I've read a little bit about it and it still sounds too good to be true, but it appears it's okay to use Bing maps as a source to do street naming in OSM. So I did a little bit of that last night, you know, the part of the night when you're already tired and should really be in bed but your brain just needs its OSM fix?

Results should be soon visible at osm.org/go/xxSuRYvv

Naming streets brings up interesting questions about splitting/joining ways, as the same street name might be used for a way, part of which is a secondary road, part of which is a tertiary road - certainly a lot of that going on in Athens, Greece. Due to local knowledge (and the primitiveness of OSM data) that's where I started my little naming stint.

I still find it surprising how easy it is to contribute to OSM. I remember that it looked like an insurmountable challenge not long ago... I believe we need more short HOWTO videos like http://vimeo.com/24992100 and http://vimeo.com/24984085

The stuff under osm.wiki/Video_tutorials is great but a lot of practical advice relates to JOSM which is yet another tool to learn before one can contribute. I like the tool-free simplicity of Potlatch. I think P2 and a mobile app (Android/iPhone/etc) are the way forward to engage more users. Focusing on power tools for the few power users is a mistake and leads to bitterness and burnout - OSM will benefit from harvesting the 5 days of enthusiasm of the crowd.

In any case, I'm hooked and my biggest challenge now is finding a model to capture data and then upload it to OSM while travelling light (i.e. with no laptop).