Where is your area?
It's interesting to know where the holes are and even more interesting to know when they're getting active mappers.

Where is your area?
It's interesting to know where the holes are and even more interesting to know when they're getting active mappers.

Where is your area?
It's interesting to know where the holes are and even more interesting to know when they're getting active mappers.

Where is your area?
It's interesting to know where the holes are and even more interesting to know when they're getting active mappers.

ha ha, I love it!

It's fairly easy to download a file from someone and plonk it on a Garmin.
osm.wiki/OSM_Map_On_Garmin

"OSM maps should work on all Garmin devices which support uploading maps. These include the Colorado, eTrex Legend, eTrex Vista, eTrex Summit, eTrex Venture, GPSMAP, Nüvi, Zumo, Oregon, Quest and Streetpilot ranges."

What are photo boxes?

Once you have the basics of JOSM, the rest is just a case of learning how to label a node(points), way(joined up node[s] so a line), or relations (collection of nodes/ways).
You label those objects with several key/value pairs, for example 'highway' is a key and the value can be 'primary', 'secondary', 'footway' etc. Often writen by saying "something you walk on is tagged as highway=footway".

For the key/value pairs, just memorise this page
osm.wiki/Map_Features
Or just refer to it when you want to know how to label/tag something (it changes with time anyway).

OpenStreetMap will technically work in Egypt. I seem to remember it being one of the countries that doesn't allow people to use GPSes, although it may just be visitors to the country that they don't alllow.

So if the map looks a bit bare, that will explain why it hasn't been started. But if it is okay, go ahead and get started, we need it!

Why can't the shop have a wiki page like religion=* and denomination=*, just show a list of popular used values?

I find it easier with shared nodes actually, when you know how to edit them (in JOSM).
Middle mouse click (and hold) on the way and a context list will be displayed. Now also hold down the control key (this allows you to let go of the mouse button), and your free to click(select) the way from the context list thhat you wanted.
It's rather complicated to learn but there are lots of things like that in JOSM (and in Potlatch, though I don't use that)

I'm nearly there with my edits! I will blog shortly.

This points out the benefit of being on foot and not getting as much surveyed (it is quicker to upload).

Even if you don't know the exact location, an approximate location is good to put it at. After all, someone can move it if they work out the exact location.

When you press C in Potlatch it will ask for you to give a comment on what you just edited. But that will also end the session(changeset) and start a new one.
But all session close after 24 hours (so without a comment if you didn't clos it by pressing c.

I was just going over some saved blog posts and there was this one, but further down the pile was: @kaerast/diary/4376
Sounds like that's what you need, I still haven't got round to doing it myself.

Ha ha, brilliant diary entry.
I'm trying to get into a habbit (and just get more confident) of asking people about the name of the road.
I think it's either an English culture problem or growing up in a city culture problem.

I'm close to getting a leaflet printed of the map I've made so far + an OSM explanation. being able to hand this out, after explaining why I care about the road names, will really boost my confidence to ask I think. Or I may call up the right person in the council and ask "what is the name of the road North off X, between Y and Z?" Which I believe is perfectly fine as I have surveyed roads X, Y and Z, and the location of the unsigned road.

I don't think it's helpful to map somewhere that you are quite far from. It is quite possible someone has gone around there and checked out that things don't exist (aren't public or aren't what they look like).

To copy signs from Google Streetview would be a derived work. The thing is Google own the photos (but not the map data), if:
a) they allowed us to (It's verbally bee told to me that we could, but I think in writing is important)
b) we copied the names *without* using the overlaid road data which is owned by Teleatlas/Navteq/etc licensed to Google (how do we know where the road sign photo is, without comparing it to the named road layout of clicking the map to start Streetview? So perhaps we need Google to give us an api for accessing *their* data without the maps, but I don't know if they want to do work just to help us)

Hmm, we happened to mention Milton Keynes last night at the Durham pub meetup. Didn't realise there was a mapping party planned, but up here Washington is a new town so someone wondered how well MK was mapped.
I'll write a blog in a few hours about the rest of our chatter.

Mapnik takes a few hours to update (or every Thursday for sure). Osmarender is also a few hours.

If your impatient then you can check your work here usually in about 10minutes:
http://matt.sandbox.cloudmade.com/?lat=41.9425334653524&lon=12.5759910578435&zoom=14

Just have the attitude that a head cam is cool rather than it being silly. You should upload a photo when you start using it.

Some mappers (me included) go out wearing a high-vis "OpenStreetMap Surveyor" vest. I wear it with pride and think it's cool, my non-mapping friends disagree!