WikiProject Belgium/Beginner

Welcome new mapper! Happy to see you starting to map. This page aims to show you around a bit and point you in the right direction.

Mapping is a journey, and all of us mappers still learn every day. OpenStreetMap is a project where things flow and change, where we have incredibly detailed data models for toilets - but are still discussing how best to map forests. There is no one manual, we can only give some pointers.

People

There's a lively community of Belgian mappers out there, and they are very happy to help! See who has been working on your neighborhood (warning: might take a while to load) in the last weeks, or which mappers live close to you (note: filter for very active mappers to increase the likelyhood of finding people who are still active).

Find someone local? Just send them a message to say hi. You can contact any mapper through their profile page on the OpenStreetMap.org website. On your end: make sure your account is associated with an e-mail address you actively monitor.

For Belgian communication channels, have a look at the Communication channels on the wiki or on OSM.be.

Surveying

Going out to collect data is the gold standard of OpenStreetMap. Here are some tools many of us use to collect data. Some of them are for real data collection, other more for just a quick edit on the go.

• OsmAnd: an allround app (navigation for walking, cycling, driving) that also has many OSM editing functions (making a GPS track, creating Notes, adding/editing points of interest)
• StreetComplete: an app that makes improving OSM like a game. It will always offer you some challenges, wherever you are
• OSMTracker (Android): a data collection app to make personal notes for use later
• MapComplete: an app with many themes (e.g. toilets, restaurants, charging stations). It helps you filter those that you need, and will ask you questions to add more detail. You can add new objects and add pictures
• Field_Papers: yep, pen and paper maps! Print them out, make notes, scan them and use them as a mapping layer!
• Mapillary: make your own "Google Street View" as open data, and use it to map all the details in your town
• EveryDoor: Android and iOS app that lets you create and edit objects

Learn to map

These pages attempt to guide your learning process.

• Beginners' guide Nederlandstalig / Francophone / Deutschsprachig / English.
• Learn OpenStreetMap Step by Step with LearnOSM
• How to map an object Nederlandstalig / Deutschsprachig / Francophone

Some core tips for when you're using the web editor on OpenStreetMap.org:

• Just click "Edit" to start editing
• By default, you get the best aerial imagery as a background layer. On the right hand side, there is a Layer button (press "B"). Here you willfind older imagery, official maps (GRB, PICC, ideal for street names, building footprints, etc.) and other maps. The best edits combine what you saw yourself with imagery and official maps.
• You will get warnings about errors when you save an edit. These can include warnings about things you didn't touch yourself. If you're not sure, ignore them. To see the errors that you made yourself, cancel the upload and press "I" to see them. More info here.
• Don't save changes for every single change, but also don't make very big changesets. When you do upload your changes, make a Good changeset comment.
• How to choose what type of object something is? Select the object, and click on the description top left. You can then use the search to find a suggestion. Click on the i for more info, and click on the link for more details on the wiki. Use that wiki for more research for more exact descriptions of an object. The wiki describes "tags", the list of descriptors of an object you can see at the very bottom of the left side pane when you select an object. To find things in the wiki, it can be useful to use your favorite search engine and simply type "osm wiki description of what you want to map"

Beginner's tips

New mappers make mistakes, and that's OK. We'd like to point a few things though, as we've seen many new mappers make the same mistake. As a golden rule: take your time to learn new things, and never assume you already know everything there is to know!

Mapping buildings

• Try to draw the shape of the building as it touches the ground (not the roof). Switch the background map to GRB / URBIS / PICC to see the building outlines on the ground. Both imagery and the map might be slightly outdated.
• If there's only one address in a building, or all the addresses belong to the same entrance, add the address to the building. Always add the street name, but it is usually *not* needed to add postal code and almost never to add the city.
• If you want to help add ALL OF THE buildings, consider joining the import efforts.

Roads

• Roads are represented as a line in the middle of the road. Only if there are physical separators, do we map more than one line.
• If you add cycleways, it's usually easiest to add them as properties of the road itself (nice examples). Only separate cycleways can be added as a new line. If you do that, don't forget to check if the road doesn't have cycleway tags. A nice map showing all the cycle path related data is CyclOSM.
• If you do add separate cycleways:
  • Make sure that cycleways are always connected to intersecting roads and also to side streets on the other side of the road.
  • Check that they weren't already mapped on the road itself.
  • Add bicycle=use_sidepath to the main road if it's an obligatory cycleway.
• Be careful not to disrupt relations (bus route, cycling routes, etc.).
• Road classification. Don't start to do major cleanup of road classifications without discussing first. Definitely have a look at WikiProject_Belgium/Conventions/Highways.

What connects to what

Only connect objects that relate to each other.

• Roads should always connect to the roads you can reach at the end. An unconnected sidewalk is unusable for all!
• Connect areas only to other areas. E.g. the outline of a field should not be connected to the line of the road
• Underground objects should not be connected to unrelated overground objects.
• Avoid connecting objects to boundaries