Introduction to OpenStreetMap

LatLon · Postby **LatLon** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 6:25 pm

As there come up some questions on my thread about the night of the living maps, I created this seperate post to answer them, without destroying the original content.

brynn wrote:I followed your link to OpenStreetMap.org, to learn more about it, because it sounds like something I might like to do (the map-making, I mean). But when I clicked the Edit tab, I got a message box saying something like "You must zoom in to edit". But I couldn't close the message box. I click OK, and I hear the error ding sound, the box flashes, and stays there. I tried to close the window/box with the red X button at top left, same thing. I tried to close the tab (IE8) but same thing again. I tried to switch to another tab, same thing. I could not even close out IE!! I finally had to use Task Manager to shut down IE entirely!! Needless to say, I won't be trying to learn any more about it, even though I still think it sounds interesting, and something I might like to do. If you can get that fixed, I'd appreciate a chance to look around the site a bit more.

I created a troube ticket for that problem. I knew that IE8 support isn't that good but this is a very crude behaviour.

But the box was right, due to the mass amount of data, you have to zoomin very close (say the last 2-3 zooming levels). Then our simple Editor "Potlatch" comes up that allows you to edit stuff. I know it's hard at the beginning, but maybe you are more lucky with JOSM that is our offline desktop editor.

But all in all it's not that difficult to add some basic stuff like post-boxes or backeries. You should check out this links:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Beginner%27s_Guide
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Video_tutorial

Of course I'm here to answer any questions, too

Postby **brynn** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 9:37 pm

So you think if I zoom first, before I click that tab, I won't get the permanently open window? Maybe I'll open a new instance of IE, so if I have to shut it down the hard way, I won't lose my other tabs too.

Thanks for your help

I'm excited to have another look, without getting the scary virus behavior. (I actually even tried the Alt + F4, which is how you're supposed to handle if it's a virus, but that didn't work either.)

But all in all it's not that difficult to add some basic stuff like post-boxes or backeries.

So this is more about adding...."addresses" such as retail stores, to an existing map? My initial understanding of your brief comments was that it would be more about drawing the actual map.

Well, now that I know it's not a malware download or something, I'll look forward to trying again to learn more about it.
Thanks again for your help

LatLon · Postby **LatLon** » Sun Dec 11, 2011 10:29 pm

Well no OSM is more than just adresses, but of the so called POIs (points of interests) are very important to users to give them an impression/orientation of the area.

Due to the Wiki approach we aren't limited on specific categories. In fact we actually cover a lot of things, starting from international highways, down to waste baskets

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features
Here it's important to know, that OSM is not a single map, but a "geo database" (doesn't sound that sexy, ough?). So we have differnet renderers (map drawing software) with different stylings, exporters for navigation tools or GPS devices ....and all that covered from one central point of information

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Maps
The most important are embedded on the website (click on the + Icon at the upper right corner in the map canvas)

This is a read-only archive of the inkscapeforum.com site. You can search for info here or post new questions and comments at inkscape.org/forums

This is a read-only archive of the inkscapeforum.com site. This feature is no longer available.

InkscapeForum.com

Introduction to OpenStreetMap

Introduction to OpenStreetMap

Re: Introduction to OpenStreetMap

Re: Introduction to OpenStreetMap

Who is online