<story><title>In 2023 Organic Maps got its first million users</title><url>https://organicmaps.app/news/2023-12-23/in-2023-organic-maps-got-its-first-million-users/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>eisa01</author><text>I’m a contributor to OpenStreetMap, but what I find very lacking is the POI data&lt;p&gt;It’s only updated if there’s someone like me in the local area, or if it’s a tourist destination. But even then it can be sparse (eg just visited Merida, Bacalar and Valladolid in Mexico), and it’s worse in “non-western” countries&lt;p&gt;Tellingly, Overture Maps that use OSM for the street data to not use the POI data.&lt;p&gt;A lot of people pointed out that the POI data of Overture had mediocre quality. While that is true, they do at least have coverage in places OSM do not. If you know the name of the place you can at least find it&lt;p&gt;I’m not sure how this can become better, I’d think that a prerequisite would be that corporate users like Grab, DiDi, Uber start contributing&lt;p&gt;But that may not happen as they are not allowed to combine datasets [1]. Hence you have a chicken and egg problem: The dataset is not usable until it is complete…&lt;p&gt;The street data fundementally have the same problem, but that is easier to edit remotely and may be more stable in contrast to POIs&lt;p&gt;So I’m starting to question if it’s really worth it to continue update POIs in OSM, but I also would not know how to contribute to Overture as it does have quite some errors :)&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;OvertureMaps&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;discussions&amp;#x2F;102&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;OvertureMaps&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;discussions&amp;#x2F;102&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;edit: Or maybe it is possible to conflate them, but that is not planned - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;OvertureMaps&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;issues&amp;#x2F;96&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;OvertureMaps&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;issues&amp;#x2F;96&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>szszrk</author><text>What do you think about Street Complete [0][1][2]?
I know it doesn&amp;#x27;t let you provide all and any data, but I find it super friendly.&lt;p&gt;It lets you add details to objects that already exist in OSM. It looks very polished, has nice map, icons, and this default style of sticking to your actual location like some location based games for crazy people (I&amp;#x27;m a former Ingress player, Enlightened FTW).&lt;p&gt;My neighborhood has all details about building size, roofs, street lights, you know if there are markings on the ground on street crossings (for people with poor vision), each path has clear info of what&amp;#x27;s it&amp;#x27;s made of, and stores has open&amp;#x2F;close hours provided. Super cool, easy to use and has real impact.&lt;p&gt;[0] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;streetcomplete.app&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;streetcomplete.app&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt; 
[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;f-droid.org&amp;#x2F;packages&amp;#x2F;de.westnordost.streetcomplete&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow noreferrer&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;f-droid.org&amp;#x2F;packages&amp;#x2F;de.westnordost.streetcomplete&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;
[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;play.google.com&amp;#x2F;store&amp;#x2F;search?q=street%20complete&amp;amp;c=apps&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;play.google.com&amp;#x2F;store&amp;#x2F;search?q=street%20complete&amp;amp;c=a...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>In 2023 Organic Maps got its first million users</title><url>https://organicmaps.app/news/2023-12-23/in-2023-organic-maps-got-its-first-million-users/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>eisa01</author><text>I’m a contributor to OpenStreetMap, but what I find very lacking is the POI data&lt;p&gt;It’s only updated if there’s someone like me in the local area, or if it’s a tourist destination. But even then it can be sparse (eg just visited Merida, Bacalar and Valladolid in Mexico), and it’s worse in “non-western” countries&lt;p&gt;Tellingly, Overture Maps that use OSM for the street data to not use the POI data.&lt;p&gt;A lot of people pointed out that the POI data of Overture had mediocre quality. While that is true, they do at least have coverage in places OSM do not. If you know the name of the place you can at least find it&lt;p&gt;I’m not sure how this can become better, I’d think that a prerequisite would be that corporate users like Grab, DiDi, Uber start contributing&lt;p&gt;But that may not happen as they are not allowed to combine datasets [1]. Hence you have a chicken and egg problem: The dataset is not usable until it is complete…&lt;p&gt;The street data fundementally have the same problem, but that is easier to edit remotely and may be more stable in contrast to POIs&lt;p&gt;So I’m starting to question if it’s really worth it to continue update POIs in OSM, but I also would not know how to contribute to Overture as it does have quite some errors :)&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;OvertureMaps&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;discussions&amp;#x2F;102&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;OvertureMaps&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;discussions&amp;#x2F;102&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;edit: Or maybe it is possible to conflate them, but that is not planned - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;OvertureMaps&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;issues&amp;#x2F;96&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;github.com&amp;#x2F;OvertureMaps&amp;#x2F;data&amp;#x2F;issues&amp;#x2F;96&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mpol</author><text>An idea might be to have an &amp;quot;Adopt Your Own Neighbourhood&amp;quot; campaign. I don&amp;#x27;t know if this is seen as wanted in the OSM community, it might attract a lot of low-effort contributions which might wear out longtime volunteers.&lt;p&gt;The way I started contributing to OSM is when I was tired of seeing old or no POI data and thought &amp;quot;enough is enough&amp;quot;. I first started editing the shopping mall in my neighbourhood, then the schools, and so forth. It is now 5 years later and I can quite keep up locally with POI.</text></comment>