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IRC is realtime chat. It's one of several contact channels used by the OpenStreetMap community. Realtime chat can be a great way to ask a quick question about mapping, or about some more technical matter, or just get to know some fellow OpenStreetMap enthusiasts.

#osm on oftc.net

The main OpenStreetMap channel is irc://irc.oftc.net #osm other chat rooms are listed below, but #osm is fine for most purposes, and has the most people on it.

How to use IRC

You can chat on the web at http://irc.openstreetmap.org. Simply pick yourself a nickname (no spaces) and click 'Login'. It can take a few seconds to login. You should see some mess with a '***' prefix. Wait a few more seconds to see if you're interrupting any conversation, and then type in the box at the bottom. Try saying 'Hello'!

There are other systems for using IRC on the web such as Mibbit but many people prefer to use desktop IRC client software (comparison at Wikipedia) You will need to input 'irc.oftc.net' as the IRC server, and '#osm' as the channel. IRC communicates over a special port number which may be blocked by your office firewall.

If you want to establish a connection with SSL, use Port 6697.

Other chat rooms

In addition to #osm, we have the following IRC chat rooms:

• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-dev : More technical, developer chat
• irc://irc.oftc.net #hot : Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team chat
• irc://irc.oftc.net #josm : JOSM chat
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-au : Australian OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-ar : Argentina OSM channel
• irc://irc.tut.by #osm : Belarussian OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-be : Belgian OSM channel
• irc://irc.freenode.net #osm-ba : Bosnian and Herzegovinian OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-br : Brazilian OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-gb : British OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-ca : Canadian OSM channel
• irc://irc.freenode.org #osm-hr : Croatian OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-dk : Danish OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-nl : Dutch OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-fi : Finnish OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-fr : French OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-de : German OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-hu : Hungarian OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-ie : Irish OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-il : Israeli OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-it : Italian OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-ja : Japanese OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-lo : Lao OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-lt : Lithuanian OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-lv : Latvian OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-ni : Nicaraguan OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-pe : Peruvian OSM
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-pl : Polish OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-pt : Portuguese OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-ru : Russian OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-rs : Serbian OSM channel
• irc://irc.ircnet.com #freemap.sk : Slovak OSM/Freemap Slovakia channel (Use Jabber/GTalk conference room)
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-es : Spanish OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm.se : Swedish OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-ch : Swiss OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-tr : Turkish OSM channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-us : American (United States of America) channel
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-ve : Venezuela OSM channel
• irc://irc.freenode.org #openstreetmap : Another english one
• irc://irc.oftc.net #geo : More general GIS chit-chat
• irc://irc.oftc.net #osm-nominatim : Nominatim specific chat / support