I haven’t written anything in this diary yet, so I decided to just do that.

I have no idea any more when I first heard of OpenStreetMap. What I do still remember is the time where I didn’t know how to make changes myself. I noticed this mostly back around 2015 when I was using a GPS navigator based on OSM data, and often it didn’t bring me to the precise location because of missing house numbers. This wasn’t too bad, I was in the general vicinity, and I could mostly figure out where to go from there, but it was annoying, and I do remember two occasions where the same street was actually separate parts, making it hard to find out where I needed to be. I was thinking that it would be nice if I’d knew how to add those house numbers. Some I encounter along the way wouldn’t be much, but if everyone does a bit, a lot can be done was my idea.

Somewhere in 2021, I met Pieter who is very active in the Belgian OSM community, and he was nice enough to give me a deep explanation of how it all works and what tools there are and what I can do to contribute. I decided to write this explanation down in a blog post, and from that moment on, I started to contribute to OSM. I was also pleased to hear that the house number problem I was having, was mostly a problem of the past, as the government released the needed data under a compatible open license, and people of the community are making sure the data is put to good use.

I mostly use MapComplete, which is a great tool for showing Points Of Interest, and adding them to the map. It has different themes, each showing their own category of POI’s. When I see a bench while walking, I often add it. Or, if it’s already on the map, I see if I can add more information, or even a picture. Same with artworks, information boards, picknick tables, and so on. I’ve also walked through town centers, mapping the small shops, bars and restaurants, and adding information like opening hours. In fact, my first contribution was a local bakery I typically go to. The main reason why I wanted to map it, was because I sometimes wonder about opening hours. I decided that keeping a copy of these opening hours somewhere was a good idea, and instead of using some personal notes, I added it through Mapcomplete.

While POI’s remained my main focus, I joined a mapathon at the end of 2024 where we did some work for the Lili app. Here is where I first added lines to the map. Streets, flower beds, fences, things like that. The day after, it was saturday then, I also spend some hours finishing the work I had started.

I also learned more about how it is for blind people to find their way. Finding a route for blind people isn’t just making sure they are safe from traffic or from falling down somewhere. They also need ways they know, and it’s important to not lead them in a way that they can accidentally end up in the middle of an open space. In Bruges there are 10 “main routes”. Those are routes that you should know almost by hearth if you want to visit Bruges as a blind person. All of them start outside the city at some public transport stop, and end up at the same square (Burg Square iirc). Finding your way to Bruges entails you follow these routes as much as possible. They have tactile pavings, and are optimised to not get lost. One example is that sometimes they’ll make you take a much longer route, just so you’d end up against a wall next to the square where you can find tactile pavement to follow, instead of making you walk a shorter route with the danger of walking into the open square if you miss the tactile pavement. On crossroads it’s also important to try to get crossroads at an angle of 90°. This is typically the case, but not always.

It was pretty cool to learn these things, and I also enjoyed adding these kind of details to the map. I didn’t really continue with adding such ways, though. The thing is, with Mapcomplete, adding POI’s is easy and can be done on the road. It’s nicer to be outside in the nice weather doing some things, than sitting inside behind a PC where you could be doing other fun things too. The latter just feels more like a chore, you know. Actually, the first time I mapped shops in a town center, I didn’t use my phone for the mapping itself. I made notes and added things later on my PC. It was all very tedious. When I got a newer phone, I went to map another town center, but now did it “on the road”, and it was such a joy!

About a month ago, I was adding some things near a shrine I sometimes pass by. I’ve known about that shrine since childhood, but never actually stopped there. Mapping gave me a great excuse! I noticed there was a path drawn across the street, but the path was not to be seen. I later went back to investigate. A part of the path was completely gone, overgrown by nature, not even visible that a path ever ran there. I tried to edit it “on the road” with iD, the default editor on the Openstreetmap website, but noticed it didn’t properly worked on my phone. I asked on fedi for suggestions, and Vespucci was highly recommended. It allows all that iD allows, so it’s somewhat advanced, but should be easy enough to figure out for someone who has done some mapping in iD.

There are different things I’d like to map with Vespucci (or similar app). There’s an artwork at the old Sint-Jan hospital in Bruges I’d like to properly map. I added it as a POI now, but it’s an installation deserving of more than just a point. There’s also the square in front of the church at Zuidwege. The story goes that some great-grand uncle or something of mine helped build this church somewhere during the 1800’s, doing the wood work of the roof. This person had lived during Napoleon times, before Belgium was even a thing. And there’s even a picture of him, which is quite rare as photography was quite new back then. There’s also a history filled ex-military location in a nearby forest I’d like to map out more. I already added some POI’s, including two artworks made by high ranking German military people, generals or something, when they were imprisoned there after the second world war. But there’s more details to be added, like fences and other things that haven’t been mapped on OSM yet.

As a first try out, I mapped an artwork representing a train wagon, which was put there as a remembrance of the history of the site. I had previously added this work as a single point, but now it shows the whole size of the thing. I also moved the point for the information board inside it, where it belongs. I was a bit disappointed to see how inaccurate my GPS signal apparently is. Luckily Vespucci shows the scale, so I was able to make a good guess on where to draw things, compared to the already mapped roads and guessing the size by counting number of steps. One thing I noticed is that I can’t seem to rotate the map. This would’ve made things even better. So, all in all, I’m still not really sure yet how well this type of mapping will go, but we’ll see. Practice makes perfect and all that.