I stumbled upon OpenStreetMap (OSM) recently. At first I was overwhelmed to see the amount of community work that is put together and reflects in the maps that are created. I was also excited to know how a hobby project of a person now resonates into something that has become a huge success. I started off my OSM project by mapping my hometown Kolar Gold Fields.

Kolar Gold Fields often acronymed as KGF is a small town located in Karnataka, It was once famous for the gold mining which eventually stopped in the year 2001 due to receding deposits. KGF is often compared to England due to its climate and the beautiful landscapes. hence known as “The Little England “

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With some initial analysis of the place on OSM I noticed that it was fairly less mapped than most parts of the country . I was pleasantly surprised to notice major parts of the town were already mapped by a community member. This fills me with great enthusiasm to become a more active Community member myself and improve my hometown map.

Before mapping on OSM

what I worked on

Initially it took me time understanding the interface , tools and the shortcuts on OSM . I arrived to conclusion to map my home town as it had very little data.

For a start I concentrated on the road features , Mainly the residential and the secondary road as there were missing. Data was added using Bing imagery as primary source. With time I enabled myself adding buildings , leisure parks , natural lakes, banks and schools, also tagging each feature suitably.

After the edits were made

My local knowledge of the place enabled me identify these features on the imagery and name them. The major strength of OSM can be attributed to its nature. Being an open source and a strong community driven project it enables us to create maps with such intricate details .