HN

Need help?
<- Back
StreetComplete: Fixing OpenStreetMap, one tiny quest at a time

StreetComplete: Fixing OpenStreetMap, one tiny quest at a time

kls0e

Comments (139)

  • wafflemaker
    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.
  • lapetitejort
    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
  • aweb
    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
  • TeddyDD
    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.
  • earth-tattoo
    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.
  • giancarlostoro
    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...
  • black_puppydog
    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...)
  • jnpnj
    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 :]
  • freakynit
    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.
  • thangalin
    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.
  • flaburgan
    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.
  • hexomancer
    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.
  • ryandrake
    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.
  • pavel_lishin
    I downloaded this, and I'm slightly amazed at how much detail there is. What material the utility poles are made of?
  • Schiendelman
    Hi! Is this yours? Would you like help porting this to iOS?
  • hirako2000
    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.
  • wxlong2000
    StreetComplete's trick is hiding the tagging model until you actually need it. Most contributor tools expose the schema too early.
  • netfortius
    Some more info in an earlier thread [1][1] CoMaps – FOSS Offline Maps | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48808928
  • khernandezrt
    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.
  • endymion-light
    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?
  • kelvinjps10
    What's the best apps as a Google maps replacement that uses open street maps?
  • marssaxman
    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.
  • jcynix
    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.
  • altern8
    They should've called the app MapQuest :-)
  • Acrobatic_Road
    Every day I take a 2 hour walk and contribute as much data as I can to OSM using this app.
  • jmspring
    Is there something equivalent for iOS?
  • Krasnol
    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
  • myself248
  • hadi121
    This is such a great idea. Are there ever any plans for a web app?
  • crudgen
    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.
  • qmacro
    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 :-)
  • piebro
    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...
  • lisper
  • preetham_rangu
    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.
  • isanjayjoshi
    [dead]
  • santiagohzszmex
    Muy bien