Help break the US hold on map data
Help break the US hold on map data
streetcomplete.app
StreetComplete
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/26246923
Currently there's only 3 big players when it comes to maps. You've got Google, Apple and Microsoft.
Let's try to make OpenStreetMap the best map there is. Go grab StreetComplete and start mapping your surroundings when you're out and about.
All the data is under a public license and managed by a non-profit foundation in the UK.
It's very easy to get started, and quite addictive.
OpenStreetMap is incredibly important. So many map applications and project composed from open-data is dependent on OSM (yes, european alternatives to map applications heavily depend on open-data of OpenStreetMap which is actually a database of geographic information, not only the map layer you often see).
I posted awhile ago about Organic Maps which also allows you to edit certain information. But StreetComplete is more fun :)
Microsoft and Apple use OpenStreetMap to an extent. Even TomTom uses it and, probably, Google. The better we make it, though, the less value adds other players can claim and no one can monopolize good street map data.
Yup. IIRC google mostly uses the data to fill in their own datasets and to double check nowadays (used to depend more on OSM).
But also every European product / FOSS project depending on OSM gets better with every contribution from people to OSM!