On Mon, Jul 5, 2010 at 6:53 AM, Bob Maloney <[email protected]> wrote:
> I am a complete novice at this so please bearwith me. We don't like newbies here... oh wait, maybe we do! Welcome to OSM! > I noticed that in the OSM map (and cycle map) for Harriman Park in New York > State that all of a lake is missing! I can provide the lake data as a GPX > file, an OZIEXPLORER *.plt file or perhaps in a shape file to wherever or > whoever updates the maps. You've come to the right place... let me introduce you to the guy that updates the map. Bob, this is Bob. OSM is a community based map. It is crowd sourced, and you can be part of the crowd. If you have gathered the GPX file information yourself (by walking the lake shoreline), you can upload that data to the database right now. Once it is in the database, you can turn that GPX file into a way, and tag it as a lake. Within minutes, the lake will appear on the tiles for the area. The biggest thing about OSM is that all of the data entered needs to be open source. If you have that lake outline copied from another source that has restrictions such as a copyright, then that information can't be included in the OSM data. OSM maps need to be free and clear of encumberances. > To whom and how do I submit this data to get the map corrected. The easiest way to start in my opinion is to go to the www.openstreetmap.org website, and create a user account. Once you have the account set up, click on the GPS Traces tab. Then click on the link at the top of the page that says See just your traces, or upload a trace. Upload your GPX file. After a few seconds, your GPX file will be available. Click the edit link, and you will be fired into the Potlatch editor. You can choose edit live or edit with save. Probably choose the edit with save option for now. Also click the box that says Convert GPX tracks to ways. This will take that GPX track,and turn it into a way (thick red line). If your GPX track is good quality, you should get a nice outline of the lake. If it needs to be cleaned up, you can do that with a little pointing and clicking. You'll need to join the start and end of the way that defines the lake so it will become an enclosed area. Add tags that tell it the area is a lake (natural:water). Add a tag for the name too if you know it. (name:This Lake) Once you get that done, unlock the way, and upload your changes. It might sound a little complicated, but it really isn't all that hard. If you play with edit with save enabled, you can muck around and not break anything. The data only gets entered into the database when you save. If you edit live, any changes made happen in the database immediately. Don't be worried if you muck things up be accident. If something goes wrong, and you don't know how to fix it, come back here and put out a "HELP!!" message. We can undo what you mucked up if need be. OSM is about getting more people involved, and newbies can always make mistakes. That's acceptable as long as you learn and continue to play. BTW, once in the editor, you might notice that there are background images available. If there are things you see on the image that should be on the map, feel free to trace them out. Yahoo images are free to trace according to the restrictions. Don't copy from other images unless the copyright restrictions are met. Give it a go, and welcome to the community. James VE6SRV _______________________________________________ newbies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/newbies
