Exactly a year ago I summed up the results in diary of my work on the script, it’s time to do it again.

You can view existing features of the script and install it on GitHub (⭐️ welcome :) or in the OSM Wiki

🛰 Custom map layers

Can be configured in the right side menu or by pressing shift + S.

Satellite images are finally working in Chrome.

It is now possible to customise not only backgrounds, but also vector styles shift + V (but there is a caveat for Chrome users )

… See full entry

I just created OpenMediaMap, an openly-editable map of old photo (pre-1930) locations.

I thought some fellow OSM editors who are also interested in history may find this cool. I also chose to use OSM as the background for the site.

Anyone can add a photo from any source whatsoever, and the goal is to build a visual historical map of how our towns and neighborhoods once looked.

Give it a look and perhaps add a few photos to the map! Feel free to provide suggestions for improvements, as well. :)

Here is the link: https://openmediamap.com/

Model buildings along the grid, after each grid add accessible parking and crosswalks, levels, addresses, alltheplaces, and wikimaps, then adjust roads and add streetside and zoning. I will later add lanes

add street lamps, check sidewalks, and add street signs and fences

add businesses ect.

survey area to find missing details

add neighborhoods to Evansville, each added once that neighborhood is complete

add neighborhoods to Newburgh, likely no borders only points

এই ম্যাপিং কার্যক্রমে রাজশাহী জেলার বাগমারা উপজেলার নাগা বাজার এলাকাকে কেন্দ্র করে মাঠপর্যায়ের তথ্য ব্যবহার করে OpenStreetMap হালনাগাদ করা হয়েছে। এতে নাগা বাজারের নিকট অবস্থিত একটি ইসলামি শিক্ষা প্রতিষ্ঠান (মাদ্রাসা), অবস্থান ও প্রাসঙ্গিক ট্যাগ যুক্ত করা হয়েছে, যা স্থানীয় শিক্ষার্থী ও পথচারীদের জন্য সহায়ক হবে।

Second day of “quick” weekend project.
Frankly, I’ve run out of interesting things to map around my immediate surroundings. During the holiday season I travelled around the countryside and noticed long stretches of cycleways running alongside highways, occasionally featuring benches, bins, and similar roadside infrastructure. On one trip I tried mapping a rural street using EveryDoor, but the result was similar to summer cycling: frequent stopping dropped my average speed by 10–15 km/h.

I needed a solution where I could mass-save coordinates while moving, and deal with proper mapping later. Vespucci’s copy-paste workflow is probably the closest thing in the OSM ecosystem, but it still requires first tagging a node, then tapping the correct spot on the map. If the map is accidentally dragged, follow-position mode is disabled, and changing the type of copied element requires tagging a new node.
After concluding development I was suggested OsmAnd may support something similar.

I’m android user, so the problem was phrased as “Is there some Android app with a super fast UI for saving coordinates?”

A quick search showed that virtually no existing apps allow bulk bookmarking of unnamed unorganised coordinates My intention was save location something i could later properly map from aerial images. Most apps seemed to require at least 2-3 taps to save position, often with typing bookmark name.

Functional requirements

For time estimates and comparison I used my typical summertime EveryDoor mapping experience. Potential mapping-assisting app should consider these points:

… See full entry

Today, uBlock Origin detected 2 trackers. There was an attempt to fingerprint my GPU by extracting canvas data. What is going on, OSM? Is this why I’ve been donating you my free time? Maybe you’re not so better than Google after all…

A Mapathon has been organised for Saturday 21st February 2026 from 11am to 1pm in Belfast. Pizza will be provided at QUB Geosciences building on Elmwood Avenue behind the Student’s Union. Numbers are limited to 30 attendees.

Sign up on eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/belfast-openstreetmap-workshop-tickets-1981332125724

Event Location: osm.org/#map=19/54.585251/-5.939057

I have been trying to mark my business on openstreetmap it is already there on google maps. I have a question if anyone can answer please.

Do it need to connect google my business with bing places

https://www.dublinsalsacademy.com/

I’ve dabbled with overpass turbo on and off for maybe a year now, but I feel like I’ve just now started to get a better understanding of how it works.
I’ve been using it to find hikes that can lead to ruins or abandoned places:

(
nwr['abandoned']({{bbox}});
nwr['historic'='ruins']({{bbox}});
);
out;

and for campsites:

(
nwr['tourism'='camp_site']({{bbox}});
nwr['tourism'='camp_pitch']({{bbox}});
);
out;

And while those are certainly useful, especially for hard to find places that won’t show up on AllTrails or other popular spots, I didn’t feel like I learned much since they’re fairly simple queries.
The way I understand it at the moment: the Overpass query language treats things as sets. There is a default set (named “_”) that gets populated with the queries.

In the case of the camping, there are two lines enclosed in parentheses which groups the two requested object sets as a union (or OR operation) to store in the default set which is then output with the “out” statement
The “nwr” is a shorthand for “node” “way” “relation” so it indicates what kinds of objects we’re looking for (we could replace it with any one type depending on what we’re looking for).

The ({{bbox}}) portion indicates where to look for the objects, {{bbox}} is a predefined area based on the overpass turbo site’s map, otherwise it should be set to a 4-value array indicating the borders of the area to search (read more here)

Let’s break down the next query I’ve found to be very useful, finding local cafe’s! (Google’s results have been getting pretty bad and overlooking a bunch of great options)

[out:csv(
         name,
         "addr:housenumber",
         "addr:street",
         "addr:city",
         website;true;",")];
nwr['amenity'='cafe',i]["name"!="Starbucks"]({{bbox}});

out;

There’s a couple familiar things there: “out”, “({{bbox}})”, and “nwr”

nwr['amenity'='cafe',i]["name"!="Starbucks"]({{bbox}});

… See full entry

Years of Growth and Community Impact

I joined the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team with a simple interest in mapping, not fully aware of how profoundly it would shape my personal journey and the growth of the OSM Kenya community. What started as basic mapping tasks gradually evolved into deeper involvement in humanitarian mapping, data quality, and community-driven impact.

Over these years, HOT has played a critical role in strengthening my technical skills and perspective on geospatial data. Through initiatives such as the ESA Hub Validation Fellowship, I progressed from mapping to advanced validation and third-pass quality assurance, where accuracy and data integrity are paramount. I contributed to humanitarian projects in Sudan, supported disaster response mapping for Hurricane Mellisa in Jamaica, and worked on local risk-reduction initiatives such as the Elgeyo Marakwet landslide mapping project. These experiences highlighted how reliable geospatial data directly supports preparedness, response, and resilience.

HOT’s impact has extended well beyond individual growth to the wider OSM Kenya community. Through continuous collaboration on HOT Tasking Manager projects and capacity-building programs like FAir, our community has improved technical skills, strengthened quality standards, and fostered a strong culture of mentorship and collaboration. In addition, OSM Kenya has partnered with HOT on thematic campaigns that address social as well as physical vulnerabilities. One notable example is the Mental Health Mapping Campaign, where our community collectively contributed to mapping essential services that support mental health awareness, access, and inclusion demonstrating that humanitarian mapping goes beyond disasters to support overall community well-being.

… See full entry

The page contains all OSM data for the period up to 2026-01-14

… See full entry

Earlier this week, I accepted a PR to our codebase that made a bad and duplicated phone numbers. What happened was, that we use contact:phone=* per convention, but many entries used phone=*, which was not detected by our dupe scanner.

That’s 100% on me. I should have been more vigilant on that one, should have checked better (the few I checked on did not have phone=, so that’s another lesson for the books), and should have checked more vigilantly afterwards as well.

What I did: wrote a rescue to check all 600 edits we did, removed phone= dupes, and moved all phone= that were still there to contact:phone= in the process.

We also do contact every albergue we list (and thus sync) and ask them about their preferred/working phone numbers. So we went ahead and removed stale numbers that no longer worked, and updated those that did to a fully working set.

Of course the code is now fixed as well, and all edits have been too. Sorry again, this is 100% on me.

I’ve run into a strange behaviour in my OSM user diary entry when documenting a batch/ffmpeg command.

This line in a code-block (ignore formatting):

ffmpeg select=eq(pict_type,I)</br>

is automatically turned into:

ffmpeg https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:select=eq(pict_type,I)

This happens even inside code blocks (<pre>, fenced code, etc.). It does not happen if I add spaces around the = (e.g. select = eq(pict_type,I)), but I cannot change the code because it must stay exactly as written.

<nowiki>...</nowiki>, <pre>...</pre>, <nowiki><pre>...</pre></nowiki> and similar combinations do not stop the autolink.

Is this a known issue with the OSM Wiki parser or is this a feature?

In order for OpenStreetMap to thrive, we need to attract and retain new mappers. To be welcoming to newcomers, we should avoid high barriers to starting mapping and instead support contributions that can be made with limited time, context, and experience. StreetComplete is a great example of this approach: by asking simple, well-scoped questions, it enables contributors to improve data quality in small, incremental steps. An effort-inclusive tagging philosophy builds on this idea by encouraging tagging schemas where each additional piece of information can be added independently and still be useful on its own. For example, amenity=bench is still a bench regardless if mapper knew about backrest=* and armrest=*.

I am writing this because I have encountered cases where newcomers are advised to follow practices that I consider unnecessarily demanding for basic contributions. A particularly stark example appears in the context of CCTV and ALPR mapping, where a sub-community recommends mappers to take high-resolution photographs, research manufacturers and exact models at home, and consult product datasheets for adding a single camera to OSM. While such detailed work can be valuable, it not only risks discouraging participation, but also makes incorrect data harder to detect if mapper misidentifies the model.

… See full entry

In Fall 2024, I broke my radius (arm) at the wrist of my dominant hand, and didn’t map at all for 2 months, gradually picking things up as my arm healed and gained strength. It was agonizing to not have my daily OSM fix - and a palpable relief when my wrist could once again handle an extended session with a mouse.

Not content with my previous mapping outage, in Fall 2025 I had a cancerous tumor in my parotid (cheekbone salivary gland) removed - except that a relatively straightforward 2 hour surgery turned into a 13-hour marathon and an overnight hospital stay ballooned into 8 days in a hospital bed. The cancer had spread to lymph nodes, to one of my jugular veins and into muscle tissue in my neck. Recovery from the surgery turned into immediate chemotherapy + immunotherapy and radiation.

So now I map when I’m able, which unfortunately is not very frequently. My #Mali project gathers dust, with almost all of my current OSM edits focused around related work with my one remaining freelance client. There does appear to be light at the end of the tunnel (I’m pretty sure it’s not a train). My body has responded well to treatment, and there’s talk of moving me off chemo and onto straight immunotherapy. Looking forward to that possibility.

All of this to say: treasure the time you have. If the difference you make is measured in your OSM edits, then by god make those edits. But more importantly, if the difference you make is measured through those around you that are intertwined into your life, make sure you give sufficient time to them. Your life-changesets are important too.

The More You Know…… ;)

GR

I’ve been updating bus routes;
it’s a fun task, but takes a real long time; slow progress in the wiki: osm.wiki/Braga

i’ve added tons of sidewalks and crosswalks and i’m totally happy to see them start rendering on OSMAnd;

if ppl actually used OSM while driving they would get vocal warnings for crosswalks, i’ve tried it before and it works and its really good to know whenever you approach a sidewalk as a driver; ofc this is a feature which is pedestrian centered, so the whole point is to especially help people navigate on foot; also i really like the added complexity layer when sidewalks appear on the map and you can actually start navigating the city through sidewalks, footways, footpaths and informal paths, the city is more interesting when seen through a walking perspective

we need to properly address this, i’m thinking of starting activism, we cant have 300 ppl getting run over per year (just in braga!)

i’m quite confused if and how exactly i should mark informal crossings (especially in cases where theres heavy crossing pedestrian and bike traffic (see: osm.org/node/1888043292); it may seem easy but im afraid that ppl could get misled into crossing in a bad place;

there should be a more compreensive aproach to these situations so we can map this for safety first; then, we should take this stuff to city hall and press for more permanent proper solutions, like new crossroads and better safety measures!!!

as to sidewalks, it’s a bad situation; there are not as many as i believe there should be (this gets really bad as you get farther from the city center).

so many of the newer roads and rotundas dont even have a proper sidewalk, like whaaat;

… See full entry

This morning, when I woke up, I felt that something was different. The sky looked darker, the temperature felt colder, and the faint sound of drizzling rain outside carried a gloomy tone.

I immediately rushed to check the forum chat that morning, trying to scrape together information. What was going on out there?

07:17:55: “Heavy rain”
07:18:44: “Same here in Bogor”
07:19:39: “With a storm like this, how am I supposed to get to the office?”
07:39:11: “Anyone in North Jakarta who lives toward the east / near Bekasi. Is it storming there?”
07:40:20: “Yep. Storming. Starting to ease up a bit though.”
07:48:25: “Seems pretty widespread. Cikarang’s getting wind and rain too.”
07:50:04: “Still early morning but the rain is insanely heavy. What a Monday.”
07:55:41: “With rain this heavy, it’s best to just go back to sleep~”
08:00:26: “Heavy rainnn”
08:10:46: “The rain is so damn heavy.”
08:14:28: “Waiting for it to stop, but it’s just getting heavier.”
08:16:52: “This storm. No way I’m working. Just want to WFH.”

Heavy rain? A storm? How bad could it be? Here, the rain was only a light drizzle, but the darkness of the sky and the chill in the air felt very different. This wasn’t ordinary rain.

I kept reading the forum.

08:15:11: “Same in Central Jakarta, storm-level rain. Can’t work at all.”
08:29:58: “Force majeure, man. I ain’t leaving for work like this.”
08:37:55: “With rain this bad, offices should really normalize letting employees WFH, at least for sectors that don’t need physical presence."
08:40:00: “Stuck getting out of Tanah Abang. The rain’s way too heavy.”
08:45:47: “Early morning chaos in the airspace above CGK. Looks like no planes can land. Four domestic flights diverted to Lampung. Flight SQ950 had to do three go-arounds. This morning’s rain is insane.”

Huh?

So many planes couldn’t land at Soekarno-Hatta? How bad was the rain last night?

… See full entry

1st January 2026

Happy New Year!

I went for a walk, today, to geo locate some benches. Given my physical challenges (not to mention my tendency to over do it all the time), benches are an absolute godsend — more often than not, a four-mile stroll feels like a ten-mile slog (and today, ironically, was no exception).

I got the job done, though, and bagged both benches at 51.4751546, -3.2752249 and 51.4742791, -3.2777702. There's a really cool MapComplete theme called Benches that I use a fair bit, so I've also got some photos ready.

I'll upload everything shortly — just as soon as my back stops hurting, my legs stop wobbling, and my ankle stops threatening an early retirement.

3rd January 2026

Locating a Quarry

I've decided to find and map the quarry in Plymouth Great Wood. According to Outdoor Cardiff's guide, it should be located somewhere around 51.483825, -3.257899.

The quarry was excavated in the late 1800s (starting around the 1860s) to provide ballast and building materials for the Great Western Railway (the main London to Swansea line).

The rock from the quarry (locally known as 'Radyr Stone') is a rare Triassic breccia that's famous for its deep red colour mixed with grey (limestone) and white (sandstone) clasts.

It was during the excavations that workers found a Bronze Age hoard in the quarry which consisted of two spearheads, five axes, and part of a sword blade.

After the woodland was gifted to the city by the Earl of Plymouth, ordinance survey maps from around the 1920s referenced the quarry as 'old' (which suggests that the site had since been decommissioned).

I'm not sure when I'll be heading out as steep muddy trails and wobbly old legs don't play nice, but I hope to at least get an eyeball of the place fairly soon.

7th January 2026

Around the Houses

… See full entry

12-01-2026 signed up.

Quantity vs Quality Assurance

I wanted to know how well I was performing as an armchair mapper, internally I was concerned that I was creating more issues than I was helping so I learned about a website that answers the question “How did I contribute?”.

On my name I looked at the quality assurance section and the quantity of errors was too very high, almost over a 4000 issues ignored. I have attempted to improve the quality of my mapping change sets using Osmose and OSMI.

Osmose

Initially I had 26 level 1(major) issues, 50 level 2(intermediate) issues and 800(minor). I quickly adjusted the level 1 issues and over half of my level 2 issues. I have a single level 1, 19 level 2 and over 700 level 3 issues. Systematically I hope to solve; *amenity=parking issues *building=construction issues *building overlap issues *waterway issues.

OSMI

… See full entry