Organizing OpenStreetMap mapping parties

Compare with Google who use their monopoly position to keep amassing data which they keep for themselves. Imagine all the effort that's gone into working for Google for free that could have been put into OSM. If you work on tools for allowing people to do that you should be ashamed.

On a different note it's funny to think back to the start of OSM. It was created in the UK because all the data from our beloved national mapping department, all paid for by us, the public, of course, was not available for use in any way by emerging digital technology like GPS etc. After waiting for too long people decided we'll just build our own. Now we have one of the richest datasets in existence and it's free. There's still a ton of stuff locked up in Ordnance Survey, though, and can't be released because reasons.

It's also fun to think how much fun OSM was back then. We were literally walking round neighbourhoods collecting GPS data in completely blank parts of the map. Satellite imagery came later but can't help thinking it's a way things becoming "better" made them less fun.

Also:

> It's easy to pick a proprietary network like Telegram or an unsustainable one like Matrix,

What's unsustainable about Matrix? I've really enjoyed running our community on Matrix.

In Toronto I only see a very small number of people contributing to OSM's cycling infrastructure, which results in the map not as up-to-date, which in turn means that the aforementioned apps will not propose routes through the nicest, most recently built bicycle tracks we have in the city. The situation is not terrible by any means, but it could be better.