I know rankings and stats don’t matter here in OSM

You know what’s crazy, That It’s only been 2 months and 1 week, Since I started contributing in OpenStreetMap

For real, I genuinely think, I am one of the fastest growing OSM contributors in the Philippines.

Following the launch of the OSM Skeleton methodology (see this post, featured in weeklyOSM #836), I wanted to illustrate it with an example by resolving the main reports in an area of Senegal where the demo is currently being deployed.

At first, I thought about mapping the Koungheul department, but given the scale of the task, I ultimately settled for one of its arrondissements, Ida Mouride. Arrondissements are the third level of administration in Senegal, after regions and departments.

The small size and limited number of Skeleton reports in this district allowed me to complete the task in about fifteen sessions of my daily OSM mapping routine.

The initial situation as of July 31 was as follows, for the entire department:

And zooming in on Koungheul:

Here are the same areas today:

I created a statistics dashboard to track the progress for each type of report between August 5 and 19 (so my initial edits - which mainly involved about ten large villages without residential zones - are missing). The charts should be read as “Remaining / Total at the Start.” In the example below, the 18 hamlets without residential areas have thus been mapped:

As can be seen across the entire dashboard, there are no longer any reports regarding already identified settlement areas larger than 20 ha. While there is certainly still work to be done on smaller settlement areas, this already means that within the territory of this arrondissement, all settlement areas larger than 20 ha are clearly characterized by a categorized location, are connected to the road network, and are represented by a residential area updated within the last five years with an acceptable number of nodes.

This is a more rigorous approach than mapping an entire territory solely through a supposedly rigorous observation phase using satellite imagery, followed by an additional validation phase using the same approach. It is a first milestone in establishing a reference OSM dataset for this territory.

Other homogeneity milestones will soon be available in the Skeleton methodology with the upcoming addition of report layers to identify settlement areas still missing from OpenStreetMap, verify place categories that seem unusual given the size of their settlement areas, clean up the roads geometries, improve their connectivity, and verify key road network tags, as well as identify different categories of essential objects missing within major urban areas.

Translated from French with DeepL.com (free version)

Suite au lancement de la méthodologie OSM Skeleton (voir ce billet, repris dans hebdoOSM 836), j’ai voulu l’illustrer avec un exemple, en résolvant les principaux signalements sur une zone du Sénégal, où la démo est actuellement déployée.

J’ai pensé au départ faire le département de Koungheul, mais vu l’ampleur de la tâche, je me suis finalement contenté de l’un de ses arrondissements, celui d’Ida Mouride. Les arrondissements constituent le troisième échelon administratif du Sénégal, après les régions et les départements, arrondissements.

La petite taille et le nombre limité de signalements Skeleton que contient cet arrondissement m’ont permis d’en venir à bout en une quinzaine d’occurrences de ma petite séance quotidienne de cartographie dans OSM.

La situation de départ au 31 juillet était celle-ci, à l’échelle du département entier :

Et en zoomant sur Koungheul :

Voici les mêmes zones aujourd’hui :

J’ai créé un tableau de bord statistique pour mesurer la progression pour chaque type de signalement, entre le 5 et le 19 août (il manque donc mes premiers edits, qui ont notamment concerné une dizaine de grands villages sans zone résidentielle). Les graphiques doivent se lire « Restant à faire / Total au départ ». Dans l’exemple ci-dessous, les 18 hameaux sans zone résidentielle ont donc été cartographiés :

On peut voir sur l’ensemble du tableau de bord qu’il ne reste plus de signalements concernant des zones de peuplement déjà identifiées et dont la surface est supérieure à 20 ha. Il reste certes encore à travailler sur les zones de peuplement plus petites, mais cela signifie déjà que sur le territoire de cet arrondissement, toutes les zones de peuplement de plus de 20 ha sont bien caractérisées par un de lieu catégorisé, sont reliées au réseau routier et sont représentées par une zone résidentielle mise à jour il y a moins de cinq ans avec un nombre acceptable de nœuds.

C’est une métrique plus rigoureuse que de cartographier tout un territoire seulement à travers une phase d’observation, supposément rigoureuse, d’une imagerie satellitaire suivie d’une phase de validation supplémentaire utilisant la même approche. C’est un premier jalon dans l’établissement d’une donnée OSM qui fait référence sur ce territoire.

D’autres jalons d’homogénéité seront bientôt disponibles dans la méthodologie Skeleton avec l’ajout prochain de couches de signalements pour identifier les zones de peuplement encore manquantes dans OpenStreetMap, vérifier des catégories de lieux qui paraissent étranges eu égard à la surface de leur zone de peuplement, nettoyer la géométrie, améliorer la connectivité et vérifier les principales étiquettes du réseau routier, ou encore identifier différences catégories d’objets essentiels manquants au sein des grandes agglomérations.

I keep getting questions about multilingual names in OpenStreetMap, so I want to state my position clearly in one place.

I understand the OSM data-model argument: name:xx should normally represent a name that actually exists in that language, not simply a machine-generated translation. My mapping practice has evolved accordingly.

However, as a product person, I care primarily about the user experience.

A map is a product used by real people. If I travel to a country whose writing system I cannot read, a map that shows me only the local script may be technically pure but practically much less useful.

For example, an English-, Russian-, or Georgian-speaking traveller should not need to read Arabic, Chinese, Thai, or another unfamiliar script just to understand what street, station, church, village, or other place they are looking at.

There are several ways to solve this:

• verified names in the user’s language;
• standardized transliteration;
• localized rendering;
• automatic transliteration or translation at the application layer;
• sensible fallback rules when no localized name exists.

I do not particularly care which layer solves the problem.

What I care about is the outcome:

the user should be able to understand the map.

Database purity is useful when it improves data quality. It should not become an excuse for poor UX.

OpenStreetMap is a geographic database, but the value of that database ultimately comes from people being able to use it.

For OSM naming guidance, see:

• Names
• Multilingual names

This post also reflects the lessons I took from my earlier discussion about AI-assisted multilingual tagging. I no longer treat automatically generated translations as sufficient evidence that a name:xx exists.

But my broader position has not changed:

when data modelling and usability pull in different directions, I will keep advocating for a solution that gives users both accurate data and a usable map.

If you have a question about my general position on multilingual naming, please refer to this post rather than restarting the same discussion in individual changesets.

Thanks to a note suggested adding a Via Crucis station, I checked how similar routes in Switzerland are mapped in OpenStreetMap.

OSM tags relations for these with worship=stations_of_the_cross (and type=route route=worship ).

These relations model outdoor paths, not stations located inside a single church building.

• They can be found in traditionally Catholic regions of Switzerland. The ones mapped in OSM are mainly in Ticino and the canton of Solothurn (Soleure).
• Traditionally there are 14 stations, sometimes 15 stations.
• The monuments at stations vary: stones, crosses, sculptures, shrines or chapels.
• Distances and ascent vary: The ones at Sant’Abbondio and Astano follow the walls of the churchyard, the one to Madonna del Sasso has an ascent of almost 200 m.
• Some paths are old (18th or 19th century), others are more recent.
• The state of preservation varies greatly.
• Many routes lead to a chapel.
• Some paths to chapels feature stations on other subjects. These have route=worship , but not worship=stations_of_the_cross .

RSI counts 54 in Italian-speaking Switzerland; the scope may not match OSM’s outdoor-route tagging. OSM has 10 Via Crucis in Ticino.

OSM has about 2000 wayside crosses and 1200 wayside “shrines” in Switzerland. Some could be part of Via Crucis that aren’t mapped yet.

Here is a short clip of the one above Biasca and a longer video about the one at Klingnau.

List

Here are a few mapped:

Mapping

Depending on the location and the structure at each station, they can sometimes be mapped with aerial imagery. Generally paths are already mapped, sometimes also stations (as wayside crosses or shrines) and chapels at the end of the paths (at least as building).

Basic mapping for a Via Crucis route:

• 1 relation for route
• 1 start node
• 1 or many ways for the route
• 14/15 nodes for station
• 1 way for chapel at the end

osm.wiki/Tag:worship=stations_of_the_cross#Fixme has a checklist to improve them.

好的關於這破電源我是非常生氣，一個貼牌電源把我一條記憶體打壞了，下次不用二手的了再用我是小狗。

反正這不是重點，壞了就壞了，誰不會壞嘛。but那個破回收場，明知道裡面都是銅線，還用廢鐵價跟我收，純把我當豬仔宰是吧，還只有十塊錢，十塊錢欸，掛社團我都至少還有一杯手搖，好歹也給我15 20我去買冰水喝，以後不去了，黑。

反正賣完我就嘎拉嘎拉的騎著我的破腳踏車四處閒晃了，三個小時大概騎了20公里吧，沒很累，但到底是誰會把鐵皮屋標廟宇啊，我想說我怎麼沒聽過埔里有這個廟，騎過去一看，還真的鐵皮屋，不過應該是別人家，這人真無聊。還有不知道誰把荒地裡標一個廟宇，我 跑進去被蚊子叮慘了。

今天主要是跑郊區，市區太多要標的了標不完，明天跑田裡的廟吧，車少也好騎。

I remember when I first heard about these traffic cameras this guy paid me to listen to apb and manually log the codes to later look up and learn. Thinking about it these people were dangerous but it was normal for me being a military brat who joined the Marines after high school. I reminded the highest ranking ones of my grandfather who served 30 years. I guess it stirred up emotions making them uncomfortable cause I was clueless of my early departure resulting me in an unforseen path unaligned with my preset destiny.

This contribution is what Google identified as alpr I have a pic of it is just amazing how it doesn’t catch the license plate of a vehicle sitting in the middle of the intersection to prove truth of the occasion. Truth shall set us free

Your life is only a see through I never wanted to be you my goal was to necessary to those who needed a new perspective to bring others from the darkness into the light to be abundant. While in the darkness no one tried to save me instead my heart was like a clothes line chopped up into millions of pieces. I answered to the calling of the darkness and won my right to be to be silent. I learned to dim my brightness to a dull roar to respect those imbedded in the deep roots. They know I veil from divine right always seemed to be an outcast. I fell in love with the people everyone of them are necessary. I can’t speak about a certainty to take place when the times right. I understand it’s necessary thanks for not making it scary. Realization of I’m crazy just like you I’ll be a very bitter taste to you. Don’t take something your not willing to part from.

Am dritten Augustwochenende organisierten Aktive aus der OpenStreetMap-Community und des FOSSGIS-Vereins zeitgleich zwei Messe- und Konferenzauftritte auf der Maker Faire Hannover und der FrOSCon.

Maker Faire Hannover

Wie schon in den vergangenen Jahren war der FOSSGIS auch auf der diesjährigen Maker Faire in Hannover wieder mit einem Stand vertreten. Vier am Samstag und am Sonntag sogar fünf Aktive sorgten dafür, OpenStreetMap bekannter zu machen. Das eingespielte Team aus Mappern unterschiedlicher Bereiche beantworten die vielfältigen Fragen der Besucher. An den beiden Tagen wurden jeweils über 70 ausführliche Gespräche mit Besucherinnen und Besuchern geführt.

Auch dieses Jahr zogen die mit einem 3D-Drucker erstellten taktilen Karten wieder großes Interesse auf sich. Doch auch unsere großformatigen Papierkarten für die eigene Wand fanden zahlreiche Abnehmer. Insgesamt haben wir über 50 Karten für die Besucherinnen und Besucher der Messe ausgedruckt. Von den jüngeren Besuchern freuen sich jetzt einige auf die nächste Hydrantensuche mit der Jugenfeuerwehr bzw. über eine neue Karte des Stadionumfeldes ihres Lieblingsfußballvereins.

Wie in den vergangenen Jahren war es ein gelungenes Wochenende um das Projekt bekannter zu machen und den einen oder anderen neuen Teilnehmenden für das Projekt zu begeistern.

FrOSCon

Auch auf der FrOSCon in Sankt Augustin bei Bonn hatte der FOSSGIS einen Stand für das OpenStreetMap-Projekt organisiert. Ebenso wie bei der Maker Faire waren wir mit einem Großformatdrucker vor Ort. Die Möglichkeit zum Drucken individuell gestalteter Karten aus OpenStreetMap-Daten wurde begeistert angenommen und es ergaben sich zahlreiche interessante Gespräche. Martin Raifer, Maintainer des ID-Editors auf openstreetmap.org, hielt einen Einführungsworkshop zu OSM, der sehr gut besucht war. FOSSGIS-Vorstand Falk Zscheile beleuchtete in seinem spannenden Vortrag die rechtlichten Aspekte beim Training von generativer KI mit OSM- und anderen offenen Daten. Ein weiterer Vortrag beschäftigte sich mit der Nutzung von OSM-Daten und freier OpenSource-Software bei der Entwicklung eines Verfahrens zur Lagebewertung von Immobilien, das Banken des Sparkassenverbundes bei Entscheidungen zur Kreditvergabe unterstützt.

Diese eindruckvolle thematische Vielfalt der Beiträge zeigt, dass OpenStreetMap nach 22 Jahren eine große gesellschaftliche Verbreitung erreicht hat. Aufgabe des FOSSGIS-Vereins ist es, Beitragende und Nutzende von OpenStreetMap-Daten und freier OpenSource-Software aus unterschiedlichsten Bereichen von Gesellschaft und Wirtschaft zusammenzubringen.

Unser Dank gilt den Aktiven, die als Standpersonal und Beitragende das OpenStreetMap-Projekt auf Maker Faire und FrOSCon hervorragend präsentiert haben. Ganz besonders danken wir Hartmut Holzgräfe, dem Maintainer von print.get-map.org, der sich sowohl in Hannover als auch in Sankt Augustin um den Aufbau der Großformatdrucker gekümmert hat, indem er am Wochenende zwischen den Veranstaltungsorten hin und her pendelte.

Links auf FrOSCon-Vortragsvideos

• Falk Zscheile: Können Lizenzbedingungen Open Data und Open Content vor KI schützen?
• Katharina Dupont: OpenStreetMap jenseits der Karte - Ein Erfahrungsbericht aus der Immobilienbewertung

Several weeks ago, my bicycle finally got fixed, after being abandoned in a broken state for a long time.

Before that, I didn’t even know that my bicycle was actually broken.

All I knew was that this bicycle was really, really, really tiring to use. Even a short-distance trip was enough to tire me out for the whole day.

I didn’t know that this was caused by something being broken, which meant I had to put in (approximately) twice the effort to make it move (citation needed).

At that time, I simply blamed my own weak body. “Maybe I’m not strong enough to wield this bicycle,” I thought, dejected, considering giving up my whole cycling career prematurely.

Then, one random day, one of my family members used that bicycle, noticed something wrong with it, fixed it, and then it was finally ridable without needing much energy and force.

Alright. Now I can use my bicycle again, I guess.

For short trips, I usually prefer a bicycle to a motorcycle, for several reasons, you name it : hiking gas prices, the need to reduce our own carbon footprint to save the Earth (back then I took the mandatory environmental college course and thanks to that I’m still brainwashed so hard about the need to reduce my own carbon footprint), a nice opportunity to exercise my body, and the previous trauma of using a motorcycle and then suddenly having the engine not start so I had to walk the motorcycle to the nearest repair shop which turned out to be not near at all. Yeah, plenty of reasons.

So this afternoon, I decided to take a long trip to several places in my town, using my recently fixed bicycle.

I started around 4 PM and went home again around 6 PM.

Now it’s night, I’m sitting in front of my laptop, and getting curious : how many kilometers did I traverse this afternoon while cycling?

I didn’t bring a proper GPS device to record my trip this afternoon, but I remember each path that I took today. So, what should I do to calculate the distance?

At first, I tried BRouter.

My plan was, I’m gonna put several of the key places from my trip over there, hoping that its routing engine would show my actual path. After that, I could keep notes of the distance statistics.

But I met several problems.

First, putting several key places into that web UI is hard. There’s no “right click -> show context menu” to add/remove coordinates.

Second, the routing engine itself. It doesn’t show my actual path. There are several routing presets over there. I tried several, but none of them actually showed the path I had taken.

So I tried another alternative solution. This time, the OpenStreetMap.org homepage.

This time, the “right click -> show context menu” feature exists. I can pick “directions from here” and “directions to here” easily by using this neat feature.

But the problem is, it only allows two coordinates: from here and to here. Meanwhile, my trip consisted of plenty of intermediate places. There’s no such feature on OpenStreetMap.org.

So I tried another alternative solution. The OpenStreetMap.org homepage shows several “brands” of routing engines: GraphHopper, OSRM, and Valhalla.

I tried OSRM at first.

Alright. On the OSRM demo page, now I can add plenty of intermediate places. Not just “from here” and “to here.”

But it’s still difficult to properly place a coordinate in this web UI.

It says “press enter to drop a marker,” but nothing happened when I pressed Enter.

Also, when plenty of intermediate points are involved, I can’t add the “second” and “more” intermediate points. When I click on the map, it only changes the first intermediate point, even though I intended to add more intermediate points.

Alright, next. Valhalla.

From their GitHub repository, I went to their documentation page.

At the very bottom of that page, I saw this :

“valhalla-app: A React-based web app for Valhalla, powering https://valhalla.openstreetmap.de/.”

So I opened that link.

And finally, it works properly.

The right-click -> context menu feature shows “directions from here,” “add as via point,” and “directions to here.” Basically, all of my current needs are satisfied.

Then, we can add plenty of intermediate waypoints. It’s easy to delete them and rearrange their order.

And regarding the routing preset, the “pedestrian” preset works well for me.

That preset won’t go “over-creative” to find advanced detours that work well for cars and motorcycles. Instead, it picks the route in a “greedy algorithm” style, which works very well in my context. All of the paths I actually took previously were successfully predicted by using this pedestrian preset.

Thus, by using the Valhalla instance on the OpenStreetMap.de server, I finally uncovered the truth behind my bicycle trip this afternoon.

2.3 km : home - barber
0.8 km : barber - clothes shop A
0.5 km : clothes shop A - clothes shop B
1.7 km : clothes shop B - cake shop
1.2 km : cake shop - home

2.3 + 0.8 + 0.5 + 1.7 + 1.2 = 6.5 km

Alright. 6.5 km distance for today.

Oh, where do I start?

It was around October when I had recently imported the barangay boundaries of my hometown, Cauayan City. I had just asked the GIS team at the local Planning and Development Office to adjust the boundaries again, as many issues were identified in the dataset. A while later, I had an idea to try to help the GIS team adjust the boundaries, because I figured, “Why not?” and they’re probably doing a lot of work already, given so many developments in the area.

A little back and forth, but then they stopped responding. I mean, it is basically a 50/50 chance that they respond or not. A little later, I dove into further research and stuff, and I thought of asking an institution to collaborate with me on making a dataset for the PDO to use and merge with theirs, so it can be as accurate as possible (I like things accurate).

Thus, Project Cadastral Cauayan (CaCau) was born. I first emailed the Isabela State University. I chose them especially because of the Cauayan Campus. In my eyes, they were the most capable (and probably only) institution in the area to pull this off.

It was February 27 of this year. No response, so I kept trying new email addresses, follow-ups, and at one point, Messenger. Too many alternatives with no response, and about two months later, nothing. Until finally, through the Cauayan Campus’ newspaper email, the Kawayan Communicator, a Messenger notification popped up. It was someone in the newspaper. A little back-and-forth communication, and another month passed, and I realized this person was unreliable.

Why do you ask? Because he kept delaying. He kept promising that he would bring it up to the offices and such, but never did. I pivoted. Where? Northeastern College, Santiago City, on May 23rd. They were the next closest academic institution in the area that could pull it off. From experience, I emailed their newspaper first. They first responded, but everything after that was pure silence. Another month came by, and the project went nowhere.

Once again, I pivoted. This time, to three. I first tried to contact the PDO once more, which led nowhere. The second one was the University of the Philippines - Department of Geodetic Engineering (UP DGE). They were very responsive, but they rejected it due to alignment reasons with their schedule, focus, etc. I also did them because of how much collaboration existed with OSM and the university. Lastly, was the Cagayan State University. Like always, no response.

It was now August 1. My final pivot, was private geodetic firms local to the city. Two of them. And you can predict what happens with the first one: nothing. They first responded, but then nothing else. The second one, was responsive, but like UP DGE, had rejected it due to alignment reasons.

I was tired by then. And school is eating up my schedule once more soon. So, I closed the project. After 5 and a half months of work, trying to get this project out of the mud, I couldn’t take it afloat anymore. I was also working remotely in Canada, so it is obvious that it also eats up some sleep space to try to align with the time gap.

But, in case, I will keep the files public. So if there is any interest into using the project and/or its files, then feel free to (as long as you comply with the licensing)!

My conclusion is: go as far as you can. This project isn’t failed because it never reached the finish line. It was a success, in research and evidence. It’s a success of the digital space.

Mabuhay, and god bless!

呃好吧，我是新來的，可以叫我kiwi，熱愛刷機的kiwi。 先說說我為啥來這好了，我是為了因應「去谷歌化」與「自製BOB包」（好吧我根本就怪人），在網上爬啊爬，並在F-Droid上下載了這個開源地圖。 然後我在我刷了crdroid 8.6的Sony Xperia xz1上安裝了這個軟體，挺讓我驚奇的是，意外的好用，絲滑流暢，甚至在我的低端機上都運行的非常順利。 於是今天我就開始跑點了，我居住的小鎮上有很多無名小店，跑點這個過程讓我感到愉快。 希望各位能多多包涵我這怪人：） My telegram: https://t.me/taro_7421

One thing that usually worries us as OpenStreetMap mappers is having our hard work deleted by someone else, either accidentally or intentionally.

Thankfully, our edits are still in the database.

The delete operation in OpenStreetMap is not really a delete operation. It simply flips the object’s visible flag from true to false, while retaining its entire history.

And you can resurrect them using JOSM’s “Undelete Object” feature, as long as you have the OSM object’s ID.

06/08/2026-12/08/2026

Mapping

• SherbetS has proposed craft=meat_processing for small-scale facilities where hunters or animal owners bring a carcass to be cut into meat, as distinct from shop=butcher or industrial=slaughterhouse. RFC voting started on 30 July. The proposal grew out of an earlier discussion on how to tag deer processors, where commenters debated craft=butcher, man_made=works, and various animal-specific alternatives before settling on the more general wording. In the RFC thread, several contributors argued that craft=butcher would fit just as well and that ‘meat processing’ sounds too industrial in British English, while others worried the new tag could end up being used for large commercial plants too.
• Joost Schouppe started a discussion on differentiating police forces by government level (municipal, regional, national, gendarmerie, street warden), which grew into a formal RFC. The proposal defines police:branch=* with four values: gendarmerie, national_police, regional_police, and local_police, to classify which government level operates a police feature, alongside a separate police:specialisation key for topics like traffic or canine units. In the RFC thread, commenters questioned the ‘branch’ naming and whether four generic values can fit countries with far more complex police structures, such as Germany or Italy. The OSM Wiki Proposals account tooted that voting had opened, but Schouppe cancelled it a day later after reviewers asked for country examples and clearer definitions, sending both keys back to RFC.The OSM Wiki Proposals account tooted that voting had opened on fanfouer’s service supplies proposal. The proposal introduces line_management=service_supply to mark nodes where an individual household’s service drop or lateral taps a main utility line, plus an occupancy=* key to count connected supplies without mapping each one. The voting runs until 30 August. The idea was first floated a year ago as a way to ease mapping of overhead wires in dense residential streets, and the proposal has since been fleshed out with examples for power and telecommunications. Early votes are split with one voter having opposed extending line_management to non-power utilities before a separate pipeline proposal exists, while another approved it as filling a real gap.

Mapping campaigns

• The OpenStreetMap Colombia Community is organising and coordinating on-the-ground mapping to identify damaged or destroyed buildings in the area affected by the earthquake in San Jose del Palmar (Colombia), with the support of UN Mappers and the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT). Emílio Mariscal has created a web map using uMap to support the mapping campaign, which is using the Chat Map. There are projects for collaborative mapping on the HOT Tasking Manager: #61980, #61914, and # 61320.
• Semir Kahrimanovic has announced a new CompleteTheMap 2026 across Europe. New images from selected cities will be accepted from 10 August to 30 September with the sign-up deadline for entering the competition being 31 August.
• Italy’s OSM mapping community monthly project for August, ‘Restrizioni, Direzioni e cartelli’, is focusing on improving information on how to get to various places by including details for road navigation and better routing.

Community

• OpenStreetMap celebrated its 22nd birthday on 9 August and some well-known contributors to the OSM ecosystem responded with kind messages on social media: Yasmila Herrera (via Héctor Ortiz), the OSM LatAm community, Raquel Dezidério with the YouthMappers UFRJ, Dorothea Kazazi, Anne-Karoline Distel, and luiseme.
• Melany Ventura, a UI/UX designer, is the Trufi Association’s new Featured Volunteer, improving Trufi’s OSM-based journey planner apps, and more.
• In the latest episode of the Geomob Podcast, Dennis Luxen joined the show to discuss the history, and the technical and community-driven development of the Open Source Routing Machine, an open-source routing engine used in OpenStreetMap.
• Christoph Hormann commented on the recent discussion in the OpenStreetMap community regarding corporate influence on the project.
• Rphyrin is conducting a personal mapping campaign to add geolocated images to their corresponding OSM objects using the image=* tag. The results so far are being showcased through an Overpass Ultra query in a Mastodon post thread.
• Valère Déjo published an article on La Remuante, ‘A new cycle path on the map’, focusing on the city of Saint-Étienne (France), which is introducing new cycle paths and offering the opportunity to map them in OSM using Panoramax.

OpenStreetMap Foundation

• Grant Slater reported that he is physically installing a new OpenStreetMap tile render server in Dublin, kindly sponsored by QGIS, which is expected to make tile rendering faster on the GIS.

Events

• In the newest episode of the Projets Libres podcast, Benoît Peyon, a member of the organising committee for State of the Map 2026, was interviewed about the event.
• The 1st Global Convening on Informal and Shared Mobility (GloCon 2026) will take place in Bangkok from 26 to 28 October. OSM advocates can meet thought leaders improving transport systems worldwide.
• On 12 August the HOT Asia Pacific Hub held its quarterly Regional Mapathon Asia-Pacific. During the event they announced several upcoming Open Mapping Guru Pro+ events in Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Nepal, and India, and the upcoming October–November 2026 Open Mapping Guru Network recruitment cycle. You can read more details.
• Wikimedia Italia reported ► that the University of Trento, together with GFOSS.it, hosted FOSS4G-IT and OSMit 2026 from 9 to 11 July.

Maps

• Björn showcased Hoscy, a web map where users can compare prices at ad-hoc EV charging stations. Here, ‘ad-hoc charging’ means EV charging where you pay as you go without having a contract, subscription, or membership with the charging network.
• Jvaclavik announced the release of OpenClimbing 2.0, an open-source climbing guide built on OpenStreetMap and other open data. Since 2023, the OpenClimbing project has been developed alongside OsmAPP in a shared codebase, but the developers recently decided to fork it into a separate repository.
• Nicofr77 has combined OpenStreetMap cycle route data, with the official French cycle route reference, to identify bike-and-train loops between two stations, allowing people to cycle one way and return ► by train.
• Dieter Petereit reported ► that a Norwegian developer, operating under the pseudonym ‘Flightmussy_CEO’, is currently developing World Train Map, a curated atlas of notable passenger rail routes around the world, which currently showcases 1,269 railway routes.
• Renaud Zi has developed a free tool that simulates the recent solar eclipse for any location in Europe. It combines building and forest data from OSM with NASA data. It has been pointed out on the forum that a licence is missing, and that strictly speaking, the code that is available for viewing may not be freely reused.

OSM in action

• Pit Stop App is a mobile app that shows petrol stations, restaurants, accommodation, and must-see attractions at every exit ahead on America’s interstate highways. Powered by OpenStreetMap data, the app determines which interstate you’re on and the direction you’re travelling, then lists everything available at upcoming exits, sorted by the order in which you’ll reach them.

Software

• [1] Matt Whilden has developed ‘OSM Vexillophile’, a web app that helps OSM users complete all the flags on their ‘How Did You Contribute?’ page by finding MapRoulette, Osmose, or HOT Tasking Manager tasks in countries where they are still missing a flag.
• Devinius has built Knudli, a Flutter app that helps users discover playgrounds using OpenStreetMap data.

Programming

• Sarah Hoffmann announced, on the OSM Community forum, that she has lowered limits for clients to be automatically banned on overpass-api.de. She is going to ban apps completely if they receive a high number of HTTP 429 (Too many requests) or are hosted on a fast-deployment platform.
• Benjamin Altpeter has developed scripts to convert the iD editor’s presets for OpenStreetMap into JOSM presets. This lets users take advantage of JOSM’s powerful advanced features, while still benefiting from the familiar terms and aliases provided by iD presets, making it much easier to find the right preset, even if they don’t already know the correct OpenStreetMap tag.

Releases

• The team behind the OSM website are back with a recap of the latest changes. The month of July and a bit of August include an all-new notifications page, offering an alternative to the usual emails about new comments, followers, GPX uploads, notes, and diaries. Work has also be done to improve database backups, which in turn benefits the generation of weekly planet files. Moderators can now define zones with disabled anonymous notes themselves.
• Martin Raifer released OpenStreetMap iD version 2.42.0.
• Pavel Zbytovský announced the release of OsmAPP versions 1.8.0 and 1.9.0.
• Anders has announced there is a new beta version of the Mapillary app, which includes two new layers: ‘Best captures’ and ‘Captures needed’, new filters, and the option to display traffic signs and POI features on the map.

Did you know that …

• … Sybren A Stüvel recently learned about Touch Mapper? This is a web app that uses OpenStreetMap data to create printable 3D models of an area, allowing people with little or no vision to literally get a feel for the place.
• … Alex Hoferek presented the results of his research, on the profile of OSM corporate editors, at State of the Map 2024? The presentation details the characteristics of their activities, such as length of employment time and the most commonly mapped feature types, as well as the challenges these contributors faced in participating in the OSM ecosystem.
• … the ‘Sustainable Digitalisation’ community of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety, in collaboration with Wikimedia Germany and the Action Alliance for New Social Media, has published a practical guide titled ‘Free Knowledge’? Among other things, the guide introduces OpenStreetMap, and highlights various resources and ways to contribute to OSM.

OSM in the media

• In an interview with Heise, OSM contributor Bastian Greshake Tzovaras talked about how OpenStreetMap differs from commercial map providers and which niche OSM fills.
• Keith Storm explained his ‘Run Greenville Project‘, a personal project to run every road and trail in Greenville County, South Carolina, USA, using the Wandrer app, which relies on OpenStreetMap data. He shared various remarkable experiences from the project, including getting featured by a local news station, becoming involved in a dispute with locals who were not particularly fond of strangers, discovering various historical sites, being swarmed by unidentified animals that eventually led him to undergo a full series of rabies vaccinations, and even encountering traces of crime scenes.

Other “geo” things

• Nigeria’s crude oil brings prosperity, but also environmental destruction and poverty. The book Black Gold: a blessing or a curse?, by Igbanibo Kubulaemugh Divine, used satellite data and real-life examples to reveal this downside.
• Through the UN Maps Learning Hub, UN Mappers is offering a self-training platform accessible to anyone and have released a new free QGIS training course.

Upcoming Events

Country	Where	Venue	What	When
		Hochschule Rhein-Sieg	OSM auf der FrOSCon 2026 in Sankt Augustin	2026-08-15 – 2026-08-16
	Hannover	Hannover Congress Centrum	OSM auf der Maker Faire Hannover 2026	2026-08-15 – 2026-08-16
		Stadt- und Waagenmuseum Oschatz	Kartenwerkstatt Oschatz	2026-08-16
			OSM Chennai Mapping Party – Tambaram Market	2026-08-16
	Braunschweig	Stratum 0	Braunschweiger Mappertreffen im Stratum 0 Hackerspace	2026-08-18
			Missing Maps London Mid-Month for Advanced Mappers (no training provided) (Online) [eng]	2026-08-18
	Magdeburg	Netz39 e.V. , Leibnizstraße 32, 39104 Magdeburg	3. OSM Stammtisch Magdeburg	2026-08-18
	Bonn	Dotty’s	203. OSM-Stammtisch Bonn	2026-08-18
	Chemnitz	Kaffeesatz, Chemnitz	OSM-Stammtisch Chemnitz	2026-08-18
	Derby	The Brunswick, Railway Terrace, Derby	East Midlands pub meet-up	2026-08-18
		Online	Lüneburger Mappertreffen (online)	2026-08-18
	Karlsruhe	Vogelbräu Karlsruhe	Stammtisch Karlsruhe	2026-08-19
	Amsterdam	TomTom HQ	Maptime Amsterdam: 2026 Summertime Maptime	2026-08-20
	Potsdam	MachBar	Potsdamer Mappertreffen × 218. OSM-Stammtisch Berlin-Brandenburg	2026-08-21
	Stadtgebiet Bremen	Online und im Hackerspace Bremen	Bremer Mappertreffen	2026-08-24
	Berlin	Online	OSM-Verkehrswende #78	2026-08-25
	Düsseldorf	Online bei https://meet.jit.si/OSM-DUS-2026	Düsseldorfer OpenStreetMap-Treffen (online)	2026-08-26
	Würzburg	FabLab Würzburg	Würzburger OSM-Treffen	2026-08-26
	Wien	Schlupfwinkel (Kleine Neugasse 10, 1040 Wien)	79. Wiener OSM-Stammtisch	2026-08-26
			OpenStreetMap West Bengal Mapping Party + AnkushTheHero Day	2026-08-27
		Cité Descartes	State of the Map 2026	2026-08-28 – 2026-08-30
	Essen	Verkehrs- und Umweltzentrum	Essen OSM-Treffen	2026-08-28
	Hannover	Kuriosum	OSM-Stammtisch Hannover	2026-08-31
	Hannover	Kuriosum	OSM-Stammtisch Hannover	2026-08-31
	Heidelberg	DEZERNAT#16	Rhein-Neckar OSM Treffen	2026-08-31

Note:
If you like to see your event here, please put it into the OSM calendar. Only data which is there, will appear in weeklyOSM.

This weeklyOSM was produced by MarcoR, MatthiasMatthias, Nakaner, Raquel Dezidério Souto, Strubbl, Ted Johnson, Andrew Davidson, barefootstache, derFred.
We welcome link suggestions for the next issue via this form and look forward to your contributions.

New flock alprs are appearing in neighborhoods near where I go to college. This is scary, do your part.

• ᵈⁱˢᵗᵃⁿᶜᵉᵈ

I’m undergoing the learning path “Open Mapping Essentials” on HOT´s learning centre. In the process I have contributed by mapping local businesses and housing buildings in Managua. I also added a few rural roads in the Esteli area. All my changes are based on local knowledge of the areas. I am looking forward to contributing to the OSM and HOT communities.

Hi guys.

I would like to emphasize the benefit that the micromapping of certain features can contribute to unhoused communities. Of course, there still needs to be more awareness of OSM within these communities, but the data being there is great for the future and making the map more useful.

Tagging if the seats on benches are separated or not allows people to know where they are able to lay down and thus sleep if they don’t have access to other places to sleep. The tag seats:separated=yes/no is used for this purpose. Ive been adding this to every bench I map. Tagging benches that are not separated is just as important as tagging benches that are.

Drinking water is needed for all humans to live. Knowing where the nearest water fountain is, or the nearest convenience store that will let you fill up a water bottle from their fountain drink dispensers, can be super useful and help when times are tough. Consider looking out for drinking fountains at parks and other public places.

Hope you got something from this, happy mapping and I hope you have a nice day.

On August 12th, 2025, I made my first edit to OpenStreetMap. It has now been exactly one year since I began editing. Here are some of the coolest things I’ve done in my relatively small amount of time spent on this hobby:

• 3,095 changesets

• 226486 contributions

• Added a “surface=” tag to every primary road, trunk road, and motorway in Virginia

• Made changes in 64 countries

• Procrastinated mountains of homework

It felt like this year went by so fast. I still remember the moment I discovered OpenStreetMap and how I got instantly addicted.

I hope to be an active contributor for years to come and meet tons of mappy people like me!