maybe, you could read the beginners' guide to know what OSM is, and what you can do with it.

osm.wiki/Beginners%27_Guide

you can't upload photo's on OSM. What do you want to do with the photo?

hello planet,

the typical "hello planet" message :P

If you have questions about OSM, you can read the wiki beginners guide or ask it here.

Happy mapping

About the GPX files: those can be encrypted before they are sent. So they can serve for verification.

I know my idea is a lot of work to implement (different apps for different smartphones and a website), I've also said that I don't have the skills to do it properly. I would be able to help here and there, but I can't make the complete project.

I know I can trust the mass of users, but I also know that there is Like you said, a separate website would be good, if you subscribe, you calways a minority who tries to fraud (or in Belgium, it's a majority who does tax frauding :P). You can let the mass catch the fraude (like in wikipedia and OSM). But chances are that if users are attracted for competition, they will fraud more (I know you have a different assumption) and maybe the mass can't handle it anymore or is sick of handling fraudsters.

The game is indeed to attract more users, I thought you meant that (you mentionned the number of geocachers).

A separate website would be good. Maybe, for attracting more OSMers, make something that can compare your edits to OSMers around you, so one can say "I'm the best of New York", or "I'm the best of madagascar" instead of "I'm in the top 100".

I believe that not forcing OSMers to join the gamey aspect of OSM is a must. So if the site were separated, it wouldd be better.

Oh yeah, about "the problems you face in sparsely populated (by gamers) places",

Since points aren't a one-to-one relation with the number of edits, the gamer can get more points if he finds or confirms a POI in a sparse mapped (or sparse populated, we can't see the difference with OSM data) place. And in sparse populated places, OSM will always be worse than in big cities, there's not much to do about it.

The layer between has to be restricting, e.g. it shouldn't be possible to start shifting nodes, to draw maps of regions where one has never been and the points you earn may not be a one-to-one mapping with the number of edits.

I agree it's possible to have a special edit counter, which only counts e.g. the creation of a way if you have a gpx, or the creation of a POI if your gpx shows you've passed there, but a user can still upload non-existing POI's and it is difficult to distinguish gamers and workers.

If we think of the 'layer between' as the game in my first link (which only accepts certain changes, no shifting nodes or useless tags), then you could reward a user for confirming a POI without changing the map. This find=reward and confirm=reward method will bring better quality to OSM. The game can also confirm that the uploaded or confirmed nodes have been visited.

bear in mind that a typical gamer will fraud if he can get his points up. The gamers will only have a minimal relation with the map, so they won't bother about the quality of the map.

Off coarse, a user could make 2 accounts and always keep confirming his own POIs. But if you only allow a certain order in which POIs have to be found, it will be more difficult. If you only allow that a user can find a POI only once, it will be even more difficult to fraud.

This way, there is human control, but there is no need to do it manually. If a POI gets confirmed twice, it could be uploaded automatically. We could assume that certain (not so important) tags don't contain errors or fraud (like opening hours and others) and upload those tags when they are found for the first time. If a user is already present at the POI, why would he fraud on tags like that?

as a second option, next to the automatic upload, the database of found but not confirmed POIs can be put in a map for OSMers. If an OSMer looks at the map near his house, he can see the found POIs and put the ones he knows on the map without interfering with the game. If he sees an error, he can report it.

This way, every user can choose if he wants to play or not, editcountitis will be reformed to simple competition, the map will get only the positive results of a fanatic gamer and current OSMers can continue working like they did. All those filtering and counting things are difficult to implement inside OSM so therefore, an extra layer (in the form of a game) is needed.

I know the idea is not complete, e.g. if a fraud is discovered by an OSMer, the uploader should get lesser points, but this could cause the gamers to put there POIs on the map themselves, so the fraud doesn't get discovered.

I don't want to get gamey aspects into OSM itself, it can create the editcountitis disease. Since a game is in most cases a competition (third point in the symptoms list) users would have more chance to be caught by editcountitis. That's why I prefer that the game is separated from the map itself. There has to be a layer between both. And the point's you get in the gamey aspect may not be related to the edit counter of OSM.

I agree with Vclam, the info about OSM is scattered around. There is no need for another wiki or forum like thing.

Excusez moi pour mon pauvre français, je suis Belge (Flamand) et il-y-a longtemps que j'ai écrit ou même parlé le français.

Je vois que vous avez fait beaucoup pour Paris. Je comprend que vous êtes dégoûté, mais je pense que l'autre contributeur voulait seulement ajouter de la date a OSM. c'est clair qu'il n'a pas pris son temps pour faire les choses corrects. Je vous demande de ne pas abandonner. Ce n'est pas bon pour OSM, ni pour vous. Un projet qui est seulement semi-fait est difficile a digérer.

Je pense que la meilleure solution est de contacter l'autre contributeur et de lui demander de renverser ses changements ou de vous aider a corriger les erreurs. Parler est toujours mieux que abandonner.

Je vous souhaites encore des bonnes moments sur OSM.
Sander

Ik zie trouwens dat je, voor de kleine maand die je hier nog maar bent, al tamelijk actief geweest bent. Blijkbaar lukt het goed.

happy mapping,
Sander

ja, de wiki is een "work in progress" :P maar ik gebruik het vooral in combinatie met google om te vinden hoe ik iets kan taggen. Je moet niet bang zijn om "proposed features" te gebruiken en als je echt niets vindt, dan bedenk je maar je eigen tags, eventueel met een note="omschrijving" tag om het wat te verduidelijken.

look at this:

http://blogs.thehumanjourney.net/finds/entry/openstreetmap_the_game

I wanted to help develop it, but Mr Reeves didn't have time for this and I don't have the skills to do this on my own. So the project stopped with an idea.

I believe this would work if the gamers would get points if the upload there data for approval. If the data contains too many faults, users should be punished with penalty points.

Meanwhile, gpx traces can be collected.

Welcome to OSM,, where your tests are send world-wide :-P

If you have questions about the project, read the wiki or ask it here or in the forums.

Welkom bij OSM. als je vragen hebt kan je ze gerust stellen, en de Wiki is ook een goede hulp bij het mappen.

I've heard of someone that there would be new servers or new hardware for the servers. I didn't find anything on the servers though.

I asked it in this post: osm.org/user/Sanderd17/diary/12098

tag the bridge on the intersection node? that way you won't know what the bridge is: the water or the way (yes, I've seen one place where the water is above the way). I always place 2 nodes on the way around the water, cut the way on those nodes and tag the middle piece as "bridge=yes".

If you ask it, please record it, or write it. That way, you can prove it's not your fault if the maps are copyrighted.

Well, if they publish there data in a free format, it's even better than I expected. I really need to start trusting businesses.

Although I'll probably never come to Romania, thank you Urbo.ro. (and thanks to you SilviaM for showing me this)

I don't understand your question, the street you're talking about should be in this region:
osm.org/?lat=43.517509&lon=-5.66731&zoom=18

What's wrong with it? The map is updated, the streets and areas are named. I don't see anything wrong.

Great, but what is Urbo.ro? a location based, community oriented business? I'm hoping (but I don't think) they also give geo info back to OSM (or put them in a free license format). Is this true or not?

In any way, it's great businesses are using OSM as a real map provider and they don't just think of it as a game.