this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
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cross-posted from: https://feddit.nl/post/33407329

We've all already talked about switching away from google/apple maps to something like openstreetmaps, mapy, tomtom amigo, etc. But all of these services use openstreetmaps (UK non-profit) as a source and they still miss a lot of local data even for bigger cities!

If you have some spare time, think about adding a bit of data to the map with your local knowledge. There's a lot of business data missing that is on google maps like websites, phone numbers and opening hours but also stuff like parking lots and whether they're publicly accessible and free or not. Adding these makes the competition of ALL services using OSM as a source better.

I also use the mobile app https://streetcomplete.app/ and https://every-door.app/ to add data while on my walks, these make my walks more engaging and I actually take longer ones + see new places because of it. Streetcomplete also has a focus on important and easy to collect data with their default filters, and you can choose what you want to contribute.

If you really want to get into the thick of it and contribute more than just simple data you can always check out https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/How_to_contribute and see in which of the many ways you can contribute!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I like Every Door app, it makes it trivial to contribute and it's pretty nice

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Organic Maps is a good app that also lets you do some editing. I like the interface better than osmand

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Thank you for sharing these apps! Have been looking for this exact kind of thing ever since I abandoned Google maps. I contributed to Google maps for years. It'll be nice to contribute to something I believe in instead.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

Enjoy! Same here! You can also contribute on mapy by doing reviews and uploading photos there!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (7 children)

Can't we just scrape Google maps and add things to OSM? 🤔

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I believe this is against their ToS and being caught doing that would mean all that data just gets removed again. But I'm no legal expert

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yes, it is. You should not copy from other maps (satellite imagery is okay as long as the license of the imagery allows it, for example Bing).

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think there's limitations to that. I also think ideally we should cut Google out our work chain anyways, and depending on data from there makes that functionally impossible. Stuff on maps changes, if we're scraping from Google maps now we're just gonna have to continue doing that. Instead we should normalize our own community work chains to build our own dataset.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Yep, best to verify the data either in person or at least via their website instead (if they have one)

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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Street Complete is definitely the gateway drug here, very simple and beginner-friendly way to get started

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's made like a game!

This app finds missing map data in your vicinity and displays it on a map as quests. Solve each quest by visiting the location on-site and answering a simple question to update the map.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Definitely ticks the "something interesting to do out on a walk" box that pokémon go did

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

OSMAnd~ also has the option to edit.

I did it a few times, it really isn't hard! Just adding or fixing POIs though; I wouldn't know how to add or fix a wrongly placed house/path etc.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

On the web editor of OSM its pretty easy to fix that should you want to

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not possible with OsmAnd, if you want to edit geometry you need a full featured editor. For Android one option is Vespucci.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

As I said, I was just editing POIs.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

@Kualdir
Will install StreetComplete and maybe Every Door and will try them

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

Thanks for trying!

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