Street­Complete: An app for those who want to contribute to OpenStreetMap

Einar@lemmy.ml to Open Source@lemmy.ml – 694 points – Street­Complete | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository
f-droid.org

Help to improve the OpenStreetMap with StreetComplete!

This app finds incomplete and extendable data in your vicinity and displays it on a map as markers. Each of those is solvable by answering a simple question to complete the info on site.

The info you enter is then directly added to the OpenStreetMap in your name, without the need to use another editor.

65

Really useful and fun to use. Unfortunately I'm nearly done with all tasks in my region.

You can always add more (harder) tasks that are disabled by default. That's what I do for regions where there aren't enough tasks (that I'm interested in)

Mapping with this app is a lot of fun! Sometimes I just go for a walk and open up StreetComplete to see if I can add some small contributions, like the opening hours of some nearby establishment or whether a given entity is still at the location.

You can also customize what kind of questions are shown so you can skip on things you may not like.

An alternative for iOS is “Go Map!!”.

Thank you!

Also like that the iOS app privacy section says:

Data Not Collected The developer does not collect any data from this app

Does this have the same "tell us more about this place please" functionality or does it just let you make edits?

It asks you about the road type, house numbers etc.

Why does fdroid say that it promotes or depends on non-free networkl service?

f-droid defines it as

Non-Free Network Services

This Anti-Feature is applied to apps that promote or depend entirely on a Non-Free network service which is impossible, or not easy to replace. Replacement requires changes to the app or service. This antifeature would not apply, if there is a simple configuration option that allows pointing the app to a running instance of an alternative, publicly available, self-hostable, free software server solution.

Here’s the list of apps with Non-Free Network Services.

https://f-droid.org/en/docs/Anti-Features/#NonFreeNet

I asked the developer Tobias Zwick the exact same question. His reply (in german, can anyone summarize it in english?):

gemeint ist damit vor Allem jawg.io, das ist der komerzielle Anbieter/Clouddienst über den die Basiskarte ausgespielt wird. Diese Karte basiert zwar zu 100% auf OpenStreetMap-Daten, aber der Service selbst ist nicht frei. Die OpenStreetMap Foundation bietet selbst keinen Vektor-Kachel-Dienst an, auch nicht für OpenStreetMap Editoren etc.

Zusätzlich dazu würde die App zurzeit auch ohne jawg.io das NonFreeNet-Flag bekommen, aber das liegt vor Allem daran, dass F-Droid zurzeit die Benutzung jeglichen in der App hardkodierten Netzwerkdienst, ob Open Source oder nicht, als NonFreeNet flaggt. Also zum Beispiel auch für die Nutzung von api.openstreetmap.org 🤔

Die F-Droid Leute diskutieren aber (seit langem) darüber, für nicht in der App änderbare Netzwerkdienste ein neues Anti-Feature Flag einführen, soetwas wie SiloedNet oder so, um die Definition von NonFreeNet nicht derart zu verwässern.Denn, ja... zurzeit ist finde ich NonFreeNet ziemlich nichtssagend. Ein Wikipedia-Reader zum Beispiel bekommt den Flag auch.

I thought it was awesome he took the time to answer in such detail and startet support him on liberapay: Tobias Zwick

Somewhat shortened translation:

This mainly refers to jawg.io, the commercial cloud service that serves the basic map. The map itself is 100% OSM data, but the service isn't free. OSM themselves don't offer a vector tile server, not even for editors.

Also, F-Droid gives every app with a hard-coded network dependency the NonFreeNet flag, including e.g. api.openstreetmap.org.

They're discussing a new anti-feature like SiloedNet for such cases, because at the moment NonFreeNet is pretty useless, e.g. a Wikipedia reader gets that flag too.

I asked the developer Tobias Zwick the exact same question. His reply (in german, can anyone summarize it in english?):

gemeint ist damit vor Allem jawg.io, das ist der komerzielle Anbieter/Clouddienst über den die Basiskarte ausgespielt wird. Diese Karte basiert zwar zu 100% auf OpenStreetMap-Daten, aber der Service selbst ist nicht frei. Die OpenStreetMap Foundation bietet selbst keinen Vektor-Kachel-Dienst an, auch nicht für OpenStreetMap Editoren etc.

Zusätzlich dazu würde die App zurzeit auch ohne jawg.io das NonFreeNet-Flag bekommen, aber das liegt vor Allem daran, dass F-Droid zurzeit die Benutzung jeglichen in der App hardkodierten Netzwerkdienst, ob Open Source oder nicht, als NonFreeNet flaggt. Also zum Beispiel auch für die Nutzung von api.openstreetmap.org 🤔

Die F-Droid Leute diskutieren aber (seit langem) darüber, für nicht in der App änderbare Netzwerkdienste ein neues Anti-Feature Flag einführen, soetwas wie SiloedNet oder so, um die Definition von NonFreeNet nicht derart zu verwässern.Denn, ja... zurzeit ist finde ich NonFreeNet ziemlich nichtssagend. Ein Wikipedia-Reader zum Beispiel bekommt den Flag auch.

I thought it was awesome he took the time to answer in such detail and startet support him on liberapay: Tobias Zwick

I asked the developer Tobias Zwick the exact same question. His reply (in german, can anyone summarize it in english?):

gemeint ist damit vor Allem jawg.io, das ist der komerzielle Anbieter/Clouddienst über den die Basiskarte ausgespielt wird. Diese Karte basiert zwar zu 100% auf OpenStreetMap-Daten, aber der Service selbst ist nicht frei. Die OpenStreetMap Foundation bietet selbst keinen Vektor-Kachel-Dienst an, auch nicht für OpenStreetMap Editoren etc.

Zusätzlich dazu würde die App zurzeit auch ohne jawg.io das NonFreeNet-Flag bekommen, aber das liegt vor Allem daran, dass F-Droid zurzeit die Benutzung jeglichen in der App hardkodierten Netzwerkdienst, ob Open Source oder nicht, als NonFreeNet flaggt. Also zum Beispiel auch für die Nutzung von api.openstreetmap.org 🤔

Die F-Droid Leute diskutieren aber (seit langem) darüber, für nicht in der App änderbare Netzwerkdienste ein neues Anti-Feature Flag einführen, soetwas wie SiloedNet oder so, um die Definition von NonFreeNet nicht derart zu verwässern.Denn, ja... zurzeit ist finde ich NonFreeNet ziemlich nichtssagend. Ein Wikipedia-Reader zum Beispiel bekommt den Flag auch.

I thought it was awesome he took the time to answer in such detail and startet support him on liberapay: Tobias Zwick

I asked the developer Tobias Zwick the exact same question. His reply (in german, can anyone summarize it in english?):

gemeint ist damit vor Allem jawg.io, das ist der komerzielle Anbieter/Clouddienst über den die Basiskarte ausgespielt wird. Diese Karte basiert zwar zu 100% auf OpenStreetMap-Daten, aber der Service selbst ist nicht frei. Die OpenStreetMap Foundation bietet selbst keinen Vektor-Kachel-Dienst an, auch nicht für OpenStreetMap Editoren etc.

Zusätzlich dazu würde die App zurzeit auch ohne jawg.io das NonFreeNet-Flag bekommen, aber das liegt vor Allem daran, dass F-Droid zurzeit die Benutzung jeglichen in der App hardkodierten Netzwerkdienst, ob Open Source oder nicht, als NonFreeNet flaggt. Also zum Beispiel auch für die Nutzung von api.openstreetmap.org.

Die F-Droid Leute diskutieren aber (seit langem) darüber, für nicht in der App änderbare Netzwerkdienste ein neues Anti-Feature Flag einführen, soetwas wie SiloedNet oder so, um die Definition von NonFreeNet nicht derart zu verwässern.Denn, ja... zurzeit ist finde ich NonFreeNet ziemlich nichtssagend. Ein Wikipedia-Reader zum Beispiel bekommt den Flag auch.

I thought it was awesome he took the time to answer in such detail and startet support him on liberapay: Tobias Zwick

SCEE is described as StreetComplete for advanced users. Does anyone have experience with this?

I use both versions actively, the main differences of SCEE compared to StreetComplete are the addtion of more obscure questions (for example building and roof colors, species/genus of trees), allowing direct editing of tags and disabling the gamification/statistics.

It's exactly as it says. SCEE comes without handholding which means should know what you do.

It's better to follow a guide on mapping and osm in general and after that you can use it without holding back.

this app showed me how much i don't know from my neighbourhood. It's really fun.

it even allows you to put notes on things the app doesn't give you an edit choice by default. I let someone know a street name was outdated that way.

It's super fun! I learned about this recently. This and geocaching really adds motivation for long walks.

even the mundane is enjoyable, today i went grocery shopping and just added the schedules of the stores I went in.

Thanks for sharing! This should be fun to contribute to while riding my electric unicycle.

Hijacking the thread:

You are all welcome on !openstreetmap@lemmy.ml to discuss anyting OpenStreetMap-related

Also have a look to https://mapcomplete.osm.be - this one works on mobile and desktop and has many thematic maps (e.g. one for shops, one for cycling stuff, one for toilets) and you can improve the data there as well + add images.

Cool I loved it when Google Maps allowed contributing stuff. There are so many little annoyances where you get incorrect directions that could be fixed so easily by crowd sourcing, but are too small to fix otherwise.

Cool, I'm looking forward to using this after I move to a new city next week. It will hopefully help with discovering the neighborhood and surrounding area

I have found convenience store within 5 minutes walking distance from my house thanks to StreetComplete. I had solved most of the tasks nearby, so I took a small detour on my way home and found this shop there that I had no idea existed. At that stage I was living in the area for years.

This is perfect! I've been meaning to get into contributing to OSM in my area, and this makes that very easy. I will be heading out once the rain stops to test this.

Thank you! Did not know about this app ❤️

How open is this? Can anybody download the data that is collected? Or is this like Waze, which did something similar, then just sold out to Google?

The only thing I want to say is "OpenStreetMap got the FSF award in 2018".

As the same openstreetmap site say it's the wikipedia of maps, run by the community and some corporations like meta, Microsoft and Apple.

And some people, like me, thanks to microg use the data for geocoding and don't rely on google for that.

OpenStreetMap has been going for almost 20 years now. It's a very well known open map data platform. Like Wikipedia, anyone can edit OSM map data, and all of the data is freely available for anyone to use.

Its used by Bing and Apple, so they would for sure piss off some people selling out. That being said I have no clue how its run, God pray it isnt as "open" as openai

Edit: nevermind, heres their license, doesn't look too bad

I discovered the app a few weeks ago and man, am I thrilled. I totally grinded it out too. Above all, I find the function for measuring the width of the street very elegant

Oh wow OH WOW I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT THIS!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!