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by CharlesColeman 2618 days ago
I wish more people would do this, but sometimes it's a tough sell. I once tried to encourage a bunch of people who were banging their heads bloody trying to contribute to Facebook's places database to switch to editing OpenStreetMap instead. Most didn't want to switch -- they were convinced that their miserable experience improving Facebook was more impactful because it was a more popular product that they knew they used.

I with OSM would come out with a consumer-focused map product. I think that would go a long way towards attracting more contributors, since most people get started to scratch an itch in a product they use.

2 comments

OSM is used underlying a lot of commercial apps and services.

Most people don't realise that though, so they think their edits correcting roads will only get seen by a handful of open source geeks.

Agreed. For example Pokemon GO uses it - which is why there was a large influx of new users, prompting the following guidelines page: https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2016/12/30/tips-pokemon-go/
MAPS.ME (https://maps.me/) is the closest we have to a "consumer-focused map product" in the OpenStretMap ecosystem.

Try it!