Looks like you;ll start racing to map new places as they're built/opened. This could be interesting if there's no public opening.
I came across a building site of some new houses, mappped some open roads and mapped some stubs up to the chain link fencing. I could see the new road layout through the fencing, no houses yet.

I was there little over a year ago and focused on the centre of Bude. Didn't know as much about OSM as I do now.

Yep, I agree that OSM seems to be full of males. Half the women I've seen/met at mapping parties or SOTM08 have been (dragged?) along by their partner just for the social side of it.

Where you go (in order to cover every road/footpath) for mapping is a very logical thing, and women don't seem to get that.

Females seem to enjoy going geocaching with me more, there is one distinct goal and the walking/journey/searching takes attention over the GPS device/technology. I think females are less likely to understand why I'm mapping every single road (although a fair amount of guys don't get it either).

When I organised a mapping party, a couple that are my friends went out together and seemed to enjoy it. There notes were very interesting to read what someone does for their first time (what they thing is worthy of noting/mapping). I don't know who was deciding what to map at each time, but we can assume "very shiny red postbox" was what the girls noticed.

The wiki should have loads of documentation to help you osm.wiki/index.php/Main_Page
The database can also be in the form of a .osm file, which is just xml.

I'd be interested in what your project is. I've just started my second year Computer Science in England so might end up doing some OSM related project next year.

1) How far will you/ have you travelled to attend a mapping party?
London to Limmerick, Ireland for the conference. I cycled 4 hours to get to an evening party once, but I did some mapping on the way and it was about an hour on the less direct trains home. I consider 3 hours a bit to far.

2) Do you feel OSM mapping parties form an important part of your social life?
A very important part of my mapping social life and mapping is a big part of my life. My non-geek social life only requires me to sit on the sofa in my house shared with 6 mates.

3) Are you primarily concerned with the mapped progress of your local (home) area, or with the success of the OSM project in general?
The greater success. I spent my family holiday mapping around the cottage we stayed at. I started my website because it's about filling in another white area. It's easier to focus on a local area and see how OSM can be adapted/used for the area's uniqueness. When I get round to building new systems/renders, I hope there will be some other unusually places that will make use of what I did just for Durham/Hampton (my 2 homes).

You said: "Without a renderer, the data is useless!"
But, mapping for just the renderer, means making the data open is useless.

What if I make a map for Canada that renders the house numbers(tweaked for lots of digits). Well for your area I've got to go and collect all the house numbers myself. Then if I add them in, will you delete them because your just paying attention to Osmarender and don't know about the map I'm making?

Also the online map is not the only thing data is used for, as mentioned you can search for some things that aren't even rendered. Potentially the data could be used without any graphics, I might want to search for my street and be told how many shops were close to me.

The way to deal with problems you notice is to inform the people who manage that renderer. It's interesting how mapping issues are flagged up when a system is used across the world. It would be simpler if everyone drove on the left side of the road.

Not that North is it?
Look further than Leeds/York and there is only patches of detail.

I know services along motorways (or petrol stations & cafes on dual carriage ways) would be good. These can't be done by local mappers (walkers & cyclists, stick to places they can safely reach).

1) It's a hobby that took over my life, as all good hobbies should. With maintaining my blog/sub-project can feel like a chore at times to go mapping frequently. Right now I'm in my new house waiting for the 2nd year of uni to start, life is calm so mapping is a great reason/motivation to get out of the house and do something.

2) To meet other mappers. To stop me from being a socially-rejected geek maybe. To discuss my mapping experiences with others (I can't manage to blog about it all, I need another listening outlet). And as a valid non-alcoholic way to go for a pint at the end of the day.

A more humourous answer to 2)
My friends (the ones who think I do nothing but mapping) think I'll meet a nice mapping girl to marry. I guess going to Mapping Parties would be the way to meet her. Otherwise mapping can be lonely* as if you have more than one person it's better to divide up and keep geographically separated.

*Not to say I don't like the peaceful time to think.

I added one road, but I'm so slow using potlatch. I would help in JOSM but the yahoo service doesn't work with firefox 3.

highway=trunk or highway=primary would probably be good for the road in the photo. The links from osm.wiki/index.php/Japan will probably help (tagging conventions for japan are on the wikiproject Japan page).

Mapping where it's blank is exciting, and you'll soon find your work encourages others to start mapping. In such a big town, and a technology-aware place such as Japan, you'll get many more local mappers than me.

For sharing nodes, I think you may be looking for this recent blog post:
@HannesHH/diary/3393

If you have an rss reader, I recommend subscribing to this aggregation of user blog posts and mappers who blog on their own website:
http://blogs.openstreetmap.org

You can add names to footpaths/tracks like you can with roads. If they are named/numbered junctions then I think there is a way to do this but I can't remember.

To extend an area, just drag the nodes out further. To add nodes you use the node tool and click on the way(line), it should add a node into that way. You can then drag the new node.
With the latest JOSM, you will see plus signs(+) on the way, half-way between the nodes. You can just drag that plus sign and a new node is created.

I'm currently learning how to middle click, I think my mouse doesn't recognise it every time.
Is there an alternative, like alt+click? This would be important for laptops.

Looks good, car parks and all!

Are there two platforms mapped as footpaths? I don't think it's generally done but I've thought about it in places where you can walk straight on the platform without having to go through the ticket office (a lot of stations are set up in the UK so they can check for tickets in one entrance per platform). I do think the platforms should be mapped in some way, so I don't think it's wrong to do it as footpaths (at least for now).

You should make sure it's clear the map you make from their images will not just be your own personal map but it will be added to OpenStreetMap and be under that license:
osm.wiki/index.php/OpenStreetMap_License
(i.e. it will be used by people other than you)

You may want to read up on this page and links from it:
osm.wiki/index.php/Potential_Datasources

I don't think you would have to show them source code or the technical details of the map making software. Though you need to tell them about OpenStreetMap and they could easily find out all the details from the website (they may just be curious).

Hopefully someone with better knowledge on doing such things will be able to answer here.

If you can get a public domain map, or get permission from the copyright owner to copy their map into OSM, then you can upload it with http://wrp.geothings.net/ and then trace from it in JOSM. That also works for aerial photos you might have (if you happen to have a helicopter handy).
The only problem is making sure you have permission to use the data you trace and tagging what you map with source=something_sensible.

In the U.K. we have some maps are over 50 years old, making their copyright invalid. I think it can be 75 years in some cases/places till that happens.

Oh and, by the way, I read the user blogs + off site blogs via http://blogs.openstreetmap.org/

It's nice to know there are more people joining the project and blogging about it. Also interesting is how people are starting to contribute without a GPSr. Although I often recommend getting a cheap (~GBP£20) Bluetooth GPS off ebay and a free program on your mobile phone (e.g. GPSMid).

I only understood "Konstanz", but had a look round the map.
I went there about 6 years ago on a school exchange (stayed with a family on Reichenau), it's cool looking at the map and pictures of where I went come back into my head.
Oh and I only said about 1 word or German in the whole 10 days, not good for me really.

I was using a £15-£30 bluetooth GPS receiver with my mobile phone (favourite program so far is GPSMid). But as I am serious I knew it was worth upgrading and this week got a Garmin etrex Legend HCX like Donald.

As he says it is around £170 (microSD card not normally included), but do some research before going into a shop so you can say but so and so has a cheaper price. I went into ASK(in London http://www.askdirect.co.uk) and told them the same GPS was £15 cheaper online than the shelf price. He checked online and agreed that price. Then I thought it was silly it didn't come with a card and the shop sells 2GB ones for £20 but I asked him how cheap he could do, he did a bit of looking around (I think at other shops online) and said the best price he could do was £12. Of course I needed some batteries to try out my new gadget as soon as I left, by this point he knew to throw some in for free.
So £161 for eTrex HCx + 2GB microSD card + batteries (including a spare couple).

In short, it's good to do some homework and to ask for a cheap price.

When I get lost (with a lack of signs) I sometimes get ready for some confrontation with a farmer and his shotgun. I think I've settled with understanding that having this fear happen is highly unlikely, so it's interesting to hear of it actually happening.

POHB, that's interesting an perhaps OSM could help, but when's the deadline?