People think that govt developed = bad. It’s a consideration for sure but if anything govt developed is so hopelessly and inherently compromised then many of the measures discussed here are useless for privacy already because they almost all run through internet, a govt created system. Even TOR. But yet here we are anyway because they are still useful systems.

Governments pour tons of time money and effort into secure communication, and not for profit, and we can still take advantage of that advancement with some caution.

Wait until they find out who started the internet. Or who runs GPS satellites

In my experience StreetComplete is almost real time. As soon as you close the app it adds all of your changes I think. I’ve never tried it in Organic Maps but I imagine it’s similar

Usually your edits will go straight to the map! There are people that work on tools and foundations of the map data but when it comes to the data itself WE are the OSM team!

Recommended changes are done via map notes. If you don’t know what I’m talking about you can turn them on on openstreetmap.org to see what I mean

When it was sms compatible it was a suuuuper easy sell for my family

“It’s way more secure when you text me but you can still text everyone else you know too. And we can still use it through wifi if cell service isn’t working for me.”

It would potentially fall under “fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine” that would make it inadmissable for actual court cases but otherwise there’s nothing to stop people from gathering information that is available to the public

I use iD editor almost every time. It’s simple to use and I can use it on nearly any computer I have access to. usually put on a podcast for 30min-1h and map while I listen.

On my phone I have Vespucci installed. It’s a lot slower going compared to PC but it can scratch the itch when I’m bored out and about. I use OSMand for actually using the map data.

Street Complete is slick and makes it easy to add a ton of stuff but that is geared towards polishing up the unknown details of stuff that is already mapped. I’d rather finish adding unmapped roads and sidewalks than telling OSM what materials they’re made of.

I like to map land use. I spent some time on a volunteer fire department and working with their K9 Search and Rescue team on real calls and training. Land nav and good mapping is super important to them so I put some extra effort to make it as useful as possible.

It mildly annoys me when mappers add big sections of natual wood but completely ignore the big swampy wetland or other obvious things within that area like ponds. I think some people map it just so it looks nice but a little detail matters when you’re there in person and have to get around.

It might not be much but it’s still legal precedent that will hopefully help it reach critical mass. Like getting Al Capone on tax evasion

I forget what privacy podcast I was listening to but they said that privacy is important because you might not be under scrutiny now but could be.

After the Boston marathon bombing reddit was scouring footage and believed a particular person was responsible (“we did it reddit!”). They were wrong. People found his address, work etc and he was stalked and harrassed for days though he did nothing wrong.

You can bet he would have liked to disappear for a while, and a little extra everyday privacy in advance would have made that a lot easier.

If you update point info or building info, when you change the address the spot doesn’t move. It just changes the info listed about that old location spot/building.

You’ll have to find the new location, map the building if it isn’t and then fill in the info about it to include the address. You can drag the marker over or place a new one

Thank you for taking the time to look after your local businesses!

Yeah I’m not really trying to hide from the govt, but I would vote on limiting their power if given the chance. Anyway, what I don’t want is every corporation I deal with (car, bank, phone, apps, isp, etc) to track me so excessively.

If the govt did get curious it would take zero leg work, just ask those companies that are very willing to hand over my data to damn near anyone, or hold onto it long enough to have it stolen.

So with that in mind limiting corporate surveillance and limiting ease of govt surveillance is essentially the same thing, but the govt has the ability to put in the work and get you if they really wanted to.

Idk how the new user experience is now but back when I first downloaded it I wanted a hybrid of sat imagery when cell signal allowed, with an overlay of offline OSM data. This was for two reasons, hiking and to see if the mapping in that hike area needed any major land use edits.

Anyway I had to fiddle with the menus and settings for a while to get the overlays where I wanted it to be. Don’t get me wrong I was able to figure it out but for users who want to install and go it can be understandably frustrating

Osmand is really cool and it’s really capable but I understand that it isn’t for people who don’t want to tinker a bit to make things work just right for them.

For that Organic Maps is what I recommend.

It’s like $20 for cheap devices that talk to your phone via bluetooth. They have standalone devices too to fix that potential vulnerability.

I’m messing around with a few rn. Heltec V3s and TBeam Supremes.

My grandma told me of a relative that came to visit them in the US from Eastern Europe (Slovakia I think) after the Soviet Union dissolved.

One thing they noticed is that he always wore his shoes. Even when staying at home. Even to bed. They asked why and he explained that it was to give him a chance of escape if the Secret Police came and he was surprised that our family didn’t have to do something similar.

If you want to play in your hometown and nothing is mapped it might motivate you.

…now I’m thinking of some gamers mapping strategically to min/max the game mechanics

Acoustic car

A guarantee of deploying to europe would be great for military retention! Everyone is tired of fighting forever wars in the desert

I agree and it’s one of the biggest places where OSM is completely outclassed.

I hope OSM reaches a point where house number datasets are imported on a large scale, even if only for major cities. Adding numbers by hand is possible but very tedious, and unlike most mapping done for OSM you can’t just go off of what sat imagery shows.

Always has been. Just yesterday I was explaining AI image generation to a coworker. I said the program looks at a ton of images and uses that info to blend them together. Like it knows what a soviet propaganda poster looks like, and it knows what artwork of Santa looks like so it can make a Santa themed propaganda poster.

Same with text I assume. It knows the Mario wiki and fanfics, and it knows a bunch of books about zombies so it blends it to make a gritty story about Mario fending off zombies. But yeah it’s all other works just melded together.

My question is would a human author be any different? We absorb ideas and stories we read and hear and blend them into new or reimagined ideas. AI just knows it’s original sources

I bet insurance companies would pay out the nose for this data. Hike up the rates for drivers with “risky” habits.