StreetComplete: Fixing OpenStreetMap, one tiny quest at a time

by kls0e • 15 days ago

829 206 15 days ago

aweb• 15 days ago

I discovered that recently, it's a very fun way to contribute to OpenStreetMap, and the UI is really well-done, it's totally beginner friendly! I wish there was a way to do more than labeling though, like add simple roads and footpaths

eskori• 15 days ago

I have used it one (1) time in my life, ans it was my first experience with OpenStreetMap in general. It was pretty fun!

It's very intuitive and makes you learn just how detailed and specific map data can be. Can't say much about missing features since I don't event know what can be done.

Recommended experience, it's like playing Pokemon Go without the evil part :)

hadi1213• 15 days ago

What's the "evil" part?

Ajedi324• 15 days ago

Usually if I need to add a footpath I use the "Create new track recording" feature to trace out the path with GPS, then come back to it later on desktop. Adding paths is pretty awkward to do on mobile, especially since there's no satellite overlay.

0l• 15 days ago

FYI someone else has probably already traced this through Strava, which is allowed to be used for tracing: <https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Strava#Data_Permission_-...>

nightpool• 15 days ago

StreetComplete doesn't have satellite overlays, but both Vespucci and EveryDoor support viewing satellite overlay tiles!

jdboyd• 15 days ago

I think adding things, instead of updating existing things with missing data is where you get into needing a more serious app. I keep Vespucci for when I want to initiate an edit, and StreetComplete for fun filling in missing information tasks.

janpeuker• 14 days ago

I love the app idea but I don't think it's beginner friendly - for example it starts zoomed out of the globe and there is no button to zoom to the location; also it's unclear what the hatched lines until one zooms in.

up-the-hill-4• 14 days ago

There's a button to zoom to the location at the bottom right, the same spot as Google maps (and the same icon too).

Schiendelman2• 15 days ago

Hi! Is this yours? Would you like help porting this to iOS?

looperhacks• 15 days ago

Not mine, but you can check this issue: https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/issues/5421

herrherrmann• 15 days ago

Wow, that is one well-documented migration project! Thanks for sharing, I wasn’t aware they are so seriously on it.

Schiendelman2• 15 days ago

Thanks, I didn't even think to look!

TeddyDD2• 15 days ago

Great app. There is also https://every-door.app/ that gives you slightly different set of tasks and allows you to place POI easily. I recently mapped a lot of trash cans and benches around my neighborhood while walking with my dog.

Ajedi324• 15 days ago

StreetComplete lets you place trash cans and benches too (among other things) using the "Things" overlay. IMO Every Door has a much more complicated UI, though it's also more of a full featured editor than StreetComplete. (Though still less so than something like Vespucci.)

TeddyDD2• 15 days ago

Each to their own, I use both for different things, I like EveryDoor UI better for placing POIs.

progbits• 15 days ago

Thank you!

Is that a new feature? I have over a thousand contributions on StreetComplete (casually using it during walks) and somehow I never noticed that button.

didip• 15 days ago

oooo what a fantastic idea. I have always wanted to map as many clothes donation boxes as possible.

ndriscoll2• 15 days ago

You can do that, little free libraries, water fountains, etc. all in StreetComplete as well.

deckar01• 15 days ago

The UX is really bad. POI loading is taking 10+ seconds to update, then any zoom or pan reorders the list of locations. Most of the missing info (around me) is just phone numbers and hours of operation, which are boring and should be trivial to collect automatically.

jllyhill4• 15 days ago

The thing is that the best way to get the phones and opening hours is to walk in person and look them up. Any source for the automated collection is way more likely to be outdated/wrong than what the sign or the person behind the counter tells you. And can also have non-permissive license not compatible with the OSM license.

Aachen12• 15 days ago

should be trivial to collect automatically.

Feel free to contribute that, if you think it's so easy! Just make sure what you're scraping is also correct.

netfortius• 15 days ago

Some more info in an earlier thread [1]

[1] CoMaps – FOSS Offline Maps | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48808928

myself248• 15 days ago

kls0e• 15 days ago

scph1001.bin

Narishma• 15 days ago

More like scph1002.bin in this case. 1001 is for SCEA.

hadi1213• 15 days ago

This is such a great idea. Are there ever any plans for a web app?

Acrobatic_Road2• 15 days ago

Every day I take a 2 hour walk and contribute as much data as I can to OSM using this app.

hirako2000• 15 days ago

One thing missing on osm is pictures. Would defeats Google maps if it had some, where users would feedback and bad shots would get wiped to save space. We would get the best shots the world has to offer.

edent• 15 days ago

OSM does have a pictures layer.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Panoramax

I use https://mapcomplete.org/ to add images of artworks to OSM objects.

lapetitejort3• 15 days ago

I had been using mapcomplete to add images of artwork, which in turn used panoramax. However I saw someone else use Wikimedia Commons, and to me that makes more sense. Wikimedia ties into more systems, so if you wanted to create a Wikipedia page about an artist, there will be readily available images to use.

On the flip side, panoramax can be used as an open source StreetView. Different sites for different purposes I suppose

matsemann3• 15 days ago

Panoramax is still unfortunately very lacking outside a French instance. I've tried to contribute my street view images, but it's not used by anyone or anything as far as I can see.

jllyhill4• 15 days ago

There are ways to add pictures as the tags of the OSM objects

- https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:wikimedia_commons

- https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:panoramax

- https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:mapillary

Mobile apps can use this data to either give links to them (e.g. CoMaps) or display them in the app (e.g. OsmAnd)

maelito5• 15 days ago

In the app I'm developing, cartes.app, we acknowledged this lack of pictures.

We show local Wikimedia common pictures, osm tag pictures, og:image pictures of the website if any, Wikipedia article infobox pictures, Panoramax for street-view, and last but not least, any picture dropped by an ATproto place review.

Lots remain to be done, especially building the latter community of reviews.

Krasnol2• 15 days ago

There is:

https://api.panoramax.xyz/en/index?focus=map&map=1.24/0/-0.6...

and: https://www.mapillary.com/

jmspring2• 15 days ago

Is there something equivalent for iOS?

tiffanyh• 15 days ago

ANDROID WILL BECOME A LOCKED-DOWN PLATFORM IN XXX

My guess is no because of the developer linking too below (and how it's always existed this way for iOS)

https://keepandroidopen.org

I wonder why this needs to be an app at all, instead of web based.

westnordost5• 15 days ago

It works offline, for one. A lot of datais kept persistently in a SQLite database.

Quot2• 15 days ago

StreetComplete has been making steady progress on an iOS port over the past few years.

https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/issues/5421

circuit102• 15 days ago

It would be nice if they made a web app, that would make it work on iOS but also desktop and every other platform with a web browser at the same time

mtmail• 15 days ago

I use GoMap https://apps.apple.com/us/app/go-map/id592990211

endymion-light• 15 days ago

I really love this - fantastic that it's open source too as would love to contribute. Is there an opportunity to add fresh new sites on this?

ndriscoll2• 15 days ago

As in can you add points of interest like shops? Yes, there's a places overlay with an add button, and a things overlay for things like benches, bicycle parking, etc. For adding buildings, roads, or paths you'd need something else.

Aachen12• 15 days ago

SCEE adds a bunch of features on top of StreetComplete. One of them is that you can always open up the tags for a feature on the map and add or update, e.g., the website information. To do this, open up the appropriate overlay (such as "things" or "places"), tap the POI, and choose "Show/edit tags" in the options menu

Some editors like OsmAnd also let you do that. In OsmAnd you can enable the OSM development plugin (it's pre-installed, more like a setting to unlock expert options than a plugin) and use "Edit POI" to add or update website information

Or simply use the website at https://osm.org/edit

StreetComplete doesn't ask for websites specifically. It's pretty restrictive in what they'll allow as 'quests' to avoid overloading new users

freakynit2• 15 days ago

Just downloaded and made 15+ small contributions in the vicinity of my area. Very well built app. Super simple to use. And gamification is top-notch. Recommended.

Cider99862• 15 days ago

I naively thought that Duolingo's gamification was for a good cause, helping you learn a language by addicting you, but now I know it's not only an extremely ineffective way to learn a language, but they're an advertising/social media/data broker company, which makes the gamification unethical.

I wonder if there are any other FOSS apps or websites with gamification that are for a good cause, like StreetComplete.

tancop• 15 days ago

an extremely ineffective way to learn a language

thats only if you use duolingo exclusively without things like reading news in the language (which is common unfortunately).

its a problem with their specific design using a weird hybrid of spaced repetition with traditional separate lessons. you only learn a couple words for each section but if they decide you know a word they never repeat it again so its easy to forget.

if they made it harder with more open questions and removed combos/perfect lessons to compensate it would be a lot more effective. non linear with multiple paths would also be great, like you decide you want to learn more grammar so you click on that instead of vocab exercises.

the addictive and social pressure parts are the whole point. its giving people motivation to learn and well designed interactive tools are always better than passively reading textbooks [1]. even the ui is made with lots of animation, colors, positive messages to make you feel good every time you get something right.

if streetcomplete added daily progress bars and fireworks every time your edit gets accepted it would probably have a lot more users. ive actually been thinking about making a new anki frontend with this type of addictive ux. that would be more effective and more general than duolingo but lose some of the features like open questions. would need to integrate a llm to fix that.

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11933506/

goodpoint• 15 days ago

Also Duolingo's gamification is too obnoxious

YoshiRulz• 15 days ago

https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Games#Contribution_ga...

timoshishi• 15 days ago

Is your area already well mapped? I opened up the app to find more than 5000 tasks within a 20 minute walk of my place

freakynit2• 15 days ago

Nop... when I opened the app, I found 100's of tasks within 100 meter radius.

piebro• 15 days ago

If anyone is interested in where StreetComplete is used or which quests are the most popular, you can check out: https://piebro.github.io/openstreetmap-statistics/stats/04_s...

khernandezrt• 15 days ago

Does it have to be a mobile app? Id love to do this when im bored at work but i dont wanna make it seem like im just sitting on my phone.

circuit102• 15 days ago

A web app would also make it work on iOS (and other non-Android platforms) at the same time

habi2• 15 days ago

There are many apps for editing OSM on iOS: https://osm-apps.org/?platforms=iOS

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Go_Map!! also has some kind of 'quests' built in, and the StreetComplete is planning to porting SC to iOS: https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/issues/5421

stndef• 15 days ago

I think the reasoning behind this is that ideally you're at the location where you can confirm what you see, instead of maybe referring to older media or from memory.

That being said, I agree with you and would like to see more ways to access the tool!

harvey9• 15 days ago

You can edit OSM from their web apps. This is intended to be used in the field but I guess you could use it to find things that need fixing.

petrzjunior• 15 days ago

Adding to that: StreetComplete specifically creates only quests for information which must be checked in the terrain like opening hours, surfaces, traffic light sounds. Anything surveyable from maps and other sources should be edited using the web editors. OpenStreetMap iD is probably the easiest to learn.

modriano• 15 days ago

You can edit OSM from its main site [0], although there's a much steeper learning curve when using the site (as you have far more freedom and it's not super easy to figure out the standard way to tag some situations).

[0] https://www.openstreetmap.org/

okok3857• 15 days ago

Rapid Editor is a good web app for editing OSM: https://rapideditor.org/

Aachen12• 15 days ago

https://MapComplete.org is made by someone from Belgium with the aim of making a website that's at least as good as a native app could be. It's both a data viewer and editor but generally that sounds like it's what you're looking for!

I have yet to get into it myself (I already have established workflows in StreetComplete and other editors) but from the demo that the author gave on CCC ~1.5 years ago it seemed perfectly usable back then already

pietervdvn• 15 days ago

Hi! <3

hexomancer• 15 days ago

This is very cool, I wish there was some way to use it on a bicycle though. For example, when moving into a street it could ask (using voice) if this street is paved, and I could answer it using voice too.

santiagohzszmex• 15 days ago

Muy bien

preetham_rangu• 15 days ago

Been using this for my dog walks too. There's something oddly satisfying about turning a boring loop around the block into "wait, does that bin have a lid?" Never thought trash cans would be the thing that got me into mapping.

qmacro• 15 days ago

I enjoyed the simulated phone screenshots, particularly the choice of House of the Trembling Madness, a great beer stockist and drinking establishment on Lendal in York. I would like to think that the name in the input field is deliberately slightly wrong, ready to be fixed by someone. (It's "House of the Trembling Madness" rather than "The House of Trembling Madness".) Gamification at another level :-)

baumschubser• 15 days ago

Just through your comment I found out that they have different screenshots for all their localization settings. Cool!

Krasnol2• 15 days ago

I love this tool.

It brought me back to mapping on OSM.

Wherever you are and need to wait for a minute, there are quests to be solved there.

I recommend SCEE for those who are already familiar with OSM mapping or are in an area where the most common tasks are already covered: https://github.com/Helium314/SCEE

lisper2• 15 days ago

See also:

https://gurumaps.app/

maelito5• 15 days ago

It's basically Comaps but not open-source, right ?

lisper2• 15 days ago

Yeah, I actually meant to post this comment in the comap thread. Both comaps and SC were on the home page at the same time.

earth-tattoo• 15 days ago

It sucks that Google is probably using OSM data to check what they are missing and adding it to their maps, but we can't do vice versa. OSM should change their license to something like if you use our data, you have to make yours open as well.

GreyStache• 15 days ago

Change that to definitely. I added a brand-new road on OSM and a week later it was on google maps.

ygra5• 15 days ago

Google can cheat a little, especially for new roads since they notice when someone is driving over it. When there was a redesign of an intersection near here, someone marked the road as completed in OSM maybe half an hour after it was opened (we have a few quite active mappers), and Google had it open about two hours later and I suspect no one changed the data directly.

plorg• 15 days ago

On the other hand, I've been trying to submit changes to Google for several new and vacated roads for over a year (having already updated OSM) and they are constantly rejected. I suspect it is much more that their updates are responsive to car traffic. The segments I'm submitting are or were low-traffic although they include a road that a local municipality has directed people to in official communication for overflow yard waste after some big, recent storms.

JacobKfromIRC• 15 days ago

The license seems to already require this: https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright/

Maybe I am misunderstanding the summary, but it says: "If you publicly use any adapted version of this database, or works produced from an adapted database, you must also offer that adapted database under the ODbL." <https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/summary/>

mips_avatar• 15 days ago

Yeah the problem is what's considered an adapted database. If it was strict it would mean apps like Alltrails (which is 90% openstreetmaps data) would need to list their trailmaps as open databases, but they don't.

maxerickson• 15 days ago

They probably aren't really using the OSM data.

For example, if I use Google Maps to drive to a new neighborhood and then take a bunch of notes about the new neighborhood, my notes are not subject to the terms and conditions of Google Maps.

pteraspidomorph• 15 days ago

It sucks that Google is probably using OSM data to check what they are missing and adding it to their maps

If only. Maps are still super broken around where I live. I personally mapped everything in OSM (which thankfully is used by most third party services these days) a couple years ago, but Maps is still people's primary source for routing and traffic related stuff.

cwillu6• 15 days ago

Various driving/delivery apps ultimately use OSM data. Doordash and instacart both use it to various degrees via mapbox, for instasnce.

krzyk• 15 days ago

If google does that, then they do a poor job at that. In Europe OSM is way more detailed and up to date than Google Maps.

ronnier• 15 days ago

They probably do. I’m thankful for every contributor because each edit makes my Tesla that much better

pbmonster3• 15 days ago

It sucks that Google is probably using OSM data to check what they are missing and adding it to their maps

No way they are doing this deliberately globally. My city has a lot of pedestrian stairs interconnecting roads, and not a single one is on GMaps. If you navigate on foot, it will send you on walks 2x-3x longer than necessary.

OSMand and CoMaps reliably find the shortest way. And can tell you the pavement type, number of steps, stroller ramp and hand rail situation of every single one of those stairs.

Google has a really hard time adding roads without frequent car traffic, I think.

jcynix• 15 days ago

StreetComplete is cool, fun and useful, yes. And there is its companion app StreetMeasure which makes it easy to add measurements like the width of a narrow street, for example.

marssaxman• 15 days ago

Thank you for the reminder! I got out of the habit of checking StreetComplete since my previous neighborhood was well populated in OSM, but having just moved, I should check it out again.

westnordost5• 15 days ago

When you are out of quests in your area, check the overlays! (Button to the left of the menu)

giancarlostoro• 15 days ago

Reminds me of when Microsoft released a new Flight Sim, and people immediately started spotting buildings and things that were out of the norm in the game, which in turn started getting reported to OSM for corrections.

https://hackaday.com/2020/08/21/microsoft-flight-simultors-d...

wxlong2000• 15 days ago

StreetComplete's trick is hiding the tagging model until you actually need it. Most contributor tools expose the schema too early.

pavel_lishin• 15 days ago

I downloaded this, and I'm slightly amazed at how much detail there is. What material the utility poles are made of?

ivanjermakov4• 15 days ago

My favorite one is smoothness, I find it very useful when building cycling routes.

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:smoothness

jnpnj4• 15 days ago

Are there other similar apps to stimulate soft "crowdfixing" ? I'm sure there are plenty of other aspect of society that would benefit from a light way to know where someone can contribute or notify so other can fix things (forest dumps, random trash). Homeostatic apps to ensure our surroundings are close to a good state :]

ivanjermakov4• 15 days ago

forest dumps, random trash

Likely you can report such occasions to local authorities via online form. Of course every city/county would have their own.

macintux• 15 days ago

My city had a very vanilla, but very useful mobile app for submitting problems like missed trash pickup or dead traffic lights.

Someone apparently decided it needed to be "more modern", making it nearly unusable for quick reports like traffic light problems while I was stopped at the light. Every page was a separate request to a server, slow JS, etc.

They've since improved the flow and performance, but it still asks me for contact information before I can submit it. Fortunately they haven't started server-side validations yet, so I can still submit bogus info.

Just let me tell you your traffic light is out! Why is this so hard?

jnpnj4• 15 days ago

That is true, that said reporting is not the same (imo) as having a global map of problems and proposals to fix some of them. To me it's a lot more engaging (again, imo) as you see the distance to a goal.

marking-time• 15 days ago

hmmmm .... this prompted me to visit google street view in an area I lived in for 5+ years. When I was there it was a homeless haven. Hundreds of tents and hundreds of people lived there. Now when I go back and look at all the old photo dates, all the homeless have disappeared, as if they were never there. But the homeless were there when I was there.

It's easy to blame Google, but then again they kept a record of what they did and you can see it for yourself.

matsemann3• 15 days ago

I upload street view pictures to Mapillary, which again can be used to automatically infer info into OSM (like signs etc)

But I feel very few OSM mapping apps use street view / have it as a feature. But for me it's the main feature I use Google Maps for. Like checking road conditions or finding nice places to camp when bikepacking. Which is why I also upload my stuff to Google (cars can't access most of these areas), but I'd prefer open alternatives.

jacobajit• 15 days ago

This is a big underutilized dataset for mapping features, eg. parking restrictions on a given street or building entrances. With something like Gemini Flash, it's cheap to systematically extract map features from that imagery. Surprised that even Google doesn't extract much useful street view information into their maps.

jraph• 15 days ago

Check out panoramax if you don't know about it already.

https://panoramax.fr/

lapetitejort3• 15 days ago

I got into OSM and StreetComplete to flesh out intersections, stop signs, and sidewalks in my area. I always felt like I was doing something wrong though. I created crosswalks, then OSM would prompt me to connect the crosswalk to the road via a crossing. In StreetComplete, it felt like I was filling in duplicate data. I had to add whether the crossing had crossing lights not only at the middle crossing, but on the sides as well. This probably doesn't make any sense.

Basically, I am never confident I am editing OSM correctly. Am I supposed to manually draw out sidewalks, or tag the road as having a sidewalk? After adding sidewalks in my area, StreetComplete is now asking me if roads have sidewalks, which I clearly see on the map. Reminds me of editing the various Wiki pages. There's several ways of documenting something, only one way is correct, and it's undocumented.

edit: after playing with StreetComplete more, I noticed you can mark sidewalks as displayed separately. This is tagged as "sidewalk:both=separate" on the road. Whether this is the right way to do things I do not know

Cider99862• 15 days ago

When I'm unsure I make a note with a photo and someone who knows more looks into it.

orbital-decay• 15 days ago

When in doubt, look for adjacent localities and do what the others are already doing. OSM is chaotic and (usually) driven by consensus that can be slightly different in specific communities.

Ajedi324• 15 days ago

Usually in OSM there are several different ways to map things, to varying levels of detail. (E.g. As you discovered, you can just tag a road as having sidewalks, or trace out the actual sidewalks themselves.) Generally, as long as the information you're adding is accurate, you're helping. Changing tagging schemes later is a lot easier than re-discovering that information from scratch. If you're really concerned, usually the wiki has good information on what is currently considered best practice.

Incidentally, I think for crossings StreetComplete now only asks about the actual crossing nodes, so no more duplicate quests.

ygra5• 15 days ago

think for crossings StreetComplete now only asks about the actual crossing nodes, so no more duplicate quests.

It can be confusing for roads where both sides are separated or where there is a traffic island in the middle. There you have two crossing nodes (and sometimes even the footway leading over the road). But in general, I think it is very hard to actually cause trouble with StreetComplete. Furthermore, not every single quest has to be answered, although they typically only exist if there is an obvious correct answer the vast majority of the time (to not annoy users).

westnordost5• 15 days ago

In regards to your edit: Yes, this is exactly correct.

ryukoposting• 15 days ago

The first time I tried using OSM's web UI to add stuff, my head was spinning. Bless you folks who do the intersections, speed limits, and whatnot.

I've mostly stuck to using Organic Maps to add individual businesses, that's a very easy thing to do. Drop a pin, name, phone number/website/hours/whatever, submit.

pbmonster3• 15 days ago

Basically, I am never confident I am editing OSM correctly.

This is the case for the majority of users. The rules are complex and not always obvious or clearly defined. The world is complex, unfortunately, and so is describing it accurately.

One of OSM killer features for me is finding drinking water along the route when I'm hiking/biking/exploring. Unfortunately, there isn't a single, consistent label used for all sources of drinking water. So I have to check amenity=drinking_water, man_made=water_tap, amenity=fountain, one after the other.

I think StreetComplete has missions to add the label drinking_water=yes to all of those, so the situation might improve in the future.

pferde3• 15 days ago

The seemingly duplicate data on crossing is because there are different "parts" of the crossing, intended for different users.

There is the path across the road, usually from one sidewalk to the opposite, which is meant for pedestrians, and there is the node where this path touches the road, which is meant for car drivers.

Yes, the system could be improved by grouping these somehow, maybe using relations (https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relation ), but that would add complexity to any navigation or rendering application using OSM data that wants to process information about crossings.

wafflemaker2• 15 days ago

I was once on a trip in Åndalsness, one of the most scenic places in Norway. Fjords, mountains, you know it.

On the walk to our cabin, a little outside of town, I was checking something on OSM, might have been just learning to use it and read it (it has some learning curve when switching from G-maps).

To my surprise, I saw a shortcut/walking path exiting from the road we were walking on. Already used such paths twice that day for a nice shortcut that didn't show up on G-maps. But there was nothing there.

I told my friend that I'd like to check what this strange hacker map is showing. When we looked again, we noticed that there actually was a trail uphill, what at first sight seemed to just be a forested hillside.

As we went up, the trail started to be more evident. We climbed for a couple minutes, went past a cabin with no road leading to it (pretty normal in Norway), and a few more minutes after it we arrived at a semi-top, with a big boulder and a picturesque view out from that viewpoint.

Very cool memory on the last day of the holidays, made possible thanks to somebody marking that trail on OSM.

maelito5• 15 days ago

One of these viewpoints maybe ?

https://cartes.app/?cat=point-de-vue#13.66/62.56098/7.70188

wafflemaker2• 15 days ago

Found it! It's on the southern exit from the Mjelva village. Viewpoint is not marked. It felt like a quite a private place, so I don't really want to post more details.

Someone dedicated can still easily find it.

femto• 15 days ago

I did something like that for my local area (in about 2012). It turned into a hobby, whereby I spent a couple of years on foot exploring the local bush in minute detail and used OSM to document what I found. There are features on OSM that exist on no other map, especially off-road. I know other people do this too, as similar obscure tracks have appeared in neighbouring areas.

I've been on a number of orienteering or rogaining events where the maps look familiar, and it turns out they have used my OSM data. It's been great to see something lasting come from that mapping effort. (It's also a nice bonus in such events to be that familiar with the map and its covered area!) I suspect some local bush fire brigade members might also be looking at OSM, as a number of the fire trails I mapped seem to have had names added.

m4rtink3• 15 days ago

Back in 2019 OSM helped us by showing a walking path back from the Shiroyama Park hill in Kagoshima, Japan. It has a beautiful view of the city of Kagoshima and the towering Sakurajima volcano across the bay.

Google Maps only showed some car only roads and tunnels leading back to the city. But OSM showed a walking path comming down from one of the parking areas.

And indeed, it was there and we arrived back down in the city in a few minutes, avoiding lengthy backtracking.

crudgen• 15 days ago

In principle I like it, what I don't like is that some companies will use the data only for their own benefit / dystopian nightmare mission.

timbit42• 15 days ago

Another comment here claims their license forbids that.

kelvinjps10• 15 days ago

What's the best apps as a Google maps replacement that uses open street maps?

flaburgan2• 15 days ago

Comaps is great. Works offline. https://cartes.app from France Murena maps have just been released: https://community.e.foundation/t/murena-maps-is-here-in-beta...

maelito5• 15 days ago

Main developer of cartes.app here. We've internationalised the app. Expect some traces of French but we're working on it :)

But yes, the development force remains mostly French for now. Waiting for more European contributions...

https://translate.codeberg.org

Aachen12• 15 days ago

I would second CoMaps if you're just starting out. Google has some unique features like tracking everyehhh—I mean traffic data! (Tracking everyone is sometimes legitimately useful :P) and they got businesses on board by displaying Google Maps information alongside Google Search results, so all business owners seek out to add their data to Google for free whereas in OpenStreetMap (and other competitors) someone needs to painstakingly find all the businesses themselves. So business info is much less complete.

On other fronts, like hiking trails or public infrastructure, you'll find OSM much more accurate, especially around the world (I hear that Google is comparatively good on their home market). If you want things like trip planning, nautical maps, road avoidance, and tons more features: OsmAnd can do basically everything but the sheer feature count also clutters the UI. I have no problem with it but others say they prefer CoMaps and other apps for the simpler tasks, so just be aware of the different pros/cons and enjoy :)

altern8• 15 days ago

They should've called the app MapQuest :-)

Aachen12• 15 days ago

Maybe that's what you're referencing but MapQuest is a commercial company that existed already at the time StreetComplete got started iirc

black_puppydog2• 15 days ago

I've been mapping out shops, their contacts, cuisines (for restaurants), opening hours etc in my area. It's a lot of work and much of the information will actually simply not be available to me without a shop owner. So I'm trying to get some of them to update their own shop information. But I'm really struggling to find good arguments. Small shop owners often have quite stressful days already and taking even five minutes to update some information only makes sense if I can present them with a case that this will help their business.

Does anybody here know of ways that OSM data is used and products that people actually use to find businesses? I have heard rumors that Apple pulls data from OSM every now and again in areas where their own datasets are sparse. But do we have anything more meaningful or more concrete that would work in an area like France where data is not necessarily sparse in Apple's maps? (I'm saying this looking at Google Maps here in southern France where half of the shops that it displays just don't exist anymore for years...)

esperent2• 15 days ago

So I'm trying to get some of them to update their own shop information. But I'm really struggling to find good arguments.

I did that for my business (a bakery). Spent ages on it, put in all the details I could think of. At the end of the process there seemed to be a requirement to send it you review so I did that. This was several months ago (probably six months), and it's never showed up.

I'm busy, and I have a thousand more useful things to do for my business. I'm very unlikely to try again.

On the other hand, if the process had been easier I'd probably have then gone on to adding other businesses in the area.

The actual business is listed, but with a slightly wrong name. But I can put that exact slightly wrong name into the search on openstreetmap.org right now and there's zero results.

Then I can manually zoom to the location (which is correct), see my business, tap on it... And nothing. It doesn't open. So given all of this, why would I bother with openstreetmaps as a business owner?

KomoD2• 15 days ago

Seems like a trend with your business, though:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36566783

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44364090

Banned from Google Maps, banned from Instagram...

jllyhill4• 15 days ago

Do you remember what you've used to add your business? The process shouldn't be so difficult and normally the changes to the OpenStreetMaps database are instant and don't require any moderation or review. There are some sites that were intended to help business owners to get info to the database, maybe there's a problem with one of them.

The actual business is listed, but with a slightly wrong name. But I can put that exact slightly wrong name into the search on openstreetmap.org right now and there's zero results.

Can you give the name and location? I can look it up to see if there are any errors.

Then I can manually zoom to the location (which is correct), see my business, tap on it... And nothing. It doesn't open. So given all of this, why would I bother with openstreetmaps as a business owner?

That's the part that annoys me the most. Counterintuitively the map at openstreetmap.org is NOT intended to be an interactive common user web-map, a Google map alternative. It is a non-interactive map for the mapping volunteers to get feedback on whether their changes to the OpenStreetMap database were correct. While you can still right click on a feature, select "Query feature" and look at the raw text, you are better look up your business on something like mapy.com or an app like CoMaps (that use OSM data to create a Google map alternative) to understand what would the users see.

wcedmisten• 15 days ago

For what it's worth, I use OSM for my modest project SurpriseDateSpot[1] which will randomly pick a restaurant (or other amenity) in your area! It gets a few thousand users per month :)

I've also used this project to upstream 2,000 suggested edits to OSM

[1] https://surprisedatespot.com/

jllyhill4• 15 days ago

You can get some info on the tag use with taginfo, e.g. https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/cuisine#projects But it is really technical and not all projects provide this info.

The most obvious place where people will look for and query this kind of data are the OSM-based map apps: OsmAnd, OrganicMaps, CoMaps, mapy.com etc. I don't know if this data is pulled into other major maps like Google's or Apple's.

flaburgan2• 15 days ago

I am using EveryDoor to contribute to OpenStreetMap. I find the information it allows to add much more useful than the one in streetcomplete quests.

thangalin2• 15 days ago

https://shufflenblues.com/location/

OSM is fantastic. I wanted a free, unencumbered map that matches the site's theme for ride sharing, billeting, and the venue location. The solution wasn't trivial, but at least it was possible. Couldn't imagine doing that with Google Maps.

Aachen12• 15 days ago

Is that OSM? I didn't even recognise it, good job on matching the color scheme to the website so well!

There's a little (i)nformation icon on the bottom right but it doesn't seem to do anything. If this is OSM then attribution is required. It's how we make people aware of the noncommercial project (considering we barely have budget for servers, running ads is a bit hard) and it also tells people where they can add corrections

The legalese is here if you want https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright but in short, OSM maps need to show something like "©OpenStreetMap Contributors". There's debate whether an (i) fold-out icon is enough since the license technically stipulates that anyone interacting with the material must also be aware that it's OSM data and not literally everyone will click that. Personally I find that clause too restrictive, and the use on your website so minimal... but that's the legal terms. Nobody ever got sued by the OpenStreetMap Foundation. Do with the information as you see fit :P. Personally I'm already happy that you found it suits your purposes well!

thangalin2• 15 days ago

Thanks! The location page was a map image, it's now an interactive map with the clickable (i)nformation icon.

ryandrake• 15 days ago

Is https://keepright.at still a thing? That used to be my go-to site when I was bored and wanted to find things to fix in OSM. No matter how much you fix, it seems that when you go back to that site, there seem to always be tons of stuff flagged for fixing.

bspammer• 15 days ago

Seems like it's pretty out of date, from the site:

Site updated at 2024-03-03

It's a shame because it seems very useful.

aucisson_masque• 15 days ago

I just downloaded it and launched it. It's very funny and somewhat addictive but it also feel overwhelming, just around me there are hundreds and hundreds of questions.

Some,I really don't care to answer, like "the Telephone pole, is it made of wood or steel ?!"

Who cares honestly.

eliaspro• 15 days ago

Feel free to unclutter your view by disabling quests you don't want to answer in the settings, maybe just start with only 3-4 very basic ones.

aembleton• 15 days ago

If you go into settings and then quest selection you can choose what you do care about

mhh__• 15 days ago

Yes but there is Hans, 25, of Wiesbaden who is the telephone-pole-material guy who catalogues these things.

m4rtink3• 15 days ago

You can make more realistic simulations based on the data.

Also I am sure this is used for data science.

throwawayk7h• 15 days ago

Please advertise that you offer it on f-droid as well! I only see Play store and App store links. But it's available right here: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplet...

LowLevelKernel• 15 days ago

AMAZING work

m463• 15 days ago

Tesla cars with their dashcam turned on collect enormous amounts of data. They have 4-6 cameras writing continuously to a USB flash drive.

I wonder why we can't get folks to drive around and collect it, then use AI/automation to fill in great swaths of information automagically.

EDIT: some people do similar things:

- https://wcedmisten.fyi/post/dashcam-to-openstreetmap/

EDIT2: and maybe it goes the other way:

- https://teslamotorsclub.com/2019/11/04/tesla-owners-can-edit...

bjoli• 15 days ago

Last week I am #2 in Sweden on StreetComplete, despite using veapucci for about half my edits (my neighborhood is pretty effed up).

AMA I guess

StreetComplete: Fixing OpenStreetMap, one tiny quest at a time

Related Stories