OpenStreetMap
This is my third active day editing the map.
I started using JOSM, the hardcore standalone client to edit stuff. When using a mouse it certainly was a good deal faster than using the ID editor. Both have their advantages though.
Now I am tired, I think I have mapped a couple of hundred houses and our little village with some 11000 citizens are starting to look like something more than just some random roads and a steel mill. I’ll be very surprised if I don’t score high on the statistics page tomorrow. To bad I cannot find my username on the heat map thing, that would have been cool. Maybe it just takes some days before it gets there. I don’t know. I have also learned a lot making my work better. I also picked up all the shortcuts so I didn’t have to use the mouse more than necessary.
Somehow it would be easier if I could get more people editing in my little village. But I don’t have any friends here that I think has the time or interest to improve upon the map. I spoke with my sister who lives in some offshoot in the swedish countryside called Borlänge. If I could get her to start we could probably have a prefect city within days. She has a abnormal energy for OCD things.
My plan today was to render some OSM maps into Garmin images so I could have them on my GPS, but now I am so tired from editing. Maybe I could just edit like a madman for a week and then let the people who are skilled at doing these images do their job. We’ll see, I don’t like to take shortcuts.
It’s still just 16:48, and if I rest a little I may come up with the strength to edit some more. I soo wish I weren’t still suffering from this annoying cold, then I could be out walking and recording traces over small paths everywhere. All in due time I guess.
I notice my text does not have any flow and is kinda of jumpy, it’s like driving, don’t drive while tired, and don’t write while tired.
Now some well deserved rest :-)
Discussion
Comment from 4rch on 20 September 2014 at 15:07
JOSM also offers some very helpful plugins. http://josm.openstreetmap.de/wiki/Plugins
“utilsplugin2” is a must have ;) “buildings_tools” makes drawing buildings much easier.
When you press “Q” in JOSM the geometries (buildings, etc.) get a right angle.
Comment from arogen on 20 September 2014 at 15:26
Thanks 4rch! I will check that plugin out. Perhaps I should have used that right angle thingy earlier cause I have a hard time seeing me going back and correcting all of them. I will however use it for the buildings I will be putting up in the future :-)
Comment from 4rch on 20 September 2014 at 16:06
It’s no big problem to modify the already created buildings: Download the area you want to modify in JOSM - Press CTRL + F - type in “building=yes” into the search window - select the option “select all objects which do contain the above mentioned key” (the option should sound like this, I can’t check it out at the moment) - press Q –> this modifies all selected objects –> Upload it
Comment from arogen on 20 September 2014 at 16:10
Awesome, I will see if I can use it, sounds a bit dangerous though :-)
Comment from 4rch on 20 September 2014 at 16:15
Yes, this could be dangerous and only works in areas where there are only right angled buildings.
It could also infringe the mechanical edit policy: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mechanical_Edit_Policy
But when you use it only for buildings you’ve created in a small area this should be no problem in my opinion.
Comment from Stalfur on 20 September 2014 at 18:24
Don’t burn out too quickly. I took an entire summer to map my town of 35.000 people in 2013 and this month I’ve been doing some fixes every day after new imagery was available.
As for Garmin check out the wiki page, much of the work might be already done for you.
Comment from Sanderd17 on 20 September 2014 at 19:17
You shouldn’t aim to be high in the stats. Quality edits don’t result in high stats.
Quality edits require that you look for specific information, check and double check them. The higher quality your edits are, the slower it is to add. While the stats page only takes account of the number of nodes you added. So only imports and armchair mappers that trace imagery end up there.
Adding the name of a shop with the opening hours and contact info is a lot better for the quality of our map, but it takes a lot of time, and tag edits don’t appear in the stats. While, if you’re tracing imagery, you can easily add a few nodes per second, applying a simple, rather default tag, doesn’t cost any time at all.
But yes, don’t burn out too quickly, we need you to maintain the map too (keeping up with closed or newly opened shops f.e.)
Comment from arogen on 20 September 2014 at 19:39
Thanks Stalfur, I will take your advice. And thanks for the link ☺ Sanderd17, you are right of course. I like mapping good, but when there is nothing but some roads here and there the map isn’t as fun to use. I figured I would fill it up with houses first, and footways, and residential roads before going more into the details of everything. But you are right, although I might be a little bit of an armchair mapper ☺ I didn’t know about what gave stats and what didn’t. I actually entered the hours, and number ( yes I know it’s disputed) to a cvs pharmacy today. Figured it would be useful ☺ I also showed my wife and she understood why it can be so addicting making edits.