Today I downloaded and installed JOSM to see what it can do. It was actually really easy - I'm using it on Windows which comes with Java already installed by default. That JOSM is awesome! Really great program, love it. With JOSM it was easy to see all the TIGER errors that need to be fixed just in San Francisco. Can't wait to get started.

So I'll start fixing it up as soon as I figure out what all of the conventions are for streets and other objects. It looks like they all have a direction (even if it's a two-way street), and they have nodes where the interesections are, and divided highways have two streets side-by-side, etc. I know there's a guide on the wiki, I just need to read it more carefully. The other thing I don't understand are the tags - it seems like the TIGER data has so many tags just for each and every street - what tags should I include if I add a new street or path?

But the big question I have about this is: how is OSM backed up? If I spend a lot of time fixing all the San Francisco data, can it accidentally get deleted? If so, can I just download some data (like San Francisco Bay Area only) onto my computer and back it up there? (I mean, in a format that would make it easy to upload to OSM again, if necessary?)

I just signed up for openstreetmap! Now I just have to figure out how to use this dang thing. Oh, how I wish the map of San Francisco didn't look so crappy.