We know OpenStreetMap is one of the most powerful and collaborative geospatial databases in the world. It relies on contributions from everyday users, developers, humanitarian workers, and mapping enthusiasts to keep data accurate and up to date.
But like any open data project, OSM faces issues. And understanding the types of issues we encounter is essential to maintaining map quality. One simple and effective way to think about OSM data problems is, to divide them into two broad categories:

1. Existing Issues: Errors in the Map

These are problems that exist within the current OSM data. The features are already mapped, but something about them is incorrect, inconsistent, or outdated.

Common examples:

• Incorrect tags: A residential road tagged as a motorway.
• Geometry errors: Buildings that are misaligned, roads that don’t connect properly, or rivers overlapping with buildings.
• Outdated features: A shop that closed years ago but still shows up on the map.
• Inconsistencies: Using different tags for the same type of feature in nearby areas (amenity=school vs. building=school).

2. Non-Existing Issues: Missing from the Map

These are features or data that should be on the map but are completely absent. The problem here is not about fixing what’s wrong, it’s about recognizing what’s not there at all.

Common examples:

• Unmapped buildings visible in satellite imagery.
• New roads or paths that haven’t been digitized.
• Missing POIs like schools, hospitals, or shops.
• Lack of metadata such as opening hours, accessibility info, or addresses.

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Why This Distinction Matters

Thinking in terms of “existing” vs. “non-existing” issues helps:

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طريق غير معبدة

This article is also available in Taiwanese Mandarin (台灣華語) and Taiwanese Hokkien / Taigi (台文)

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In 2025, OpenStreetMap Taiwan Community has started to cooperate with Wikidata Taiwan Community to organize Street View Tour again, and in April, the tour was to Huwei and Tuku townships in Yunlin county. The funding source of this tour was Wikimedia Association of Taiwan, and the lunches for the two days (4/26 and 4/27) were sponsored by TomTom company.

The tour gathered outside the Yunlin High Speed Rail station in the morning of 4/26, and then set off to Huwei and Tuku townships to take photos of various temples related to Yunlin Liufang Mazu religion. Even though this was a street view tour, there were a lot of problems with the 360 camera this time 🫠, the one in the author’s car was always crashed (overheated?), while the one in the other car was never able to connect to the cell phone. The one on the car I was driving was always crashed (overheating?), while the one on the other car could not be connected by cell phone. Nonetheless, 53,854 street photos were uploaded to Mapillary this time (including both flat and 360 panoramic photos, some of which have not yet been uploaded at the time of writing this diary).

… See full entry

Pertanyaan mimin SGPC alias tukangsampat at the OpenStreetMap sederhana.

Banyak variasi jalan gang yang tergambar di peta OSM di Indonesia yang tidak seragam. Sebaiknya, untuk standarisasi sebaiknya, jalan gang di Indonesia:

• ditanda sebagai alley (highway:service, service:alley)
• ditandai sebagai jalan setapak untuk pejalan kaki (highway:footway) - yang artinya satu jenis tag dengan jalan setapak biasa
• atau sebagai jalan bersama (highway:living_street)

Cukup banyak gang di kota-kota maupun pedesaan di Tanah Air yang terasa terlalu lebar untuk sepeda motor namun sempit untuk kendaraan roda empat, tetapi dalam editor tag Allowed Access (motor_vehicle) bisa diartikan baik roda dua maupun roda empat, jadi sulit mencari pengecualian. Saat ini, versi mimin adalah merupakan sebuah alley.

Silahkan tanggapi di kolom komentar dan argumennya.

Para que servem os dados do OpenStreetMap?

O OpenStreetMap (OSM) é um projeto colaborativo que tem como objetivo criar um mapa mundial livre e editável. Mas para além de um simples mapa, o verdadeiro poder do OSM está nos seus dados geográficos abertos, que são utilizados por milhares de pessoas, empresas e governos em todo o mundo. Mas afinal, para que servem os dados do OpenStreetMap? 1. Navegação e Mobilidade Urbana

Muitos aplicativos de GPS e navegação utilizam os dados do OSM para oferecer rotas, calcular distâncias e estimar tempos de viagem. Serviços como o OsmAnd, Maps.me e até partes do Mapbox e Uber usam esses dados. Além disso, o OSM é essencial para soluções de mobilidade urbana, como planejamento de ciclovias, linhas de ônibus e análise de acessibilidade. 2. Planejamento Urbano e Infraestrutura

Prefeituras, engenheiros e urbanistas utilizam os dados do OpenStreetMap para:

Mapear ruas, calçadas, escolas e hospitais;

Identificar áreas sem infraestrutura básica;

… See full entry

Ajude a manter os mapas sempre atualizados!

O Projeto COCAR é uma iniciativa colaborativa que disponibiliza mensalmente mapas atualizados do Brasil e da América Latina para dispositivos Garmin, baseados no OpenStreetMap — o mapa livre e aberto que todos podem editar.

Para que esses mapas continuem precisos e úteis, contamos com o apoio da comunidade! Precisamos de voluntários para verificar e atualizar as notas deixadas por outros usuários no OpenStreetMap e inserir novas informações nos mapas, como ruas, estabelecimentos, nomes de vias e muito mais.

… See full entry

Está difícil dar visibilidade ao seu projeto para a comunidade mundial, entre tantos eventos pagos e/ou presenciais? Nós temos um convite especial pra você!

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Participe e concorra à publicação do seu relato como capítulo de livro a ser lançado em 2026

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Comunicamos que parte dos projetos de países lusófonos apresentados na Mostra de Projetos de Mapeamento do III Workshop Mapeamento Participativo e Cartografia Social - MPCS 2025 serão selecionados para publicação como capítulo do segundo volume do livro da série literária Estudos de caso em mapeamentos colaborativo e participativo, a ser lançado no início de 2026, com o selo da editora IVIDES.

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As informações sobre o envio de propostas para o evento, 100% online e gratuito e aberto à comunidade, podem ser encontradas no no site oficial.

https://ivides.org/workshopmpcs2025

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As inscrições para a mostra de projetos de mapeamento estarão abertas até 20 de maio de 2025.

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Podem participar grupos e coletivos externos ao meio acadêmico também, as propostas serão avaliadas da mesma maneira, segundo os critérios estabelecidos e disponibilizados no portal oficial do evento.

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Podem ser inscritas iniciativas desenvolvidas em países lusófonos: Angola, Brasil, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, Guiné Equatorial, Moçambique, Portugal, São Tomé e Príncipe e Timor Leste.

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A organização agradece ao patrocínio da FAPERJ e da empresa IVIDES DATA e à parceria com os laboratórios Lageot-UFF Campos, GeoCart-UFRJ, LiGA-UFRRJ, Programa de Pós-graduação em Geografia da UFRJ, Observatório do Mapeamento Participativo (IVIDES.org e GeoCart) e a Associação de Geógrafos Brasileiros (Seção Campinas-SP).

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Is it difficult to present your project for the world community among so many paid and/or in person events? We have a special invitation for you!

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Send your submission and be in with a chance of having your story published as a chapter in a book to be released in 2026.

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We would like to inform you that part of the projects from the lusophone countries, presented at the Mapping Projects Exhibition of the III Workshop on Participatory Mapping and Social Cartography - MPCS 2025 will be selected for publication as a chapter in the second volume of the book series Case Studies in Collaborative and Participatory Mapping, to be released in early 2026 under the IVIDES publishing lable.

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Information on submitting proposals for the event, 100% online and free and open to the community, can be found on the official website.

https://ivides.org/workshopmpcs2025

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Applications for the mapping project exhibition will be open until May 20, 2025.

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Groups and collectives external to the universities can also take part. Proposals will be assessed in the same way, according to the criteria established and made available on the event’s official website.

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Initiatives developed in Portuguese-speaking countries can be sent in Portuguese language: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor.

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The organisation would like to thank FAPERJ and the company IVIDES DATA for their sponsorship and the partnership with the laboratories Lageot-UFF Campos, GeoCart-UFRJ, LiGA-UFRRJ, the Postgraduate Programme in Geography at UFRJ, the Participatory Mapping Observatory (IVIDES.org and GeoCart) and the Association of Brazilian Geographers (Campinas-SP Section).

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oh well, imgur doesn’t seem to work.

Прекрасно коли моя рідна громада була мною розмальована раніше. А ще приємніше коли ти малюєш сусідні громади. Сьогодні 7 травня 25 р. роботи по нанесенню на карту території Вовковинської громади завершені. Природні об’єкти громади картографовані на 100% (в т.ч. території населених пунктів, АЛЕ за винятком об’єктів всередині самих же населених пунктів, вони не враховані). Першими малювались об’єкти близ села Галузинці, останньою правкою було нанесення границь села Старий Майдан. Особлива увага була звернута на залізницю (некоректно було намальовано зупинні пункти), на траси (неточності геометрії) і на старі об’єкти які були намальовані колись іншими учасниками (актуальність була втрачена, на нових супутниках багато полів та лісів змінили свої границі).

І око милує, коли з електрички ти дивишся на не білу пусту текстуру, а на кожен нанесений об’єкт.

It was a beautiful day for a hike, so I set out early at 8am sharp. I headed back to Ely, trekked some of the trails in Plymouth Great Wood, cut through the park in St Fagans, passed through Western Cemetery, then over to the iron-age hillfort in Caerau. All was going to plan — until, that is, it wasn’t. While taking some snapshots at the hillfort, I fell and sprained my ankle.

I’ve no idea what happened – I was taking my time, walking along, and then I was flat on my face. I remember hearing a squeaking sound, the kind of sound a gym shoe makes on a squash court (so I either slipped on a root or a rock, or I killed something cute and fluffy).

So there I was , stuck in the middle of field with nothing to help me up. Great. And I somehow had to get back down a very steep hill. Brilliant. And then I had to get home. Jolly-well fantastic.

After, looking up at the sky for an hour, I managed to get to my feet. I couldn’t put weight on my over-turned ankle, so the trip back down took an age. With the aid of my trusty hiking pole, I finally got to a bus stop.

At least I got what I wanted to get — a clearer picture of the woodland trails and the layout of the roads in the cemetery (all in the name of improving Open Street Map). I also now have the perfect excuse for buying a new pair of trail boots.

Although the sprain is quite bad, nothing seems to be broken — the swelling is fairly minor, and I’m not in a great deal of pain. I won’t be strolling about for a while, but I’m hoping that the ‘while’ is a short one.

Hello all, to start with, I’ve always been interested in open software and collaborative projects. I actually made an OSM account way back in 2012, as you can see on the HDYC website. I can’t really remember why I made it to be honest. I may have found it via Wikipedia or something.

But it was three years ago today that I did my first changeset. I had yet to learn about all the mapping resources available to me, especially the GSImaps/pale layer from the Japanese government. This in combination with the JOSM areaselector plugin has been really useful for quickly mapping buildings in Japan. There are a lot of hiking trails on there too, and I can see now that I didn’t really need to use my GPX track to map the trail up to the Kamiyahagi Wind Farm and the observation deck up there way back in that first edit.

I’m grateful to this community for providing me with a useful hobby to do and that I have fun with. It perfectly compliments my outdoorsy walking and hiking lifestyle, my detail-focused mindset, as well as my tendency to hyper-focus (yay ADHD!) and being comfortable with sitting on JOSM and just meditatively mapping. It’s wonderfully calming. I greatly enjoy that I’m making an impact on the world through what I love to do.

I have been making an effort to direct people to OSM resources on r/BuyFromEU as much as I can, as there’s been an increased interest in switching away from US tech companies to services like Mapy and Magic Earth and I see it as a great opportunity for more people to join and improve the map. There are so many services that use OSM, but I think a lot of users aren’t even aware that the map can be edited or that improvements are welcome. I sometimes see references to “the official OSM app,” which is referencing OSMAnd. I think for some, the concept of it just being a database that the various apps get the data from can be hard to understand. But overall, I’m really glad to see more people get on board.

… See full entry

CONVITE PARA REUNIÃO MENSAL DA COMUNIDADE OSM BRASIL 🗺

👥 Todos os membros da Comunidade OSM Brasil estão convidados!

📆 Data: 06/05/2025 ⏰ Horário: 19:00 (UTC-3) 📍 Link da Reunião: https://meet.jit.si/osmbrasil

📝 Pauta:

• Projeto de Mapeamento de Edificações no Brasil
• Camada de CEPs

• Camada de Nomes de Ruas no Brasil

  📌 Qualquer membro da comunidade pode sugerir um assunto para a pauta da reunião de amanhã!

💬 Vamos dialogar sobre o avanço do mapeamento colaborativo e alinhar ações para melhorar a cobertura e qualidade dos dados no OpenStreetMap.

Participe, sua presença fortalece a comunidade!

OSMBrasil #OpenStreetMap #MapeamentoColetivo #ReuniãoOSM #DadosAbertos

對台灣華語版本翻譯，原作者 s8321414

開放街圖臺灣社群2025年又閣開始佮 Wikidata 臺灣社群合作舉辦街景踏查團，這改4月份是到雲林縣的虎尾鎮佮土庫鎮踏查，踏查團的經費來源是對台灣維基媒體協會來的，兩工（4/26、4/27）的中晝頓由 TomTom 公司贊助。

這改踏查團佇4/26早起對雲林高鐵站外集合，隨就出發前往虎尾鎮佮土庫鎮和六房天上聖母信仰相關的廟宇拍攝照片，雖罔講是街景踏查團，毋過這改360相機問題袂少🫠，囥佇筆者所駕駛的車頂的這台是定定當機（傷熱？），另外一台車頂的是一直無法度予手機連使用。雖綱按呢，這改猶是有上傳 53,854 張街景照到 Mapillary（同時間包含平面相片片佮360環景照片，對筆者撰寫這篇日記的時，猶閣有部份的照片猶末上傳）。

Supaplex 講述 OpenStreetMap

第二工 (4/27) 是這改踏查團的編輯工作坊，佇本年度的六房天上聖母 紅壇舉辦，和本次踏查團相關的開放街圖編輯攏有 #tt_event 主題標籤（可能會當直接寫佇變更集的註記當中，或抑是寫佇變更集的 hashtags 標籤當中），欲看維基媒體計畫的編輯會當佇 [Dashboard] 中來檢視。

關於 OpenStreetMap 臺灣

OpenStreetMap 臺灣是由台灣關心投入 OpenStreetMap 的編輯者所組成，自從 2010 年開始由個孤一个人獨自編輯變成集結閣較濟人參與的共編地圖專案的在地社群。目前佇台灣有仃台北佮 Wikidata 社群共同舉行的 OpenStreetMap x Wikidata 月聚，閣有無定期的踏查活動。

本文用姓名標示-相仝方式分享 4.0 國際授權。

instellen locatie

Placeholder

本文章同時也提供 English version 與台文版本

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開放街圖臺灣社群2025年又開始跟 Wikidata 臺灣社群合作舉辦街景踏查團，而4月份是到雲林縣的虎尾鎮與土庫鎮踏查，本次踏查團的經費來源為台灣維基媒體協會，而兩天（4/26、4/27）的午餐則由 TomTom 公司贊助。

本次踏查團在4/26早上於雲林高鐵站外集合，隨後就出發前往虎尾鎮與土庫鎮各個與六房天上聖母信仰相關的廟宇拍攝照片，雖說是街景踏查團，不過這次360相機問題不少🫠，架在筆者所駕駛的車上的是經常當機（過熱？），而另一台車上的則是始終無法使用手機連上，話雖如此，這次仍上傳了 53,854 張街景照至 Mapillary（同時包含了平面照片與360環景照片，截至筆者撰寫這篇日記時，仍有部份照片尚未上傳）。

第二天 (4/27) 則是本次踏查團的編輯工作坊，在本年度的六房天上聖母 紅壇舉辦，與本次踏查團相關的開放街圖編輯均有 #tt_event 主題標籤（可能會直接寫在變更集的註記中，或是寫在變更集的 hashtags 標籤中），而維基媒體計畫的編輯則可在其 Dashboard 中檢視。

關於 OpenStreetMap 臺灣

OpenStreetMap 臺灣由台灣關心投入 OpenStreetMap 的編輯者構成，自從 2010 年開始由個人獨自編輯變成集結更多人參與的共編地圖專案的在地社群。目前在台灣有在台北與 Wikidata 社群共同舉行 OpenStreetMap x Wikidata 月聚，以及不定期的踏查活動。

本文以姓名標示-相同方式分享 4.0 國際授權。

I want to talk about how to name the trails in Catoctin Mountain Park, a US national park in Maryland. The available information about trail names is a bit inconsistent. This post serves as a way for me to organize my thoughts and document the conclusions I’ve reached.

Background

Catoctin Mountain Park, as I mentioned, is part of the US National Park system. It’s located in Maryland, at the northern end of the Blue Ridge Mountains and the outer perimeter of the Appalachian Mountains. It has a number of hiking trails. The trails are split between the east and west sides of the park; each side’s trails are interconnected, but the two sides don’t connect directly to each other.

I recently hiked most of the east side trails. It’s those trails I’m primarily focused on. I haven’t (yet) been to the west side, so I don’t personally know the ground truth there.

Ground Truth

On the ground, trails are designated by colored blazes on trees. The blazes use a number of different colors and several different shapes. Some distinct trails use the same colors as each other, but use different blaze shapes. There are sections where two trails overlap; those sections uses blazes that are half the color of one trail and half the color of the other trail.

There are no trail names posted, with one exception. A trail between the visitor center and the Lewis Property part of the park is both blazed with white rectangles and has regularly-placed signs saying “Gateway Trail”.

The park generally uses rectangular blazes for longer trails that form the core of the east side’s trail network. Triangular and circular blazes are used for shorter trails that either form shorter connections or have a specific purpose. For example, there’s a short nature trail with signs pointing out local plant species. That trail is blazed with triangles.

… See full entry

🌳 Como mapear uma árvore no iD Editor

1. Acesse o iD Editor Vá para https://lnkd.in/ggMaf_2 Faça login e clique em “Editar” (abre o iD Editor)

2. Adicione um ponto Clique no botão “Ponto” (ícone com um marcador) Clique exatamente onde está a árvore no mapa

3. Classifique como Árvore No painel lateral, digite “Árvore” ou “Tree” Selecione a opção que diz “Árvore” (com a tag natural=tree)

4. Adicione informações (opcional)

Você pode preencher outros detalhes:

species = Nome científico (ex: Mangifera indica)

leaf_type = broadleaved (folhas largas) ou needleleaved (aciculadas)

leaf_cycle = deciduous (caduca) ou evergreen (perene)

height = altura aproximada (ex: 5)

diameter_crown = diâmetro da copa

1. Salve suas edições

Clique em “Salvar” Escreva um resumo como: Adicionei árvore em praça pública

Clique em “Carregar” para enviar a edição OpenStreetMap Umbraosm hashtag#naturaltree hashtag#tag hashtag#id hashtag#editorid

🏘️ Projeto de Inserção Assistida de Edificações no Brasil

O Projeto de Inserção Assistida de Edificações tem como objetivo ampliar significativamente a cobertura de edificações no OpenStreetMap (OSM) em território brasileiro, com foco especial em áreas urbanas ainda pouco mapeadas.

A iniciativa utiliza como base os dados do Google Open Buildings, disponibilizados sob uma licença compatível com a ODbL do OSM, conforme explicitado no site oficial da Google: 🔗 https://sites.research.google/gr/open-buildings/

Desde 2024, o mapeador Santamariense, membro ativo da comunidade OSM Brasil, vem trabalhando na correção e aprimoramento desses dados com o objetivo de adaptá-los às diretrizes da comunidade e garantir sua qualidade. Esse esforço culmina, agora, na proposta oficial à comunidade OSM Brasil, convidando todos os mapeadores a analisarem e participarem do projeto, sugerindo também áreas prioritárias para mapeamento.

… See full entry