I wouldn't think students would have to agree, if the data was genuinely anonymous. If you can't see any paths that could identify an individual (i.e. a path going where only one of the people on the sample would go, like their home), it's not personally identifiable information. At least that's the law as I understand it here in the UK, and I'd imagine fairly similar elsewhere.

I'd almost say this was auto-generated spam....

Welcome! You'll find it pretty addictive here - just one more road - just one more POI! If you get stuck, just ask!

Here's a few ideas...

1: amenity=waste_disposal with waste=trash
2: I'm not sure - leisure=park is as close as I can see on the wiki, certainly not village_green - I doubt that should be used anywhere except the UK, unless other countries have a very similar meaning as the UK's... According to tagstat, landuse=grass is fairly commonly used, perhaps that?
3: I'd use highway=footway maybe with access=undefined

I added a bandstand here:

osm.org/?lat=51.504231&lon=-0.182826&zoom=18&layers=B000FTTT

Sadly that didn't render and I think I changed it to a monument, which still doesn't render. I've just changed it back!

My experience of these in London and other areas is that they're not consistent routes, at least not reliably. Often you'll follow one and then not see another sign and end up going completely the wrong way! Even so, it's certainly useful to have 'recommended routes' for cyclists marked, whether these should be on Open Street Map itself or a separate database based on OSM, I'm not sure?

I've used Surrey County Council's maps which show official routes and recommended routes, rated by what kind of bike is suitable for each, these include on road (mostly) and off-road routes and are really helpful. You can see these online (using a rather appalling map viewer) at http://tinyurl.com/surreycccyclemaps (click on one of the areas of the green map at the bottom). Something like this would be really useful across a larger area, perhaps it already exists?

Of course! Everyone's contributions are welcome, and you don't need to be very technical to get involved.

Have a look at this page: osm.wiki/Beginners%27_Guide for a beginner's guide, and feel free to ask questions if you're stuck!

Welcome! I hope you have a good time - ask on the newbie mailing list if you need help, and tell us what you get up to on the diaries :) OpenStreetMap along with Geocaching are great ways to give walking and cycling a point!

The general principle of OSM are that it's better to do something than do nothing - and osm.wiki/Map_Features is your friend!

Welcome :) Seems to be a fair amount done in that area, but lots of minor roads and land use you could do (forests etc).

If you haven't seen it, you can get out-of-copyright maps you can trace over (or use to check completeness) on Potlatch. I believe Potlatch has better accuracy than other editors if you wish to trace these maps.

Good luck and have fun!

I think you'd be right about the map - anything not explicitly released from copyright should be considered to be copyrighted. Better safe than sorry!

I certainly envy you! I've visited the broads a couple of times to sail, and it's one of my favourite places. It was pretty busy when I visited, having it to yourself must be great!

The mapping looks pretty good as it is. If roads are missing names, they're worth adding, but again, that looks like it's pretty much done.

Points of Interest are certainly really useful, and you could spend however much time you have doing that, depending on the level of detail. You can, in theory, tag every shop there is! I'm not sure what the general policy is regarding this, though having this data available is obviously useful (and Google etc have it). Certainly restaurants, post offices, cafés are all useful.

If the urban areas are done, you could investigate parks (such as Forest Park to the west of the area you linked to) - adding more trails, paths, parking etc to these.

Beyond that, you can try mapping other areas (ideally ones you know) from the aerial photos (or from visiting them!). Even if you can't do everything, every little helps!

Have fun!

The Mac equivalent has anti-aliasing (optionally anyway). I'm not sure Windows has a direct version, it can show a portion of the screen zoomed in in another window, but that's not so useful.

Really this is something that the editors should be able to zoom themselves - if a 'real' zoom level isn't available for the layer, fake it by magnifying it...

The Mac equivalent has anti-aliasing (optionally anyway). I'm not sure Windows has a direct version, it can show a portion of the screen zoomed in in another window, but that's not so useful.

Really this is something that the editors should be able to zoom themselves - if a 'real' zoom level isn't available for the layer, fake it by magnifying it...

Well, I certainly think that the current rendering for OSM are not well suited to rural areas. I like Ordinance Survey's renderings, and I'd like similar options available for OSM. I'm not sure this is feasible with the renderers available though.

Looking at Free-Map it uses osmarender by the looks of it, which unfortunately makes the resulting maps rather ugly!

I think it's certainly valid to have a separate rendering targeted at rural areas. Ordinance Survey 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 are poorly suited to urban areas (lacking street names for example), while A-Zs are ideal. I think OSM is currently more of an A-Z or route planner. To attempt to go walking in an area you don't know with OSM currently would be frustrating.

Footpaths on Osmarenderer for example are rendered as being almost roads, rendering them as dashed lines makes more sense. Ditto with bridleways...

I generally find all online renderings rather ugly to varying degrees. I think OS maps are partly hand rendered - as in someone human guides the rendering to some extent (placing names in areas that aren't going to obscure important intersections for example). Perhaps OSM needs something like that - a layer above the raw data, to produce accurate, readable and pleasing maps!

The issue is that just because there's a path on the ground, it doesn't mean it's the right of way. Farmers often move paths from year to year to suit their fields (without permission or otherwise), or paths can get blocked and people find their own way around. I assume that OSM should be mapping the rights of way rather than the paths...

I've been on many walks that have ended up being impassable along the 'official' right of way, and equally I've walked on many footpaths that aren't rights of way (some being permissive, some just exist)...

Oops! I'm not sure what the protocol is here, but I'm sure someone can undo it for you... Maybe ask on IRC or the mailing list...

Impressive :) Pitty that the area to the North West is almost blank :|

I've added a list to the Devon talk page, of villages and towns in Devon. Not sure what the next step is, nor whether we can use the list legally...?

This morning, I've mapped a small area of rural Devon that I know pretty well, using the out of copyright maps. The maps are pretty good for rural areas, but not so good for towns as the detail just isn't there.

Luckily towns are feasible to do on foot or bike. I guess doing things roughly with the old maps, then verifying on the ground is the best method.