OpenStreetMap
I've been mountain biking around the woods and parks of Gothenburg for the last seven years, and I've always wanted to keep some sort of record of where I've been, which trails I've ridden, highlights and waypoints - in other words, I've wanted a good GPS solution. But ordinary GPS units have been cumbersome, limited and most of all - another gadget that needed lugging around.
Well, last week, I finally went the distance and got myself a shiny new iPhone 3G. And what a wonderful piece of IC's, plastic and pixels it is! Its built-in GPS, though somewhat lacking in reception capability from what I've gathered so far, is perfectly suited for my needs.
So I set out to find a good piece of software for my riding and found MotionX, which is a nifty little piece of GPS tracker and map targeted at cyclists like myself. I saw this "OpenStreetMap" name in the lower corner of the screen and wondered what it was. I checked out the website, and was pretty much immediately hooked. So much of the area around where I live is unmapped, inaccurate or outdated and I want to fix that! I'm going to start recording some trails today; start to learn about guidelines, rules of conduct and mapping keys.
I'll begin with the area around my home. It looks pretty easy to get the hang of this, and with a bit of luck, I might have found a new hobby. Not that I really need another one, but it might go well in hand with my biking interest.
If there are any other mappers in the general area of Gothenburg who are interested in giving me some tips and/or pointers, feel free to send me a note!
More to come.
Discussion
Comment from eAi on 9 April 2009 at 01:08
Welcome! I hope you have a good time - ask on the newbie mailing list if you need help, and tell us what you get up to on the diaries :) OpenStreetMap along with Geocaching are great ways to give walking and cycling a point!
The general principle of OSM are that it's better to do something than do nothing - and osm.wiki/Map_Features is your friend!
Comment from LivingWithDragons on 9 April 2009 at 17:26
Check out http://www.opencyclemap.org and at the bottom there is a link which will explain how to map cycle features on OSM.
Comment from comsomol on 9 April 2009 at 20:57
Hey, thanks for the MotionX recommendation! I've never noticed it before, and I've been looking for an iPhone app which uses the OSM slippy map for ages. And it is indeed a very nice application.
Good mapping.
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