OpenStreetMap
Well I decided it was high time I started making some actual contributions, notwithstanding the lack of a GPS unit or usable aerial imagery for my area. So I started tracing over the old out-of-copyright map using Potlatch, adding my street and the back streets around Derby that I know.
I noticed the overlay is somewhat misaligned when compared to the existing ways, so I expect that when I do get my Freerunner in the next few weeks and start adding some GPS traces I will have some editing to do to correct what I've entered so far. No matter, at least we officially exist on OSM now.
Having mentioned what I was doing to one person in the office, another colleague piped up that they were also a contributor. I suspect that if I asked around I'd find one or two more as well -- I've noticed GPS traces of the private on-site access roads here, so clearly someone is actively tracing and uploading.
Discussion
Comment from Mark Williamson on 13 August 2008 at 17:36
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/New_Popular_Edition
Has instructions on how to realign the NPE layer with the existing ways for more accurate tracing. I've been finding I can locally line up the NPE map with some ways but that there seems to be some "drift" further away from the features I lined up. I've been re-aligning the NPE layer with some features nearby to whatever I'm currently editing in hope that it will minimise the errors introduced.
Sometimes you can use a combination of NPE and satellite maps, or of NPE and surveying in order to maximise the accuracy of the trace and to get names for things. NPE is particularly useful for finding the paths and names of things like streams, which are typically hard to survey.
It's great fun having a real GPS unit, though - it can make you a lot more productive.