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.

  • Beej Jorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org
    94·
    1 year ago

    I’ve been editing OSM for years. (896,339 edits in 3,427 changesets, apparently!) For me, it’s all about the free data. I once got a thank you note from someone who worked for a city with a particularly large municipal park. I’d added almost all the trails to the park and other information, and they’d used it to produce a printed map for the general public. Exactly the kind of thing I’d hoped for!

    Personally, I do a lot of dualsport motorcycling and most backcountry maps around here are subpar. I map tons of trails and 2track and put them on the Garmin so I know where I’m going.

    OSM is also great in lots of Europe–tons of detail.

    JOSM is great.

    Someone just recommended Organic Maps for the phone–it’s way snappier than Google Maps, but still not great with finding addresses.

    • Coeus@coeus.sbsOP
      17·
      1 year ago

      What an awesome story to hear. I’ve been playing around with Organic Maps on my phone. I’ll have to look into JOSM.

    • Ashley@lemmy.ca
      3·
      1 year ago

      I’ve tried putting osm maps on my Garmin with limited success, how can I go about doing that?

    • pingveno@lemmy.ml
      2·
      1 year ago

      That’s really cool to hear about the parks. Most of the parks around here are pretty well mapped out. Presumably the local community is pretty strong.

      I really want to produce something for my city’s NET and BEECN emergency response programs. They already have a few different maps, but not one unified map. My ideal is a map that could be taken offline or printed to spec.

  • JaxiiRuff@pawb.social
    56·
    1 year ago

    OSM is an awesome project I agree it is fun contributing to it but it is not as useful yet due to what you describe, details.

    Finding addresses and other specific information is very hit or miss in some areas. Especially in the US where no one really cares about it other than tech corporations using it for quick info like street layouts.

    My entire city has address numbers missing and for a long time I used an app on my phone (StreetComplete) to fix address numbers and other various details. But it can be overwhelming very quickly depending on how outdated or not updated your place is. Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time by the way.

    • abeorch@lemmy.ml
      16·
      1 year ago

      Try Everydoor as well. Another StreetComplete like App that’s great for adding simple items

  • rmuk@feddit.uk
    44·
    1 year ago

    Yeah. Story time:

    In the England we have ancient rights-of-way laws but a lot of private landowners try to block footpaths that cross their land. If a landowner can argue a footpath hasn’t been used in (I think) two years they can have it removed, but in 2025 all the existing footpaths will be made permanent and indelible except with explicit local government permission so between now and then a lot of landowners will be rushing to get paths removed.

    I’ve made a point of walking every footpath in my area and making sure they’re all documented on OSM. If any of the landowners try to get a path removed I have my GPS tracks as proof of use.

    Edit: FWIW, I find OSM to be the best map for rambling. Google and Apple don’t come close and OSM even gives Ordinance Survey a run for it’s money.

  • Matricaria@feddit.de
    361·
    1 year ago

    Yes I use OSM almost exclusively and have contributed to it.

    Where I live, in Germany, OSM is pretty much on the same level as Google Maps and way better than Apple Maps. Sometimes there is outdated info but you can quickly correct it. Sometimes I double check stuff with GM. Some information is even better than GM. But I think Germany has a pretty strong OSM community, at least in my city.

    I use Organic Maps on iOS.

    • schmurian@lsmu.schmurian.xyz
      5·
      1 year ago

      Same here. I downloaded it recently to have a look and just realized how easy it is to update information for places that I frequently visit. What I like about that is that I can add information isn‘t listed in any map, because shop owners other people responsible don‘t bother (yes, people like this exist).

    • Meldrik@lemmy.wtf
      4·
      1 year ago

      Doesn’t Apple Maps use data from OSM? Edit: They actually do. At least in Denmark.

    • diaphanous@feddit.de
      2·
      1 year ago

      Hey, another German here and I’ve been using OSMAnd for android for years, but I’ve never contributed. How can I get into it easily?

      • Matricaria@feddit.de
        2·
        1 year ago

        Make an account on OSM, find something wrong on the map, update it.

        Start with your commute or places you go. Check the information, I often find wrong opening hours. Maybe some constitution altered something. You’ll find something.

  • angrymouse@lemmy.world
    34·
    1 year ago

    Im currently using streetcomplete, which is an app that gamifies the experience of fulfilling OSM gaps. It’s like playing pokemon go but you are hunting a street with isle. I found this recommendation here in lemmy so im passing forward, I loved it

  • INeedMana@lemmy.world
    31·
    1 year ago

    I use OsmAnd~. Mainly to analyze my skating routes (average speed, distance, etc) and planning sightseeing routes when on vacation.

    For finding commute an app from local public transport is still the best and google maps are better than osmand, but for navigation on foot it’s very good. And you can download the region earlier, so when you use it, you don’t need that much data.

    • arandomthought@sh.itjust.works
      6·
      1 year ago

      I had the same experience. OsmAnd seems to be better for planning routes on foot than Google maps. Where Google Maps is clearly better is for info about businesses and stores.

    • ripe_banana@lemmy.world
      5·
      1 year ago

      I found OsmAnd~ to not only be good on foot, but also on bike. It sometimes plans more aggressive routes than google which saves time (side streets for less distance, opposite directions on one ways…). Take this with a grain of salt though, because I ride primarily in NYC.

      • INeedMana@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        What Google does (I see it as remains from early days of how it became good) is it takes into consideration the route other people took. So if a lot of people do an illegal u-turn, there’s high probability you’ll be proposed such route too.
        It works the other way round too. If a lot of people don’t take an optimal route for whatever reason, there’s less probability it’ll propose it to you.

        OsmAnd just tries to connect the dots postman-np-problem style

    • Grangle1@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      OSMAnd is how I use OpenStreetMap too. It’s quite good for road routes even in rural areas, but especially in those rural areas finding specific locations can be spotty or outdated. Even in my town of over 100,000, I still have trouble finding some local places like restaurants and businesses. I always try searching for what I’m looking for before I leave home, so I have access to my computer to pull up a map and address to pin onto OSMAnd if I need to. (I’m someone who de-Googles as much as humanly possible so I don’t use Google Maps.) With more up-to-date data it can be a great alternative to Google or Apple Maps, but that’s the nature of crowd built data: it’s only as up-to-date as the data contributors provide, and that’s both a strength and a weakness of OSM.

      • INeedMana@lemmy.world
        1·
        1 year ago

        In ideal world it would be businesses putting info about them in OSM, same as they do with Google maps now.

        Until then it has to be us putting them on the map, I guess

    • itchy_lizard@feddit.it
      2·
      1 year ago

      I actually find OSMAnd is great for busses because you can quickly see all the bus routes as lines and figure out which you need to take.

      Ifinsd most cities just make a PDF that doesn’t have as much detail and you can’t pinch-zoom and pan around quickly. And their guides specify neighbourhoods or destinations whose names you’re not familiar with

  • pinchcramp@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    26·
    1 year ago

    I regularly use OSM data through Organic Maps (mostly for larger European cities). The app is really polished and is a joy to use. So far I’m not missing any features from Google Maps.

    I’ve also updated some faulty business hours for some restaurants so I guess I’ve contributed back.

    E: With the recent developments in the world of free online services (YouTube blocking ad-blockers, Google lying to their customers about its TrueView ads, Twitter rate limiting free access, the Reddit API fiasco), I wonder how much longer we can take free services like Google Maps for granted. Having an open alternative may become even more important in the future.

      • Hatch@lemmy.ml
        3·
        1 year ago

        I like osmand because during several lanes it highlights the lane to go to. I noticed organic maps had something similar today when i tried it, though ill need to do more testing to see all the features.

        I think organics maps has a a good clean ui. Improvement woukd definitley be compatibility when using the voice for navigation, a bit laggy but maybe ill need to adjust rhvoice. Also im seeing if it has the show the next turn on a small icon of some sort.

        Osmand is good overall but it can get too cluttered real quick. Its been getting a bit slow but maybe some tweaks will help.

        Also i have contributed to openstreetmaps especially toward small businesses to make it easier to find.

  • dedale@kbin.social
    261·
    1 year ago

    Where I live it’s much more complete than google maps, especially in the countryside.

  • MazonnaCara89@lemmy.ml
    25·
    1 year ago

    Currently at 319 contributions on OpenStreetMap since the 22 of December 2022 some part of south Italy are not mapped at all so I’m trying my best to make at least usable.

    If someone want to contribute to osm StreetComplete let you add simple tags to already existing tags and let you add stores with a monstrous simplicity!

    Anyway tell your girlfriend that apple maps and bing maps use data from openstreet map and are huge contributors to the project, in fact the default map when you edit in osm is from bing!

  • original2@lemmy.world
    24·
    1 year ago

    I’m in the UK and open street map has mapped out my local area more accurately than google. It is marginal, but I stopped using google maps after a few issues: I was hiking and it directed me into a privately owned farm (claiming it is a permissive footpath).The farmer was very racist.

    Another time I was directed through the middle of a primary school.

  • palitu@lemmy.perthchat.org
    24·
    1 year ago

    I use it all the time with OSMand. and i have contributed to OSM for years. I just had a look - i start in Sep 2010 (13 years!) and all of my edits (except for a humanitarian tracing excersice for mozambique) i have been to. it is a niice spread: