since I last worked with it. :) permalink

parent [ ]death-by_snoo-snoo 2 points 2 hours ago It'd be nice if you could just click on one of the roads and say "this is main s treet". I'll have to look into editing that though. I'd love to contribute. permalink parent [ ]emacsen 4 points 1 hour ago That's exactly how it is. You click "Edit", click on the street and edit the nam e. It'd take you less time than making this reddit post. permalink parent [ ]death-by_snoo-snoo 2 points 1 hour ago Oh, then why did the other person say it was so complicated. permalink parent [ ]emacsen 2 points 1 hour ago Since I'm not them, I have no idea. Why don't you just try it! permalink parent [ ]death-by_snoo-snoo 1 point 1 hour ago I dunno haha. I'll get on that, thanks. permalink parent [ ]naphini 2 points 34 minutes ago I just registered a few minutes ago and already made several edits. I found it t o be quite easy. There is a graphical interface, so I don't know where you're ge tting "akin to patching open source code". I didn't find that to be the case at all. permalink parent [ ]Vik1ng 1 point 1 hour ago and whatnot? https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features permalink parent [ ]0l01o1ol0 1 point 54 minutes ago

Not just sites, but offline applications. When I went to Japan last year, I took my US phone without a Japanese roaming pl an. I kept it offline except for wifi, and I used the free OSMAnd map app with p re-downloaded OSM maps of Japan. I was able to use the phone as a GPS program no problem while in Japan with no data plan. This is not possible with Google Maps, where you need a connection to do even tr ivial map browsing. permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) [ ]chkris 9 points 5 hours ago Once the wheelchair data is made available by WheelMap to OpenStreetMaps, are ot hers who didn't invest in all the work allowed to use that data in a commercial way ? permalink parent [ ]evenhitlerneeds 20 points 4 hours ago Indeed they are. That's why I contribute to OpenStreetMap: My data doesn't go to make a company rich - it becomes part of the commons. permalink parent [ ]textima 6 points 4 hours ago* As I understand it, yes. OpenStreetMap data is already used to one degree or ano ther by for profit businesses, like Skobbler, Mapbox, Foursquare, Craigslist etc . I personally think that's important, this is also about building a healthy bus iness ecosystem. permalink parent [ ]MastersInDisasters 1 point 55 minutes ago Google Maps does use it. See my just posted comment. permalink parent [ ]TheRealGunnar 6 points 4 hours ago Short answer: Yes. The OSM data is licensed under the ODBL which allows commerci al use (with certain restrictions). permalink parent [ ]rndzvs 7 points 5 hours ago Google provides access to its APIs

OSM does too (look at Foursquare or Apple, for example), and OSM doesn't charge. permalink parent [ ]Vik1ng 5 points 2 hours ago I think his point was more that google only gives you the limited API, while OSM basically gives you access to the whole database. permalink parent [ ]Salahdin 3 points 2 hours ago Actually Apple merged some OSM data into their mapping data, but that was before the license changed. If they did that with the new license, they'd have to open source all their data too, which is very unlikely to happen. permalink parent [ ]emacsen 1 point 1 hour ago Actually, what you said is the opposite of the truth. The new license is more mo re tolerant of mixing data than the old one. permalink parent [ ]Salahdin 2 points 1 hour ago How? That was the understanding I got from this blog post: https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2012/10/02/apple-maps/ Surely if it is using open street map data it would have to release all the data as open data, which it clearly hasnt done. The reply: If Apple has used data from OSM it is clearly pre-licence change. CC by-SA doesn t require release of the subject mater in any specific form, it just requires you to allow further distribution of what you have published (ass uming that CC by-SA would actually be considered relevant to OSM data). There are some very sane reasons that we spent the last years working on the licence change. The new license: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Legal_FAQ#3b._If_I_have_data _derived_from_OSM_data.2C_do_I_have_to_distribute_it.3F The license does not force you to distribute or make any data available. But if you do distribute or publicly use anything derived from it - a Deriva tive Database - then the derivative database must be available under the same li

cence as the OSM data (the Open Database License). You must make the derivative database available on request to anyone who received your data, viewed the work made from it, or used your service. You could do this by putting it on a site fo r free download, or offering your users the option of emailing you for a copy. permalink parent [ ]MastersInDisasters 2 points 55 minutes ago Google Maps and Bing consume the data there, at least in part. I changed a railway line to a bike path line. It never showed up in Google Maps until 9 days later. Highly unlikely that someone copied the item point for point through the GUI Google provides. permalink parent [ ]IntellegentIdiot 5 points 6 hours ago Can't that be done with google maps? permalink parent [ ]bcthecat 15 points 5 hours ago No. OSM provides you complete access to raw data so you can render your own tile s any way you want. With google maps you are essentially stuck using google tile s. Yes you can overlay your own features and markers but this is not the same le vel of control afforded by OSM. permalink parent [ ]IntellegentIdiot 6 points 5 hours ago Didn't know that. What can rendering your own tiles do, that overlaying can't? permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 10 points 5 hours ago You can render exactly what you need for your specific application. Maybe you're making an application that focuses on bikes, so you don't map motorways at all. Or you focus on boats, so you render things only on water, nothing on the groun d. Or you're doing something about trains and only map train lines. Or you want to make a visualization of the power lines in an area (yes, power lines are mapp ed in OSM). Obviously you can also make it look how you like (colors, map key ). permalink parent [ ]norwegiantranslator 3 points 4 hours ago power lines are mapped in OSM

How does this happen? Does someone walk around cataloguing all the power lines? (Obviously not, so what's the method?) permalink parent [ ]Vik1ng 6 points 3 hours ago How does this happen? Does someone walk around cataloguing all the power lin es? (Obviously not, so what's the method?) Well, people walk around and add stuff so that could be exactly what happened. O r what probably happens more often is that the company or the government can pro vide such data sets. http://www.itoworld.com/map/4?lon=-0.46200&lat=51.24915&zoom=9 permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 3 points 3 hours ago Generally the map is started from various open mapping databases, like from the government. Some of those contains information about power lines. After that, it needs lots of fixing and adding, and that is done by hand by cont ributors indeed. Many of them actually add things they find by going around. permalink parent [ ]withabeard 3 points 3 hours ago Obviously not, so what's the method? You say that, I know someone who has mapped onto their town the reference number s of each of the wooden telephone poles. People really do walk around cataloguin g these things for fairly large areas. This is much of the principle around OpenSource type projects. A small amount of effort from one person benefits everyone else immensely. permalink parent [ ]volatile_ant 2 points 3 hours ago They have an aerial underlay in the OSM editors, so most of the geometry is trac ed from that. But the image is not necessarily up to date (as with any service o f this type) so there is an amount of wiggle room that must be accepted. permalink parent [ ]owlpellet 2 points 2 hours ago You can look at overhead imagery and draw a lot of features. Powerlines are one of those. This can be done remotely, such as the volunteer teams that worked aro und the clock to update maps of Haiti after the earthquake there blocked roads a

nd destroyed bridges. permalink parent [ ]owlpellet 2 points 2 hours ago Check out this gallery: https://www.mapbox.com/tilemill/gallery/#tmcw.rrrr2 That's all OSM data. permalink parent [ ]bcthecat 5 points 4 hours ago* Didn't know that. What can rendering your own tiles do, that overlaying can' t? There are huge performance and artistic gains to be had when you are in control of tile generation. You control exactly which data shows up on the map and exact ly how it should be styled. For example, check out this cool tile set that is re ndered to look like a water color painting: http://maps.stamen.com/watercolor/#12/37.7706/-122.3782 How would you do this with overlays? I mean, comparing the two approaches is not even an apples to apples comparison. Edit for more maps Check out this mapbox gallery for more examples permalink parent [ ]k3nd0n 2 points 4 hours ago That watercolor stamen map works just as well on google maps, its just a layer. http://maps.stamen.com/test/google.html permalink parent [ ]bcthecat 5 points 2 hours ago That watercolor stamen map works just as well on google maps, its just a lay er. No. The tiles are still being rendered by stamen using OSM data. Thats the point i am trying to make. Too many people in this thread cant separate the idea of a map viewer (presentation layer) from the underlying data. Yes, most map viewers (google maps, open layers, leaflet, etc...) allow you to l oad "layers" from many different sources. Google does not give you access to the raw data that will allow you to render your own tile sets. This is the big diff erence.

permalink parent [ ]norwegiantranslator 1 point 4 hours ago check out this cool tile set that is rendered to look like a water color pai nting Is there an android app for that? It looks so pretty. :3 I want to use it for al l my map needs. permalink parent [ ]borbus 33 points 5 hours ago You can actually edit Google Maps. You're effectively working for Google for no pay and even you can't access the data that you have contributed to. We call thi s crowd-serfing. permalink parent [ ]dredmorbius 2 points 25 minutes ago crowd-serfing I like that. More: "Crowd-serfing". permalink parent load more comments (2 replies) [ ]Vik1ng 12 points 5 hours ago It probably could, but google does not want to hand out its raw data that way. permalink parent load more comments (17 replies) [ ]Moggyman 4 points 5 hours ago OpenStreetMap is great, especially for developers, but for the general public to adapt it, it will need satellite imagery. The problem is a global imagery data set is extremely expensive, especially to maintain at the level Google does, the y buy imagery daily from companies such as DigitalGlobe. permalink parent [ ]bcthecat 11 points 4 hours ago OpenStreetMap is great, especially for developers, but for the general publi c to adapt it, it will need satellite imagery.

I think you are confused about OpenStreetMap. It is data not a map viewer applic ation. Yes, there is a map viewer available at www.OpenStreetMap.com but it is o nly an example of what can be done with the data. permalink parent [ ]borbus 9 points 5 hours ago http://open.mapquest.com/ There you go. OSM data and satellite imagery on the sa me page. The point of the post you are replying to is that there is a difference between OpenStreetMap, a project to develop a free geographical database that can be use d for, amongst other things, making maps, and a website that has maps on it. permalink parent [ ]marx2k 3 points 2 hours ago I think you meant http://mapq.st/NA6W2h :) permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 4 points 4 hours ago Technically you can use free aerial imagery to overlay on an OSM map in your app lication. For example Bing gave the authorization to OSM to overlay their imager y and even map from it. That imagery would come with whatever restriction the provider wants, but at lea st you can have a completely free and open map and overlay some imagery. permalink parent load more comments (3 replies) [ ]dre2001 1 point 2 hours ago Is there a possible way to edit it so that Philadelphia shows up when you're vie wing a zoomed out part of Pennsylvania? It only seems to show up when I zoom in far enough. permalink parent [ ]Firesand 1 point 1 hour ago OpenStreetMaps isn't really directly comparable to Google Maps I think that is kind of the point of it growing.

Similarly trees that are just planted are not as tall as ones that have been aro und for 20 years. permalink parent [ ]CRISPR 16 points 6 hours ago I remember the new freeway opening day, it popped up in OSM the same day and it took Google Maps couple of months to reflect that new route on their maps. permalink load more comments (1 reply) [ ]pigfish 106 points 7 hours ago* In the age of ubiquitous surveillance and big-data, the OpenStreetMap project is a breath of fresh air. This project deserves serious financial backing and comm unity support from everyone who understands software freedom. It provides crucia l geolocation services without the inherent capture and resale of meta-data that now directly places governments and corporations against the interests of their consituents. The only way OSM will improve is with comunity support. But once it has better f unctionality than Google Maps, there will be no turning back. edit: There are more ways to help OSM than just $$$ permalink [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 24 points 6 hours ago I think it needs map contributions more than financial backing (although that's also useful). Especially for people who aren't aware of the project, it's a bett er introduction to ask about taking minutes to fix mistakes in their area than a sk for money. It depends on the area obviously. Many countries are very well mapped completely already (in Europe for example), but many others are quite lacking in low-densi ty areas (like the US countryside). permalink parent [ ]pigfish 4 points 6 hours ago Thanks for pointing this out. There are many ways to help open software projects beyond just cash. permalink parent [ ]keepthepace 3 points 6 hours ago As a side perk you'll also get to know a lot of the cartography geeks in your ar ea. permalink parent

[ ]rndzvs 14 points 5 hours ago Everyone agreeing with this should go into OSM, look for they neighborhood, and add or fix stuff for a while. It's pretty fun! I love to ride my bike, find a new cycle way, and get home to add it first into OpenStreetMap (their Cyclist view is great!) permalink parent [ ]SycoJack 8 points 5 hours ago What I want more than anything is something with the ability to call up POIs alo ng your route. Say for example you're planning a 3 hour trip between Houston and Austin. You kn ow you're going to want to stop about half way through the trip to get something to eat, so you pull up all the restaurants directly on the route. It gives a li st of restaurants, how much of a detour they are with the max whatever you set a nd how far along into the trip they are roughly. That would be awesome. In the OSM Navigator app, you can set waypoints already. Which is excellent, but you can't search by what's on the route. You have to sea rch like say "Jack in the Box" in the area you want to stop. And in doing so, yo u might miss a JitB that is actually on the route. permalink parent [ ]easwaran 4 points 5 hours ago That sounds like it would be a useful algorithm to write. OSM has the data that are needed, but someone needs to design an effective way to search them for what you're looking for. These people are saying it will be easier to do that for OS M than to do that for Google (unless Google does it itself). permalink parent [ ]SycoJack 1 point 5 hours ago I know, my point was that such a feature would likely destroy any competition. A good UI coupled with that feature and I think a lot of people like myself would be flocking to that app. I'm really surprised that no one has thought of it sooner. While it might be a b it complicated, I can't imagine it would be too hard or expensive for the GPS he avyweights like Google or the guys that do the dedicated car ones. permalink parent [ ]easwaran 1 point 3 hours ago I've thought the killer feature would be one that, instead of giving driving dir ections to your destination, gave driving directions to the nearest parking to y our destination. Given apps like Parker and ParkMe that can find open parking sp aces in cities equipped with sensors, it seems like a natural next step.

I just hate that Google gives driving times and directions that are so blatantly wrong because they leave out the one hard step. (Though perhaps most people are driving to and from suburban destinations where parking is free and easy.) permalink parent [ ]AtmaJnana 4 points 5 hours ago This is one of the features that keeps me using my Garmin GPS instead of relying solely on GoogleMaps. The other feature being the fact that my Garmin GPS has a ll the maps already, so it doesn't eat up my data cap. permalink parent [ ]SycoJack 3 points 4 hours ago Garmin has this ability? I did not know that! As for the maps, with an OSM powered app, you are able to download all the maps to store on your device. So you could do it over wifi and not use your data. However, I haven't used the OSM app yet, as I only downloaded it yesterday and h aven't gone anywhere, let alone anywhere far. So can't recommend it. The UI seem s to be pretty rough around the edges too. But it's definitely something to keep in mind for the future. I have a question for you though, does Garmin allow you to easily and quickly fi nd alternate routes? I tend to do a lot of driving and so it's not uncommon for me to get stuck behind a wreck or heavy construction that wasn't mentioned by my GPS(Google Maps). So I have to find alternate routes the old fashioned way. It would be awesome and rather intelligent if you could press a button to find an a lternative route. Intelligent because they could also have an opt-in feature tha t has it send information back to the servers that could help discover problemat ic areas like wrecks and other road blockages that weren't reported before. permalink parent [ ]AtmaJnana 2 points 4 hours ago I have a question for you though, does Garmin allow you to easily and quickl y find alternate routes? I tend to do a lot of driving and so it's not uncommon for me to get stuck behind a wreck or heavy construction that wasn't mentioned b y my GPS(Google Maps). So I have to find alternate routes the old fashioned way. It would be awesome and rather intelligent if you could press a button to find an alternative route. Intelligent because they could also have an opt-in feature that has it send information back to the servers that could help discover probl ematic areas like wrecks and other road blockages that weren't reported before. My Garmin also has a "Detour" button that will route you around the upcoming 1/4 mile or so of traffic or w/e (auto). OR you can add a way-point arbitrarily and it will re-route you to that way-point (semi-manual). It is also worth noting that you can just turn off the main road and wait for yo ur GPS (Garmin or GoogleMaps) to figure out a new route. permalink

parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 1 point 3 hours ago I haven't used the OSM app yet, as I only downloaded it yesterday Which app have you got? There isn't one OSM official app. OSM is just the projec t that creates the data set. The use of that data set is done by any application . So that means that there are many apps around that use OSM's data, but none is a n official OSM app. permalink parent [ ]shadowman42 1 point 2 hours ago OsmAnd(probably the best OSM app available atm) is clunky and occasionally stupi d, but it is highly functional. It has saved my bacon on more than one occasion this winter with detours and roa d closures due to the weather. I had no signal, so Google maps couldn't be used at all Also, you can download OSM map data and use it on most dedicated GPS devices For example permalink parent [ ]Salahdin 1 point 2 hours ago I tend to do a lot of driving and so it's not uncommon for me to get stuck b ehind a wreck or heavy construction that wasn't mentioned by my GPS(Google Maps) . You should check out Waze, it crowdsources traffic conditions from users in real time and routes around them. permalink parent [ ]gearh 1 point 1 hour ago I am using Navfree to replace my Garmin GPS on Android. It uses OSM data, but in a proprietary database. I can download maps via WiFi. There are other mapping a pps that use OSM data. permalink parent [ ]Saicotic 4 points 6 hours ago It is actually arguably better than gmaps now. I can't compare their actual func tion in practice, but on paper OSM has everything gmaps offers, plus locations o f speed traps and cameras. Oh, and more customizable. You can download all the map data for your state and never have to use mobile data for it again.

permalink parent [ ]Vik1ng 5 points 6 hours ago plus locations of speed traps and cameras. I added one of those recently. Well, that was an interesting read permalink parent load more comments (8 replies) [ ]super_shizmo_matic 2 points 5 hours ago But there is no "Open street map" app to replace Google Maps on my Android phone .... permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 10 points 4 hours ago There are apps that use OSM data. Some examples: Osmand Maps with me Skobbler permalink parent [ ]uguuuuu 4 points 5 hours ago https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ulmon.android.citymaps2go I use the iOS version of this app and it's excellent. permalink parent [ ]crucible 1 point 1 hour ago I like OpenMaps on iOS myself. I used it with the OSM data for some old-fashione d map reading today. Meanwhile our expensive Garmin GPS unit was still "Acquiring Satellites", lol. EDIT: This was the route we took. permalink parent load more comments (2 replies)

[ ]mark_b 5 points 5 hours ago https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.osmand permalink parent [ ]kivle 4 points 4 hours ago I've been using this for my last trips abroad. Excellent application, though the interface can take a bit of time to get used to. Nothing beats weekly updated o ffline syncable searchable vector maps with world wide coverage on your phone. : -) permalink parent [ ]InLoveWithKueppers 1 point 1 hour ago Tru dat. Whenever I travel and I know I won't have a data plan where I'm going, I just download the map of the destination and voil! I will have to check out Skobbler though... It does seem to have a more user-fri endly interface than OSMand permalink parent load more comments (4 replies) load more comments (2 replies) [ ]1wiseguy 2 points 2 hours ago I don't know if this is about hating Google or what, but why would you pick Goog le Map as something that needs an alternative? Google Map is one of those things you would show somebody from 30 years ago to w ow them with technology. I don't know what you would improve. permalink parent [ ]Vik1ng 2 points 48 minutes ago Google decides what you can ad to the map and how you can use it (API). And many people don't like the power that comes with this as google can bascially dictat e what will be shown on the map and what won't. And because maps are something a lot of people need for a lot of different purpo ses and often google maps does not meet those demands. Also google maps itself l acks information depending in where you live. So for example http://wheelmap.org/en/ allows you to mark wheelchair-accessible places in the OSM database which then everybody can extract. If you want to do that with google you have to make an additional layer with you r own database etc.

permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) [ ]ezhlol 9 points 5 hours ago This tool is really great. Wanted to make a realistic map of a region for an app, you can extract data in X ML to use then offline. This is awesome. The editing tool is very good too, updating the map is very easy. permalink [ ]islandalpinist 8 points 4 hours ago I see no comments from fellow wilderness gurus. What I find most exciting about OSM is the fact that with the right community, trail and route sharing has been made easy and super accessible. For a great example, check out OSM for southern Vancouver Island (Greater victoria in particular). Some wonderful contributors h as completely mapped the adjacent back-country (slack-country), uploading even t he most obscure trails. I can run out into the woods with my android and an offline mapping app that can use OSM's cycle layer, and BAM: backcountry topo maps with trails for free on a touchscreen gps! All this with no need to spend hundreds of dollars on a garmin device and maps. For a hiker/mountain-biker/cartography-nerd like myself, it is a dream come true ! permalink [ ]phead 3 points 2 hours ago It's the same for the uk. Goggle maps contains precisely zero rights of way, des pite there being 120,000 miles of them! Thankfully osm contains many of them. permalink parent [ ]Willionaire42 6 points 5 hours ago This is cool I got to map some on it last year for a class. I think it adds a lo t more detail to the mapping of the world and can easily be updated. permalink [ ]borbus 11 points 5 hours ago OpenStreetMap didn't begin as a replacement for Google Maps. It began as a repla cement for Ordnance Survey, the UK's national mapping agency. Ordnance Survey ha s very high quality data covering the whole of Great Britain, but at the time OS M started none of the data was freely available to be used by the public. Google now does the same thing by not allowing access to its data, but its data is extremely poor quality so nobody would want it anyway. Access to its satellit e imagery would be good, though. OSM got access to Bing imagery a few years ago

and it helped a lot. permalink [ ]xhatsux 6 points 3 hours ago A recent use case which highlights some of the advantages of OSM with editable d ata compared to Google maps. I work for the Red Cross. When Haiyan hit the Philippines, many of the towns and villages we would be going to were not mapped. However with the effort of over a 1000 volunteers, some companies generously allowing satellite imagery to be us ed, we had these places on a map that could be passed to the people on the groun d to navigate with. A second stage which still needs refinement was that satellite imagery was obtai ned post disaster for some areas. Buildings could then be assessed as destroyed or not with a particular tag. As the data can be accessed to create your own til es, we were able to create maps with areas not previously mapped and building hi ghlighted in red if they were totally damaged. Here is an article about the project for further reading: http://www.wired.co.uk /news/archive/2013-11/14/red-cross-typhoon-philippines permalink [ ]kivle 4 points 4 hours ago On my last trips abroad, the OSMAND+ application for Android (based on OpenStree tMap data) has been invaluable. Completely searchable, offline vector maps for t he whole world, easily downloadable and refreshed every week. It can even do car /pedestrian navigation with voice. It's pretty amazing. permalink [ ]PoLaR_IV 4 points 4 hours ago Back In Jr. High School, I used to use Yahoo search and Ask Jeeves for just abou t everything related to school work... I remember when this 'Google' first came about.. I said "This thing will never amount to anything"... holy fuck, I was wr ong. permalink [ ]keanex 16 points 6 hours ago The more Google changes their web-based maps the more I hate it. It's still grea t as a GPS, but boy do I loathe the changes they've made to it on the web. permalink [ ]hfzxyq 17 points 5 hours ago* The new maps.google.com is indeed fucking horrendous. Just like every-fucking-ot her application these days, they're more than willing to sacrifice any type of u sability for appearances. Every option is hidden in some menu or collapsed into a dropdown or some bullshit because "clean!" and "minimalistic!". And it's slow as shit. If I look up directions I can't quickly move along the route without th e road names and route fading away so I just lose my place before it reappears. Never a problem with the old google maps. Guess making it pretty is higher prior

ity than making it at all useful. And you can't mouse over the different route o ptions and see them appear in real-time along with the currently selected route, so you can't quickly look at your different options. You actually have to click the route you want, so comparing two routes is essentially fucking useless now because you can't see both routes at the same goddamn time. And they decided jus t using the mouse wheel for entering and exiting street view was just too goddam n easy and convenient so now you have to click and drag the yellow guy to the st reet you want every goddamn time and click the back button at the upper left cor ner of the screen to leave street view. Such bullshit. Luckily you can still revert back to old google maps. For now. permalink parent [ ]keanex 10 points 5 hours ago I hate that I click on a map by accident and it auto zooms way the fuck in. I ge t they're trying to make it look nicer, but on an old computer the maps really l ag now and it's hard to move around them. How can I access the old one? permalink parent [ ]hfzxyq 8 points 5 hours ago There's a little question mark bubble at the bottom right hand area of the map, click it and there's an option to return to classic google maps. Funnily enough, that option used to be easier to find until they decided to "clean up" their in terface a little more. permalink parent [ ]TheRealGunnar 2 points 1 hour ago Thanks so much. I had switched back to the old maps right after the introduction , but then when they automatically switched me again I assumed that the old inte rface no longer existed. And of course it didn't occur to me to check the ? icon ... permalink parent [ ]Echelon64 1 point 2 hours ago but on an old computer the maps really lag now and it's hard to move around them. I have an i7 2600k OC'd to 4.2ghz, 16gb of RAM, and an 80gb Samsung SSD. Google maps lags like all hell no matter what internet connection I am on, Fiber, shitt y wifi from the neighbor, Cox Internet, all laggy as fuck and regardless of brow ser. permalink parent [ ]siscorskiy 2 points 2 hours ago

different browser? i'm running it on my laptop in firefox and it's pretty quick permalink parent [ ]acm 4 points 4 hours ago I concur. I hate that magic box in the top left that is constantly expanding or shrinking, always changing how much of the map I get to see. Thanks for pointing out that you can revert to the old Google Maps. Here's a HOW TO for those who are interested. But just like gmail, at some point you know the y're going to force everyone into the new shitty interface. permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) [ ]SynbiosVyse 14 points 8 hours ago* I tried to replace Google maps with OsmAnd~ (an open street map android app) and I just couldn't do it. It might be great for offline maps, but I had to mess around with it for a while to avoid downloading hundreds of MB and I finally got online maps to work. Even after that, it just wasn't as smart or fast as Google maps. Google has a mu ch larger database and they always figure out what you're trying to say. I have Google location access disabled too, btw. It's great that people are working on this, but it still needs a lot more improv ement before I and probably many others can make this a daily driver. permalink [ ]Thunder_Bastard 16 points 7 hours ago Yeah the entire system is just tough to use. Couple of days ago I needed a hardware store. Go to Google Maps, zoom in on the area I want to search, put in "hardware store" and I get a visual display of whe re all of them are around me. They also properly tag places like Ace or Lowes ev en though they don't literally have "hardware store" in their name. When I tap o n one I get the full name, address, phone and if available even the hours and re views on the store. Try that with OSM.... I just get this weird list of stores that literally o have "hardware store" in the name. Many are 100's or thousands of miles e. The results are also 3+ years old the last time they were updated. Not tion the map itself doesn't have my street which is about 5 years old, or n entrance street that is almost 10 years old. permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 7 points 6 hours ago* Yes, the viewer on OSM's official website doesn't have the feature that filters have t from m to men my mai

search results depending on where you're looking yet. I think it's in the works. That being said, the viewer on that website is supposed to be for contributors t o look at the map first, not for consumers to replace maps.google.com. It's mean t to look at the database, not to use it. I know that it would be beneficial to have a better showcase of that project, an d that's being worked on, but the shortcomings of that viewer don't remove anyth ing to what's possible for third parties. Edit: Not to mention the map itself doesn't have my street which is about 5 years old, or my main entrance street that is almost 10 years old. You can place a marker on that spot using the icon on the right hand side. Place it, quickly describe the issue (missing street, missing driveway ), that way cont ributors will be able to look at it and fix that. permalink parent [ ]Vik1ng 0 points 6 hours ago* https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:shop%3Dhardware Every hardware store should be tagged with that and a map application should be able to read that out and display it. Try that with OSM.... I just get this weird list of stores that literally ha ve to have "hardware store" in the name. Did you use openstreetmap.org ? Because the purpose of that site is that it is a mapping tool, not a map you should use to find locations. Not to mention the map itself doesn't have my street which is about 5 years old, or my main entrance street that is almost 10 years old. So now you are complaining here, when you had 5-10 years to fix it? (yeah sorry that was a bit harsh :/ ) Edit: For example you probably also won't find any relevant playgrounds if you search for them on openstreetmap.org, but if you go to http://toolserver.org/~stephankn /playground/?zoom=13&lat=52.50715&lon=13.39994&layers=BT zoom in to around 1/3 a nd wait you will see that they are there in areas with active mappers. permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 13 points 5 hours ago So now you are complaining here, when you had 5-10 years to fix it? I don't think telling critics that they should fix it themselves is a good way t o introduce the project. We should rather tell them how they can help it easily by putting a mistake marker there for example, that's constructive. PS: I'm a contributor.

permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) [ ]Thunder_Bastard 7 points 5 hours ago What do you mean 5-10 years to fix it? They are both on my 4 year-old Garmin. Th ey are both on Google maps. They are not unknown streets, they show up on every map I have found so far other than OSM. And it is great that users have an open source to create their own maps. However , this ENTIRE ARTICLE is comparing Google Maps and OSM, saying that Google shoul dn't have a stranglehold on the maps consumers use. But when I can get area searches improved with Google's info database, their use r reviews, their overlays and their navigation it isn't really even a comparison . Maybe I'm just not getting it. Maybe when I need a hardware store I need to driv e around and not only tell the mapping program I want to use where all of them a re but also map all of my own streets and tell it how to navigate those streets so I can get to the places I have told it are there. permalink parent [ ]Vik1ng 7 points 5 hours ago The point is that OpenStreetMaps needs contributions just like Wikiepdia needs t hem. If in the beginning everybody would have said "Well, but I can just look th at up in the Encyclopedia Britannica" Wikipedia would not be where it is today". But it was successful, because people looked something up online, saw it wasn't on Wikipedia and then maybe added it later on. Of course both probably benefit the most from people interesting in a certain field/area. Maybe when I need a hardware store I need to drive around and not only tell the mapping program I want to use where all of them are but also map all of my o wn streets and tell it how to navigate those streets so I can get to the places I have told it are there. Well, if you think there should be a good alternative and google maps should get some competition, then yes that would be a great start and is something some pe ople do and the reason OpenStreetmap when from nothing to a actually useable map . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mE9DfBIIvo permalink parent [ ]evenhitlerneeds 1 point 4 hours ago That video was amazingly inspiring! permalink parent load more comments (3 replies)

[ ]tanjoodo 2 points 4 hours ago Then just add it to OSM... Isn't that the whole point? permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 7 points 6 hours ago Osmand's UI is quite bad I think. I prefer Skobbler. permalink parent [ ]textima 2 points 6 hours ago I don't think you need to replace one with the other, I use both, depending on w hen it's appropriate. Personally, the quality of internet coverage in my area is patchy, OSMAnd is really excellent when I can't get a good connection. OSM also has far better map coverage of things like car parks and footpaths. On the othe r hand, Google Maps is particularly good for public transport directions. I don' t see any need to only use one or the other. permalink parent [ ]Serial_Chiller 2 points 3 hours ago I don't like OsmAnd either ation). Most of the time I place is where I wanted to once you figured out what and I only use it when I need routing (like car navig just want to know where the fuck I am and where that go. In those cases, I use OruxMaps. It has a great UI all the buttons are for.

If I'm looking for a specific place, I use Google Maps. It simply has the best s earch function, there's no way around it. The user interface, however, is the wo rst shit I ever experienced, seriously. As soon as I know where that place is, I switch back to OruxMaps. permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) [ ]keyboard_cowboy 3 points 5 hours ago ya i tried OSMand too but then i accidently tried GoogleMaps + Navigator with fe male voice.... it was absolutely different and faster. Cant change it back to OS Mand, sorry i tried. permalink parent [ ]0acht15 1 point 5 hours ago Goole will still log where you are driving to even if you disable location acces s.

permalink parent [ ]dnew 1 point 4 hours ago They kind of have to, if you're using google maps to navigate. Location access d isables it when you're not asking google to tell you about where you are. permalink parent [ ]Travis100 1 point 3 hours ago It isn't made to be a map viwer. It was only made to be a map anyone can edit so that companies and the public have access to this data for free. There are apps that might try to replace google and use OSM's data, but OSM itself isn't tryin g to replace gmaps. permalink parent [ ]sirin3 1 point 3 hours ago It might be great for offline maps, but I had to mess around with it for a w hile to avoid downloading hundreds of MB and I finally got online maps to work. Are there a good offline map programs? I tried to find one recently and could not... permalink parent [ ]SynbiosVyse 2 points 1 hour ago The best version is OsmAnd~ which is available in the F-droid market. It seems p retty good for offline-maps, but the interface is kind of confusing at first. You have to download the World basemap, and then you can download offline maps f or each state (as well as other countries). They have both street-only and full offline maps. permalink parent [ ]sirin3 1 point 1 hour ago I wanted one for Debian... permalink parent [ ]CRISPR 3 points 6 hours ago I wonder what would have happened to Wikipedia, had Google bought Britannica. permalink [ ]stjep 12 points 5 hours ago

I see you don't remember Google Knol. It was killed in 2012. permalink parent [ ]CRISPR 2 points 5 hours ago That's different. permalink parent load more comments (5 replies) [ ]jonny_rotten_seed 3 points 3 hours ago Thanks for this. I was just bitching about the google maps new UI, and hoping to find a sensible non-google replacement. permalink [ ]iasw 3 points 1 hour ago Another thing I like about OSM is the stuff on there that isn't typical of any o ther mapping sources. Things like mailbox locations, cell phone towers, man hole s, power lines, and other peculiar stuff. It's stuff that maybe doesn't seem imm ediately useful, but when aggregated or put through algorithms it becomes useful data. permalink [ ]stjep 2 points 5 hours ago I'd prefer to rely on OSM, but I'm unaware of any good turn-by-turn and location discovery mobile apps that leverage the data. permalink [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 3 points 4 hours ago Try that one (on Android). On Iphone see this. permalink parent [ ]eSALTS 2 points 4 hours ago I find it hard to switch to OSM from Google Maps, because GMaps always knows wha t I want, and its integrated really well in Android. One place that I absolutely love OSM is on my GPS. I have a Garmin GPS from 2009 that hasn't been updated s ince, then. I recently discovered you can download OSM maps and load them on a G armin GPS, and it works perfectly! I still have all navigation features, AND upd ated maps. You should definitely check it out if you don't want to drop ~$60 on updated maps from Garmin. permalink [ ]nighthawke75 2 points 4 hours ago I cannot argue about the advantages, but leaving labeling and marking locations

to peers leaves a lot to be desired. When I logged in and started to work on my regional map, I had to get out a mop and bucket, it was that bloody. Four churches were misplaced, three streets were not classified as unmaintained roads, and about half a dozen private drives were marked as public, oops. And th at was just the first hour of being signed on and editing a town of about 5,000. permalink [ ]acm 4 points 3 hours ago wikipedia was rough around the edges at first too. give it time. permalink parent [ ]Qu3tzal 2 points 4 hours ago The internet was designed to be a place where everyone can share. Maps are a per fect place for that to happen. It is much easier to trust in a map made by a glo bal group of people who are using the same map. Using maps made by a small group of people should become a thing of the past. permalink [ ]WASDx 2 points 4 hours ago I personally use OpenStreetMap and Google maps, and even Bing maps depending on what I want to do. They all have their own advantages. permalink [ ]tsingi 2 points 3 hours ago I use OSM at work to make maps for air traffic control situation displays. (With SVG) permalink [ ]AwwwComeOnLOU 2 points 3 hours ago I would like a map app that tracks my routes and automatically creates way point s based on how much time I spend there. As a mobile technician I need to access a fluid list of locations that waxes and wanes based on the jobs I go to. I need one word mapping guidance that can access my customer list. This way when the phone rings while I'm driving to one job, and I need to rerout e because an emergency came up, I don't need to be looking down or interfacing w ith a touch screen. I need to access SIRI and say "Navigate to xxxx" and that ha ppens. Then I need to get on the phone and call the first customer to let them know I'm not coming but we still care about them.

That's a tricky enough conversation to have, I don't need to be looking at my ph one or getting interrupted by driving directions, so that map telling me where t o turn better be on a separate screen or a HUD. You create all that, and all the fleet service companies (i.e. Tradesman, contra ctors etc) will pay to have it. Assuming they are big enough to have a safety de partment. If you also have real time tracking that supervisors can access they will pay a lot, sell it to the guys as a safety upgrade, but use it to track and see who's working and who's fucking off. permalink [ ]paperdigits 2 points 3 hours ago I've really wanted to build a street view data collector for osm. Out of a few r aspberry pi or something permalink [ ]zuff 2 points 2 hours ago I needed offline map for my work, and Google basically told me to fuck off, as s aid function "not available" in my region, which lead me to some apps with OSM o ffline map capability. Godsend. permalink [ ]firesquasher 2 points 1 hour ago If apple hasnt offered 1b+usd for it..then its not ready to usurp google maps. ( Yet) permalink [ ]Serial_Chiller 2 points 1 hour ago Many people are completely missing the point of OpenStreetMap. It's not about re creating Google Maps. It would take a ton of money and time to make something co mparable and as long as Google doesn't screw up Maps like they did with YouTube, there's no need for anything like that. But there's a huge amount of geographical information that is just missing in Go ogle Maps. The map would be completely cluttered and unusable if every possible information would be displayed. The problem is, you can't tell Google Maps what you want to have on your map. Maybe you're on a hike, so you want to see all the campgrounds and hostels at a low zoom level, but you don't need any information about gas stations, cinemas or dance clubs. Or you're in a wheelchair and need a map that shows you which places are accessible. Or you want a map of all the b rothels and stripclubs in the US. OpenStreetMap is collecting all this information eed. With a little knowledge on the subject, you at displays only what you want to have on it and . The huge barrier of acquiring the geographical and you can pick whatever you n can create your very own map th you can give it your own design data for your map is gone.

Now it's possible for small startup companies to offer highly specialized maps f or small groups of people that wouldn't be profitable if the data had to be boug ht from one of the big geodata providers.

permalink [ ]PrimaxAUS 2 points 42 minutes ago I don't know about you guys but to me reality TV shows are not omnipresent. I ca n't actually remember the last one I watched. permalink [ ]YJSubs 6 points 5 hours ago* It's mentioned in the article just a bit. But i have to say i love Nokia maps, s ure it's not as thorough as Google or any other online based maps. But the real benefit, it is an offline maps. There are TONS of moments when there are no internet, even a cell signal, and i' m in the middle of "not a clue where i'am". Sure it wasn't a big problem to many people, but where i came from, you will be lucky to have internet connection in suburbs area. Even in downtown the connection were shitty. TL;DR : Nokia use offline maps. Offline maps are reliable. permalink [ ]uguuuuu 6 points 5 hours ago Try CityMaps2go. It's an offline maps app that uses OSM data. It's really good, I've been using it for years. permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 3 points 4 hours ago I like Maps With Me for that. permalink parent [ ]uguuuuu 1 point 4 hours ago Oooh gonna check that one out, thanks! permalink parent [ ]YJSubs 2 points 5 hours ago Thx for suggestion, but there are limitation on CityMaps2go (max 5 maps?). Nokia has no limitation. I still try it though as a backup maps on my tablet. Ooohh.. there are also browser based Nokia Maps, so we can plan ahead route., sync that to the phone. permalink parent [ ]uguuuuu 3 points 4 hours ago Yeah I use Here with CityMaps2Go myself. I wasn't offering it as a replacement a

s much as I was mentioning it so you can add it to your phone in case you want d ata from OSM specifically. Sorry my post wasn't very clear! permalink parent [ ]NelsonMinar 4 points 4 hours ago Skobbler's ForeverMap is the OSM equivalent I recommend for people who want offl ine maps. permalink parent [ ]Serial_Chiller 3 points 3 hours ago I personally love OruxMaps, you can download as many offline maps as you want, f rom here or from here for example. And the free version is exactly the same as t he paid version, so you can try everything out and only pay if you like it (or n ot, if you're that cheap). permalink parent [ ]SikhGamer 1 point 7 hours ago It's nowhere near as good as Google Maps. Feels very unpolished. But competition is competition. permalink [ ]kratochvil_II 17 points 6 hours ago I disagree. Google has acutally a lot of failures. It is quite frequent to see s treets and streetnames appear, that do not exist in reality. In urban areas, the OSM is actually better than Google. Google is also ridiculously car-centered. T he OSM contains far more informations for pedestrians. permalink parent [ ]Saicotic 5 points 6 hours ago Gmaps frequently tries to get me to go straight down a street that has a forced right turn (i.e. you can only turn right if you're traveling south) and then rer outes me to turn left onto a street that starts a block to my right. permalink parent [ ]dnew 2 points 4 hours ago The cool thing is that it corrects for this over time. The system will notice pe ople frequently not following directions, and then bring up the street view imag es so a human can check whether the system missed a right-turn-only sign sort of thing. permalink parent

[ ]Vik1ng 4 points 5 hours ago Depends where you live. Use the slider at the top: http://sautter.com/map/?zoom= 15&lat=52.51704&lon=13.38482&layers=B000TFFFFFFF permalink parent [ ]redsteakraw 5 points 5 hours ago There are places where OSM has much more, including trails and various locations . OSM also is able to be improved quicker and is the Map to use in the Netherlan ds, Germany, Haiti and Russia. I have been adding trails and improving areas aro und me and they are far more useful for a person walking than Google's maps. OSM was also the maps to use in the Sochi Olympics. Now in the USA there is a basel ine provided to all maps via TIGER which is in the public domain. So every map p rovider will have most streets, what is differentiates them is adding the change s addressing data and points of interests(POI) like stores and schools ect. If y ou add POIs to Openstreetmap it becomes just as useful for navigating and findin g things as Google as demonstrated by FourSquare where they use their POIs on to p of OpenStreetMaps. The Awesome thing about OpenStreetMaps is that it is the da ta and it can be visualised and used in different ways for different purposes. T here are maps for people in wheelchairs, Cycle Maps, Humanitarian Maps, Public T ransport Maps and the just the Standard Maps permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 2 points 5 hours ago Now in the USA there is a baseline provided to all maps via TIGER which is i n the public domain. The TIGER database is terrible though, this is why many areas in the US countrys ide is really shitty. Being from Europe I fail to understand how the local gover nment can have such a bad mapping of their own country. I'm used to fix areas mapped by imports of public databases in Europe, and it's mostly about fixing details (fixing offsets, adding driveways and trails, retagg ing roads more accurately ). I tried to do it in the US countryside which was almo st only mapped from TIGER, and it was absolutely shitty. Lots of work to do ther e. permalink parent [ ]redsteakraw 3 points 4 hours ago TIGER was compiled before computers were even powerful, it is a baseline, not go od but good enough for some purposes which is better than nothing. The latest TI GER is substantially better. Some of the issues may have been import error or bu gs but yes Fix-up is needed. New York City is getting a massive import from the Municipality in the US Municipalities have the most accurate information GIS wis e so there is a decentralization of the data which may be different from how it is done in Europe. The federal(National) government has to release their data in the Public Domain while the local municipalities don't which is why there are p roblems in uniformity even with Google. It only takes one person to fix up an ar ea and then it is fine. Points of Interests like stores and destinations are muc h more needed if you want to do search and navigation.

permalink parent [ ]quiditvinditpotdevin 1 point 3 hours ago* I see, thanks. I tried to take a look in rural Wyoming once (to try an extreme c ase), and it was absolutely terrible. I've also skimmed on tracks and country pa ths in Maine which were quite bad. That certainly skewed by view of the TIGER in put. permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) [ ]Flight714 3 points 4 hours ago But competition is competition. Actually, OpenStreetMap is the opposite of competition: As open source software, it is an example of people sidestepping the whole "competition" paradigm entire ly, and instead working together and collaborating. permalink parent load more comments (2 replies) [ ]On10n 1 point 5 hours ago heres the actual link: http://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=5/51.500/-0.100 permalink [ ]Karsmack 1 point 4 hours ago As long as OSM doesn't tell me to turn right in to a pond I'll give it a shot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIakZtDmMgo permalink [ ]donrhummy 1 point 4 hours ago are there any good navigation apps for Android that use OSM? all the ones I've t ried are terrible permalink load more comments (1 reply) [ ]Chemiluminescent 1 point 3 hours ago I use mapswithme and really like it, but the one thing that I really really wish it had is Street addresses. Some roads are really long and if I am given an add ress on the street it could take an hour to find it. I end up having to look up the address on Google maps, and then add an approxima te pin in mapswithme. Which sucks.

permalink [ ]RuprectGern 1 point 2 hours ago The first couple of paragraphs read like a Wikipedia article on the rise of Skyn et. permalink [ ]digitalmofo 1 point 2 hours ago If I could get it to work on my Garmin, I'd be so happy. permalink load more comments (4 replies) [ ]DoctorSteve 1 point 2 hours ago Is there a solid Android App using this data yet? permalink [ ]Beowolve 1 point 1 hour ago I may be missing something here, but what is the difference between this and Waz e. Isn't Waze social and open like this too? permalink [ ]iasw 1 point 1 hour ago Waze is social, but they take the data you give them and don't share it for free like OSM does. Plus, Waze is now owned by Google. permalink parent load more comments (1 reply) [ ]InLoveWithKueppers 1 point 1 hour ago Had I more time, I would write an website using it. I do love the possibilities it gives and if any benevolent (because there are malvolent ones) contributors a re reading: thank you, thank you, thank you! permalink [ ]neilalexanderr 1 point 58 minutes ago What's the general quality of OpenStreetMap data like at the moment? It seems de cent in my area, but haven't really ventured much further out. Is it on par with the likes of Nokia and Google? permalink load more comments (1 reply) [ ]madjo 1 point 56 minutes ago

I wish there was a navigation app like Waze with its rather accurate traffic ind icator but with OSM as the map. permalink load more comments (44 replies) about blog about team source code advertise jobs help wiki FAQ reddiquette rules contact us tools mobile firefox extension chrome extension buttons widget <3 reddit gold store redditgifts reddit.tv radio reddit Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy . 2014 reddit inc. All rights reserved. REDDIT and the ALIEN Logo are registered trademarks of reddit inc. p