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