(Left: Mapping work I did as part of the OSM Mapathon Right: a map of Africa centered on the area where I made my change)

I owe a lot to OpenStreetMap (OSM). Some of the projects I am most proud of having worked on in my career would not have been as possible or as cool without it. Since OSM is a contribution dependant project, it is natural that I would have the urge to give back. I have been working with OSM data in one way or another since 2010, but surprisingly this weekend, near the end of 2014 was the first time I actually edited a feature.

I think the main reason I didn’t contribute until now was fear of messing something up. The OSM community has done a great job building user-friendly tools and tutorials, but there was still a little fear that my first edit would somehow break something.

So, what was different this time?

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