Contributing Advent 5: OpenStreetBugs

Adding and updating data on OpenStreetMap is fairly easy and available for everybody. But once in a while you don't really have the time to add things to the map, and for those situations OpenStreetMap has the Notes functionality.

The Notes functionality allows anybody to add a note to the map with some details of things that are mapped incorrectly, or not mapped at all.

Take for example the following note:

This note can be found on the website too.

Many of the notes require validation or checking, so I decided to check out a few notes before the most recent OpenStreetMap London pub meet-up. I like walking anyway, so walked from Baker Street towards Oxford Street in a zigzaggy line towards the pub. You can see the GPS trace here taken from a screenshot on OsmAnd, which has a nice little Notes plugin/interface.

What this also shows, is the 5 notes that I closed (the green dots)!

However, there are still plenty of notes left in central London:

If you have an OpenStreetMap account, and are logged in, you can add comments and/or resolve issues if you know how to edit OpenStreetMap. Maybe you can have a look in your own local area and resolve some notes!