Matrix
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Quick start
Note for members of OSGeo and some universities in Austria and Germany: your institution has a Matrix server (OSGeo example) where you can log in and join the OSM chats.
- Join the
OpenStreetMap space and browse the room list. Your community may have many rooms, bridged to different networks. - Other rooms are on IRC (OFTC) at this list:
- Open the link and adapt the room name
#osmaccordingly. #_oftc_#osm:matrix.org - Replying to a message, or editing your own message, looks ugly to the IRC users. Just mention the user name, rather than clicking
Reply. - IRC has no concept of deleting a message.
- (optional) If you need advanced usage of IRC, such as changing the nickname, see here.
- Open the link and adapt the room name
Optional tips:
- Clicking Join on the OpenStreetMap space will group together all OSM-related community chats and private chats under a single button (most chat apps have a collapsible panel at the left).
- Create new spaces (private to you, private to your team, public) to organize group chats and direct messages.
- Create private chats with yourself to follow the QA or forum RSS feeds (see below) or to take personal notes.
- Private chats between users are not possible across most bridges, for example Telegram.
Support and questions:
- Telegram and Discord bridge's live status (planned downtime, ...)
- OSM-on-Matrix discussion (who can host a mjölnir specifically for the OSM space?)
- The generic Matrix support room.
Usage and setup
You can skip reading this section and go to the chat list below.
Client choice
Matrix is a decentralized communication protocol (a generic publish-subscribe HTTPS REST API, whose message format is JSON), which also serves as the common language of the largest federation of chat servers in the world. A bridge bot is still required for a small number of large, vendor lock-in-suffering chat networks, until Europe's Digital Markets Act forces them to expose interoperable APIs, following the principle that technological diversity fosters a healthy ecosystem, but lack of interoperability fragments the community and hampers market competition and end product quality.
You can live without installation, just follow the room links in your web browser. For maximum comfort, you can optionally install any client from the list.
- Like OSM editors, there are a few very famous clients and a lot of minor clients, but there is no "best client" and it's common in the Matrix world to log into 3+ clients for the fun of trying.
- Like OSM editors, what's difficult, bugged, or missing in a client may be the strong point of another client. Clients are interoperable: they use different techniques under the hood to perform the exact same user-visible tasks.
- Features of common usage that are not yet perfect on all the mainstream clients:
- Spaces have a good UI in Element Web and Element Android (i.e. the reference implementations by the people who make Matrix) and in SchildiChat. FluffyChat has little and ugly support for spaces.
- Selecting more than one message at the same time, to copy-paste into your personal notes: currently supported by Element Web and FluffyChat.
- Searching past messages: currently requires to be online in Element Android, Element Web, SchildiChat.
- Threads: currently requires to be online in Element Android, Element Web, SchildiChat; FluffyChat shows them also when offline, but as normal replies.
Bots
- To subscribe the QA RSS feeds, use Element's Integration manager's RSS bot (instructions here). Group chats are supported. For QA feeds of personal/limited use (for example, the recent edits in your neighbourhood) you can make a private chat with yourself and add the integration bot to this chat. Another example is following
- You can follow topics and replies from a category in the Discourse forum
community.openstreetmap.orgwith the same technique as for any RSS feed, or with a custom bot (like OSM FR).
Making a bridge
Slack, Telegram and other semi-closed networks need explicit action by an admin of the Matrix chatroom and an admin of the non-Matrix chatroom. A bot joins both rooms and copy-pastes the messages. For instructions, contact valor naram.
Chat list
General chats
Chats possibly focusing on some topics of global (non-regional) interest.
| Chat | Interest | Chat Name | Description / websites |
|---|---|---|---|
| #_oftc_#osm:matrix.org
|
International | World Chat Group | IRC world channel, also available at irc.oftc.net #osm |
| #osm-space:matrix.org
|
International | OpenStreetMap space | OSM public space, partial listing of all Matrix-related OSM Matrix stuff. |
| #osmcommunity:matrix.org
|
International | Local Chapters & Communities Working Group public chat | Bridged to IRC and Telegram. osmf:Local Chapters and Communities Working Group |
| #osm-cultural:matrix.org
|
Cultural spheres | OSM Cultural Spheres Group | This group is for discussing and considering cultural similarities and differences in contributing to OSM maps and wiki.(And for OSM contributors with limited English proficiency) Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @OSM_cultural. |
| #osmworld_off-topic:matrix.org
|
off topic | OSM Off-topic | For discussion of stuff unrelated to OSM, because talking about OSM in an OSM server is overrated. Part of the #osmworld:matrix.org space. Bridged to the OSM World Discord server. |
| #openmapping-humanitarian:matrix.org
|
International | HOT OSM Humanitarian Open Mapping space | Wiki |
| #osmvegan:matrix.org
|
Veganism | OSM Vegan | Coordinated effort to map places that offer plant-based options in OpenStreetMap. Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @osmvegan. |
| #osm-infrastructure:matrix.org
|
Infrastructure | OSM Infrastructure | Infrastructure mapping (power, telecoms, etc). Bridged to irc.oftc.net #osm-infrastructure. |
Chats for certain applications or services
Such as web applications, certain mapping providers etc.
| Chat | Interest | Topic | Description / websites |
|---|---|---|---|
| #comaps:matrix.org
|
International | CoMaps English chat | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @CoMaps_EN. |
| #comaps-DE:matrix.org
|
International | CoMaps German chat | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @CoMaps_DE. |
| #_oftc_#josm:matrix.org
|
International | JOSM | Official support, bridged to IRC. |
| #osmworld_josm:matrix.org
|
International | JOSM | Bridged to Discord. |
| #MapComplete:matrix.org
|
International | MapComplete | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @mapcomplete. |
| #organicmaps:matrix.org
|
International | Organic Maps | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @OrganicMaps. |
| #osmand-space:tchncs.de
|
International | OsmAnd | Unofficial space bridged to Telegram groups. |
| #osm-osmose:matrix.org
|
International | Osmose | Official chat with the maintainers. |
| #osmworld_overpass:matrix.org
|
International | Overpass | Bridged to Discord. |
| #panoramax-space:matrix.org
|
International | Panoramax general talk | Official Panoramax project chat, an open-source and federated street-level mapping tool. The French room is bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @panoramax_fr. |
| #umap:matrix.org
|
International | uMap (new room) | |
| #umap-project_umap:gitter.im
|
International | uMap (old room, still operational) |
Local community chats by continent / country
This is a partial list - please add channels as you find them.
You can also find these channels using the Belgian rendering of the OSM Community Index.
Africa
| Link to chat | Country | City | Chat | Description | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #osmafrica:matrix.org
|
Africa | Africa | Bridged to Slack and Error creating thumbnail: @OSMAfrica. |
America
| Link to chat | Country | City | Chat | Description | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #osm-latam:matrix.org
|
Latin America | OSM Latin America | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @OSMLatam. | ||
| #osm-ar:matrix.org
|
 Argentina
|
OpenStreetMapAR | |||
| #osmbo:matrix.org
|
 Bolivia
|
OpenStreetMap Bolivia | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @osmbolivia. | ||
| #osm-ca-space:matrix.org
|
Error creating thumbnail: Canada | OpenStreetMap Canada | |||
| #osm-cl:matrix.org
|
Error creating thumbnail: Chile | OpenStreetMap Chile | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @OSMcl. | ||
| #OSM-Mexico:matrix.org
|
 Mexico
|
OpenStreetMap Mexico | |||
| #mapanica:matrix.org
|
 Nicaragua
|
MapaNica | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @MapaNica. | ||
| #osmpe:matrix.org
|
Error creating thumbnail: Peru | OpenStreetMap Perú | |||
| #osmus:matrix.org
|
File:Flag of USA.svg United States | OpenStreetMap US |
Asia
| Link to chat | Country | City | Chat | Description | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #_oftc_#osm-asia:matrix.org
|
Asia | OSM Asia | IRC channel, also reachable at irc.oftc.net #osm-asia. Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @OpenStreetMapAsia. | ||
| #osmworld_asia:matrix.org
|
Asia | OSM Asia | Bridged to Discord. | ||
| #osm-in-general:matrix.org
|
 India
|
OSM India | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @OSMIndia. | ||
| #osm-kerala:matrix.org
|
India
|
Kerala | OSM Kerala | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @osmkerala. | |
| #OSM_BLR:matrix.org
|
India
|
Bengaluru | OpenStreetMap Bengaluru | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @OSM_BLR. | |
| #OSMPunjab:matrix.org
|
India
|
Punjab | OpenStreetMap Punjab | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @OSMPunjab. | |
| #OpenstreetmapMalaysia:matrix.org
|
Error creating thumbnail: Malaysia | Openstreetmap Malaysia | |||
| #OSM_Korea:matrix.org
|
 South KoreaError creating thumbnail: North Korea |
Openstreetmap Korea | Bridged to Error creating thumbnail: @osmKorea. |
Europe
Oceania
| Link to chat | Country | City | Chat | Description | Website |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #osmworld_oceania:matrix.org
|
Error creating thumbnail: Australia | OSM Oceania | Bridged to Discord. | https://osgeo-oceania.org/ |
Bridges to other networks
This is a partial list - please add channels as you find them.
| #osmworld:matrix.org
|
International | OpenStreetMap World | The chats on the Discord server "OSM World" are bridged to the Matrix chats found in this space. |