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  • Hacker News
  • Of course I learn about it exactly when I’m out of Paris for just a couple of days.
    by hk__2
  • Weird little quirk I've recently encountered, somewhat related to OSM: the `mkgmap` tool used to convert OSM data to Garmin map files display Chinese pronunciation as English names next to POI names in Japanese, due to 1) Japanese OSM maps have a lot of entries written in Japanese without indication of language, 2) no one is doing anything about it, due to Wikipedia style community nuances or something, and 3) the tool have no "--assume-language=$LANG" style of options(plus Japanese script->pronunciation mapping isn't even remotely bijective).

    e.g. There's a bicycle parking next to the parkside exit at Ueno station, "上野駅公園口自転車駐車場". This is:

      meaning:        Ueno    station   park    entrance   bicycle     parking  ground in English,
  read IRL:      ue   no    eki     kouen    guchi    jitensha     chusha    jou   in Japanese, but written
  on the map:  shang  ye    yi    gong yuan   kou   zi zhuan che  zhu che   chang  as Chinese(in Pinyin but I don't know how to type it).
    ...I would imagine that utility of that is limited for non-Japanese users. Makes me wonder what are the reasons why master OSM data hadn't had missing pronunciations autogenerated or mkgmap tool given an auto selected language flag, but I'm not intending to be OSMian nor am I wanting to be the one to define national borders for bunch of nation states, so there's that...
    by numpad0
  • I have a hard time making sense of your post. What do you mean with 'Japanese OSM maps'? There is just one OpenStreetMap, which includes Japan.

    On OpenStreetMap all entities which are named have at the very least the tag `name`. There is no need to specify which language that name is in, because this is geographically determined. For the whole of Japan, `name`-tags are considered to be in Japanese.

    This specific bicycle parking has no other names but that one `name` tag, which is the Japanese 上野駅公園口自転車駐車場:

    https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/3395310504

    This is totally normal. Most named entities only have a local name. A random bicycle parking is not likely to have a name in any other language but the local one. For things which actually have an exonym (like countries and larger cities), you will find additional namespaced language tags like `name:ja` and `name:en`, but a bicycle parking in Japan usually doesn't have an English name (although you can translate the Japanese name).

    As for why you are seeing Chinese, that has nothing to do with OpenStreetMap. Some other tool in your chain is doing that (mkgmap?).

    by Freak_NL
  • Interesting discussion. I didn’t know OSM handled official naming separately from community naming. Thanks for the explanation.
    by SaudAljuaid
  • The naming policy is generally quite sensible, although individual mappers sometimes do weird things (OpenStreetMap is sort of an anarchistic collective). As long as most English speaking people around Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico use those names, the `name` and `name:en` tags will reflect that. Usually the way media like quality newspapers use such a name is a good bellwether, and the normal name stays as long as it is evidently in common use.

    If in the future most Americans do end up saying 'Lake America', `name` could follow that too, and Lake Ontario would end up in `alt_name`.

    Or perhaps Americans from the White House to the New York Times to the school curriculum will call it Lake America, but Canadians will stick with Lake Ontario. In that case the top-level local language `name` might end up as 'Lake America/Ontario' (combining all local languages and variants) and `name:en` (English in general, so America would be a minority there) and `name:en-CA` would say Lake Ontario, and `name:en-US` would say Lake America. Time will tell. OpenStreetMap adjusts accordingly.

    For the official name there is simply a different tag (`official_name`, or in this case `official_name:en-US` because the lake borders more than one country). Having that available makes it possible to search for it by that name.

    by Freak_NL
  • Michelin being a higher tier sponsor than Esri is interesting
    by michaefe
  • https://shufflenblues.com/location/

    I used OpenStreetMaps to create a map with a theme that fits the website theme. There were no other free options that I could find to accomplish this goal. Moreover, the map works on just about every browser under the sun. Great work by their team.

    by thangalin
  • Great, but you should know that your map is not compatible with the openstreetmap license. See here: https://osmfoundation.org/wiki/Licence/Attribution_Guideline...

    Your attribution is hidden by default and it looks like you are doing it on purpose by running `attrib.classList.remove( 'maplibregl-compact-show' );`.

    by SahAssar
  • It’s really a great conference, the OSM community is great and strongest in Europe. I’ve been to many and always come away inspired.

    Sadly (or, really, amazingly as it’s good to have so many options), another great, major geospatial conference is also happening essentially at the same time: FOSS4G in Hiroshima. They are certainly different conferences but a lot of overlap.

    So, in other words it’s a great week to be in geospatial software working on open source and open data.

    by juliansimioni
  • Are my eyes deceiving me or is Mapbox not participating as an event sponsor? It's been a while, but wasn't mapbox's existence completely relied on OSM?
    by tecoholic
  • Gamifying the map definitely helps to pull in contributors. StreetComplete got me editing more than anything else. I went a bit sideways with it: I used OSM data to build a territory game for cyclists, where you claim roads by riding them. It's heavily processed OSM data with PostGIS. The fun part was figuring out how to decide what counts as a claimable road in the first place.

    https://remap.earth

    by basil
  • Happening at "Cité Descartes". I see what you did there.
    by netsharc
  • I absolutely love OpenStreetMap. Back when I first started building (legal) mountain bike trails I realized that without a map they aren't the most useful. OSM gave me the system in which to document them, and then from there I was able to reuse the data to make print maps and eventually my current project: https://trailmaps.app
    by c0nsumer
  • If you want a fun and easy way to contribute to OSM I recommend StreetComplete. You get a bunch of game-like quest icons for things like "what is the surface of this path?", and "does this road have a cycle path?", then you walk around and fill them in.

    Very satisfying and feels like you're doing something actually useful. Also nudges you to visit parts of your neighborhood you might never have been to before.

    by hrnnnnnn
  • Loooking forward to their kotlin multiplatform release
    by HaloZero
  • Contributing to Open Street Map has given me a ton of satisfaction. Knowing that my somewhat minor efforts to correct one address, add one feature, correct one trail will propagate to so many different places and help other people not get lost, find something new, or just be able to navigate more safely in the world makes me feel like I am leaving the world a better place more than a decade of working at FANG ever did.
    by fitblipper
  • How is that different than Google or Bing? Don’t get me wrong OSM is great.
    by amazingamazing
  • I want to start contributing. I want to add some hiking trails that are not mapped around where I live. However, the process seems a bit complicated. Is there any documentation you can provide for how to contribute to OSM?
    by gonzalohm
  • True, I use mapcomplete or streetcomplete to kill time when traveling. I use public transport a lot. I've racked up thousands of minor edits, addi g opening hours, accesability info and what not to the map. It's been very satifactory.

    I work in public service and I've grotten so many people on board that the map in my region is pretty darned good.

    by W3zzy
  • THIS. My comment is somewhat tangential but I thought still relevant. I used to work for huge financial investment company with over a trillion dollars of assets for over 10 years. I never thought I was making positive difference in people's lives. However, my job offered me so many opportunities to volunteer and I would jump on every single one of those, and that made working there totally worthwhile. I still work for another huge company these days, which offers similar opportunities to make a difference in the community and that is what keeps me going here too.

    There is something to be said about building tools out of kindness and not for greed. Thank you for your contributions to OSM and Thank you OSM developers too - big fan and user!

    by nelblu