Great story. Please keep writing.

I think the fact that everyone wants to get their own house on the map is what drives people to Open Street Map. :)

Welcome to OpenStreetMap! Your maps looks really great! Keep up the good work!

Wow, cool. Sounds like a great idea. Great to see you on OpenStreetMap. Good luck! :)

wow, that looks really well done now. Brilliant. :)

I'm an entusiastic tracer. But mostly I trace forgein cities I've been to once to twice, like Dar Es Salaam or Livingstone. I think it's great, because it lets you literally put these places on the map.

Hi Finnán! Welcome aboard from another Irish mapper, though I'm based in Dublin.

There's an Irish OSM IRC channel #osm-ie on OFTC (If you don't know what IRC is it's a multi user chat system, like MSN. You can connect using mibbit.com. Server: OFTC and Channel: #osm-ie) Irish people interested in OSM can hang out there and chat.

Hi Dolphin3900,

Your idea sounds great. I'd second robx's suggestion of using the API to add the data. Just create the OSM file, then open it with JOSM and then click upload. This page: osm.wiki/index.php/OSM_Protocol_Version_0.5 has some details on the OSM file format. It's XML. Download some existing map data to get a feel for it.

StefanB is right, openstreetmap is very flexible. You can tag things as needed. Just make sure you can use it under the openstreetmap licence!

Good to see a fellow Irish mapper here. :)

hjw2, the mapnik maps are updated weekly, but I've found it to be quick sporadic. A the wiki says (osm.wiki/index.php/Beginners_Guide_1.5) if you right click on a tile and select view image, then add "/dirty" to the end, it'll most likely be redrawn. This is a good way to make sure changes to an area you've been working on show up.

The high resolution images are the most important parts. With the high res images you can trace to street level. With only Landsat you can't make out any detail in a town or city.

Brian, no you are not allowed to just download all the images. They are copyrighted. Yahoo have kindly agreed to let the OSM project base some street outlines against them. That doesn't mean the OSM project can just copy them willy nilly.

Your dedication to OpenStreetMap is commendable! Most people would just go home after a saddle malfunction.

Welcome to OpenStreetMaps!

dankarran, yeah an openstreetmap on ipod would be great. It'd be great to have access to maps while not in range of wifi. You can't do this with Google Maps (say) because the tiles are copyrighted.

I'd love to have some kind of openstreetmap editor even viewer for the iPod touch.

Brian Scimmel, it's true you can install iPhone appliations on the iPod Touch. dankarran has done this as 'Notes' is an iPhone-only application.

There's a Google Maps application for the iPhone, and someone has hacked it to show openstreetmaps tiles (http://brainoff.com/weblog/2007/10/19/1271), but that's a poor imitation of what could be possible.

Hi Brian,

Re: The overlapping ways. I've been doing what you're doing, having them touch. I don't know what's the offical policy is, but I think it makes sense. I think it's kinda pointless to have many ways less than a metre apart.