Today is the first time I’ve done what I consider to be “major” updates to OSM. This was mostly adding “new” and/or previously unmarked roads in the eastern section of Lake Arrowhead, California. That whole portion of the map near Papoose Lake was a bit of a mess so I’m glad to contribute that along with two relatively new park areas…if they stay put.

I haven’t added to OSM much for a while. This is because I added an area in my home town of Crestline that was removed with no reason or explanation. That made me angry because I took great care to learn how to properly add an area and included a source for what I added.

At least all of the “points” I have added still seem to be there as well as a minor road correction I specifically remember. With what I mentioned above, I’m also putting more points (businesses and such). The western side of the San Bernardino Mountains communities are nowhere near as well filled in as the Big Bear area to the east so I sort of hate to not continue to contribute as I can in filling in points and a few roads here and there that aren’t exactly correct. I’m just hoping they stay there or I can at least find an explanation as to why somebody deletes something I put in.

After joining this community, making my first edit, and getting some nice welcome messages, I found that my password no longer worked for some reason. I got very busy at work and kept putting off coming back until today as I’m pretty much changing ALL of my passwords due to the Heartbleed bug.

Now that I’m back in, I’ve made several updates to Crestline, California and some of the surrounding communities. While most of these were entries for restaurants and other businesses, I did find one incorrect piece of mapping in the Valley of Enchantment where Log Lane was shown to stop short of meeting the town’s main drag, Waters Drive (for any fans of “Star Trek: Enterprise,” the “Carbon Creek” episode from the second season did some filming on Waters).

It looks like a lot of this area has not had a lot of contribution as far as businesses go so I am glad to get back in here and add a few things for everybody. It’s a nice place to visit so I hope my additions will encourage people to come up here…and, bring money…our local businesses need it! ;-)

I’ve looked at OSM before but it didn’t really fit my needs at the time. Like many, I found myself too attached to G00gle Maps. With everything going on these days in regard to copyright and privacy, I want to give OSM a full chance especially since I have already converted to being a GNU/Linux user at home. At the very least, I can contribute a lot to the area where I live in the San Bernardino Mountains as I have already made one correction and see many more things that can be added or changed to get that portion of the map up to date.

NOTE: Entry made from my place of work in San Dimas.