Editing Open Street Maps

An interesting post from Ton Zilstra, on his first edit to Open Street Map, prompted me to do the same. I have two main motivations. One is that checkins on my stream use OSM and I like the idea of giving back. The bigger reason is that those checkins are often not very accurate, at least with respect to the place, rather than the pure location, and I thought it would be good to know how to add places even if they become visible only after the event. More generally, I want a better understanding of geographical information and how to use it.

The whole process was as easy as Ton said it would be. For my first edit, I corrected a segment of a local road. OSM showed it as two-way. It is in fact one way, not that everyone pays attention. My second edit was like Ton's; I added my local corner bar. I'll have to go back and correct it when I have the correct street address.

I think I could enjoy this.