OpenStreetMap
I have a Mac and and iPhone, so how do I best contribute? What are the plugins I need. I use skobbler and report bugs as I find them.
I've downloaded JOSM and the plugins required to get started:
WMSplugin, validator and remote control.
SO what is the best way to record map data?
Discussion
Comment from Lyrn on 4 December 2010 at 12:31
Like you, I use my iPhone to record tracks.
(Although the iPhone's GPS chip is not very accurate.)
Motion-X GPS (Lite) is a very good app to record tracks and waypoints.
Comment from LincolnGreen on 4 December 2010 at 13:09
Thanks for the tip - I'll have a look!
Comment from venzen on 4 December 2010 at 15:39
Welcome to OSM! JOSM has good guides on the wiki to get you started:
for example:
http://josm.openstreetmap.de/wiki/HowTo
First of all, get a feel for mapping with the Potlatch editor on this website. Add some map features in your neighborhood. When you've spent 30-60 minutes with Potlatch, then go to the "Export" tab (on this website), select a map area you want to export to JOSM and export it as OSM XML data. This will allow you to save a .osm map on your local filesystem.
Now start JOSM and open the .osm map you saved before. You might want to download & enable the "Slippymap" plugin (via JOSM Preferences) so you can have a satellite map as an additional guide layer.
I find it useful to have the following wiki page open in my browser whilst I add things to the map in JOSM:
osm.wiki/Map_Features
Happy mapping!
Comment from Sanderd17 on 5 December 2010 at 16:10
if you have josm latest, you might also install the slippymap plugin, this provides bing images as background.
But remember that you should still map names, housenumbers, post-boxes, bus stops and all other things you can't see on the images.
If your area is well mapped but is lacking tags (like names) or details, you can use walking papers: http://walking-papers.org/