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A community-led fork of Organic Maps

comaps.app

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Re: A community-led fork of Organic Maps

#61

Post by evolve2k »

A few people are talking about multiple issues in the open mapping space.

Today (bear with me), I was looking at a tool called SwiftWave it lets you run your own Platform as a Service. The only reason I mention it is that I found interesting how they’ve really broken the problem domain into a series of smaller open source projects.

https://swiftwave.org/docs/contribution_guideline

I’d love some folk riffing on how this may help, surely nice interfaces for cycling vs driving vs public transport don’t need to be reinvented across projects. How can diff apps work as an ecosystem to allow the brining together of more sophisticated apps that mirror the feature set of the large funded maps apps?

Re: A community-led fork of Organic Maps

#62

Post by palata »

bondarchuk wrote: post #22
sam_lowry_ wrote: post #13

Why do people contribute to Organic Maps and not to OSM? I always assumed that Organic Maps was a sophisticated way to distribute OSM data, nothing more.

You cannot use OSM by itself for gps navigation on your phone, right?

OSM is the database containing all the data. Navigation is not exactly "data" that is stored in a database, it's the result of computing a path between two locations based on the data stored in OSM.

Maybe a comparison would be this: if you want to hike somewhere the "old school" way, with a compass and a paper map. You will buy a paper map made by someone else, you will localise yourself on this map, and then you will trace a path between where you are and where you want to go. As you hike, you will update your location on the map (by using e.g. your compass) and choose your next steps accordingly.

In this example, the paper map is not doing any navigation. It doesn't know what GPS is, it doesn't have a compass. It's just map data printed on paper. You are the one making the navigation, right?

- OSM is the paper map.

- Organic Maps, or OSMAnd, or whatever app you use as a frontend to OSM is "the navigator" (you).

Does that help?

Re: A community-led fork of Organic Maps

#63

Post by kmarc »

shafyy wrote: post #57
saubeidl wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think is the biggest UX issue with maps.me/organic maps/comaps/whatever?

Not an UX thing, but I find myself going back to Google Maps to find restaurants, reviews and reliable opening hours all the time. Neither Apple Maps nor Organic Maps offers the same level of quality (not to say that Google Maps reviews can be problematic in themselves).

The OsmAnd guys tried launching OpenPlaceReviews.

https://2019.stateofthemap.org/sessions/LBGPCD/

Unfortunately it didn't take off, was discountinued in 2023.

https://github.com/OpenPlaceReviews

Re: A community-led fork of Organic Maps

#64

Post by palata »

throw738384 wrote: post #46

I would add a few points: * Organic Maps devs are from Belarus, company is registered in Estonia. This is very difficult setup already, and I can imagine authors just want simplest setup possible. Perhaps they do not want to waste energy on nonprofit that is very very difficult and expensive to do internationally! * If they sell the company so what? Create another fork and move on. It is opensource, but that does not…

> If they sell the company so what? Create another fork and move on. It is opensource, but that does not mean authors can not get some money!

Sure, but I think this is what's happening now. Not because they are selling the company, but apparently one issue is that nobody in the community knows where the donations are going.

They (CoMaps) complain about transparency regarding finances. I believe this would be a good reason to fork.

Re: A community-led fork of Organic Maps

#65

Post by boramalper »

saubeidl wrote: post #28

Again? Wasn't the whole thing about Organic Maps to be a community-led fork of maps.me? So now we're at a fork of a fork?

> So now we're at a fork of a fork?

This history is full of such "forks of forks" (whatever you're trying to imply with that):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Unix#/media/File:Un...

Re: A community-led fork of Organic Maps

#66

Post by mongol »

kmarc wrote: post #32

Sad to see the current state of mobile OSM-based apps. Maps.me becoming OrganicMaps, now this. Lot of development effort, great work going into it, but somehow, after years, the apps don't feel more user-friendly. I was pushing hard to replace Google Maps, but eventually, I gave up. OsmAnd is great if you need that "swiss army knife of OSM apps" on your phone, but I rarely do. Same with Maps.me/Organic Maps, try to s…

For Android, I have used Locus Maps for many years. It has a somewhat confusing, but very powerful, interface. And I feel the team behind it is committed and engaged. Very worthwhile to try if you haven't.

Re: A community-led fork of Organic Maps

#67

Post by palata »

whorleater wrote: post #29

A fork of a fork I guess, Organic Maps was originally `maps.me`, and I suppose we're forking it again

Yep... but I don't see it as a problem. Maybe CoMaps become the new thing, maybe Organic Maps changes and stays...

The very fact that a fork can be made is good for the users. It doesn't mean that users have to follow the latest fork, though.

Re: A community-led fork of Organic Maps

#68

Post by jacekm »

medfield wrote: post #40
kmarc wrote: post #32

Sad to see the current state of mobile OSM-based apps. Maps.me becoming OrganicMaps, now this. Lot of development effort, great work going into it, but somehow, after years, the apps don't feel more user-friendly. I was pushing hard to replace Google Maps, but eventually, I gave up. OsmAnd is great if you need that "swiss army knife of OSM apps" on your phone, but I rarely do. Same with Maps.me/Organic Maps, try to s…

Agreed. I use organic maps for hiking, because its just simple offline trail mapping. I want a mapping program in my car to easily be offline, have map overlays that are easy to read like more pronounced lane/route arrows and can re route if there is a road shut down or a backup on the expressway and I go to get off. But my biggest gripe with using organic maps with driving is its search function. I couldnt care if i…

> map overlays that are easy to read like more pronounced lane/route arrows

Try Magic Earth https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.generalmag...

Re: A community-led fork of Organic Maps

#69

Post by yread »

kmarc wrote: post #32

Sad to see the current state of mobile OSM-based apps. Maps.me becoming OrganicMaps, now this. Lot of development effort, great work going into it, but somehow, after years, the apps don't feel more user-friendly. I was pushing hard to replace Google Maps, but eventually, I gave up. OsmAnd is great if you need that "swiss army knife of OSM apps" on your phone, but I rarely do. Same with Maps.me/Organic Maps, try to s…

> I am trying to switch to Mapy.com (Mapy.cz before), it's a surprisingly user friendly app, however, not sure how they are going to monetize soon

They now sell premium. Presumably some features (offline maps? or offline navigation? suggest a hike?) will be locked behind premium :-/ They do have great UX though

Re: A community-led fork of Organic Maps

#70

Post by onnimonni »

kmarc wrote: post #32

Sad to see the current state of mobile OSM-based apps. Maps.me becoming OrganicMaps, now this. Lot of development effort, great work going into it, but somehow, after years, the apps don't feel more user-friendly. I was pushing hard to replace Google Maps, but eventually, I gave up. OsmAnd is great if you need that "swiss army knife of OSM apps" on your phone, but I rarely do. Same with Maps.me/Organic Maps, try to s…

Wow, thanks for mentioning https://streetcomplete.app! This looks very intuitive to use for edits on openstreetmaps.

Would someone here know a similiar tool for iOS or MacOS? Or any recommendations to edit roads.

We are currently driving with a 4.5 tonne motorhome in Europe and the road weight and height limits are usually marked properly in osmand+ but when they are not we waste multiple hours rerouting in the alps and I would really want to help the next person in similar situation.

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