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Google updates maps to show Lake America in the U.S. — but Canadians are now seeing it, too (www.cbc.ca)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/boycottus@lemmy.ca
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Some Canadian websites, including for the federal government, displayed maps with Lake Ontario renamed as Lake America on Sunday, a day after Google Maps announced the change to align with an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump.

This is why we need to use more open source stuff not tied to a closed US company like; Apple, Google, Microslop, Twitter, Meta, and whatever else.

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[–] 24 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (12 children)

https://www.openstreetmap.org/

Been using OSM for several years and contributing for a few years too. I hope this convinces some Canadians to ditch GMaps. The one thing it suffers most from is the network effect. In a small to medium-size town, one person alone joining and contributing can have a huge effect on usability. And in major cities, they help make sure information stays timely.

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  • [–] 21 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (11 children)

    I usually direct people to Comaps, because I find it simple and very close to the mobile Google maps experience. Most people won't need to understand how OpenStreetMaps works in order to use it

    https://www.comaps.app/

    But there are a lot of other apps that display the same data. Feel free to ask for more recommendations :)

    There's a good discussion below about another app OSMand

    (this comment was edited, original below for context)

    Comaps specifically, since people will get confused if directed to the OSM project as a whole

    https://www.comaps.app/

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  • [–] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (7 children)

    I think that's way too reductionist and presumptive. Not only do other solid applications exist to use OSM, but I'd even say that a lot of users won't like CoMaps for how barebones it is (I'm one of those users).

    Users might like more features like in OsmAnd, they might like specialty features in apps like Alpi Maps, they might like the OpenStreetMap web UI, and I think it's patronizing to decide for them that "people will get confused" and railroad them for that presumption. It also outright assumes someone wants to use it specifically on their phone. Edit: TIL CoMaps has a desktop version for macOS and Linux (Flathub).

    If nothing else, I'd link to the OpenStreetMap Wiki, specifically their using OpenStreetMap guide and the 'Software' page.

    I appreciate what you're saying, but I think saying "actually, just use CoMaps" isn't a good general way to go about introducing people to OSM.

    Edit: But to hopefully alleviate some common confusion: OpenStreetMap is just the database. It's key–value pairs that get applied to points, lines, areas, and relations between those objects. The key–value pairs get decided on by community consensus. That's all OpenStreetMap actually is.

    Everything else is using that underlying database. So the map you see on OpenStreetMap.org is a map called "Carto". The editor on the website is called "iD". CoMaps is an app for iOS/Android that takes that data, renders it, and periodically sends you an offline map. StreetComplete is a gamified Android app that lets you do little "quests" to fill in gaps in the data. So on and so forth. Anything where you're visualizing or changing that underlying data is just a frontend for OpenStreetMap.

    Which frontend best suits your needs (navigation, editing, etc.) is up to you.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (5 children)

    I've edited the last sentence in my original comment to better highlight that there's a lot more out there.

    I've found that frontloading a newcomer with lots of information, whether it's OSM, the fediverse, or a similar technical topic that we are passionate about, ends up scaring away a lot of people. They'll click on the link, scroll around, then move on to the next thing.

    The reason why I suggest Comaps is because it felt the most similar to mobile Google Maps, which is what the majority of people are using.

    Then once they actually try it and use the app once, they're more likely to stick around and learn more about OSM. + They'll know what they want when they ask for recommendations.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

    The reason why I suggest Comaps is because it felt the most similar to mobile Google Maps, which is what the majority of people are using.

    I figured that, but I think advertising CoMaps as effectively the "de facto" OSM experience by railroading someone into that could do more harm than good. When I started using OpenStreetMap, my understanding was that it's a map that I could choose how to use. So when I didn't like Organic Maps (at the time), I could just try another app (and eventually landed on OsmAnd on mobile and the Carto web UI on desktop).

    If I'd just started with CoMaps with the understanding that it's "the" OSM experience, I would've thought "Oh, so it's low-rent Google Maps". The lack of features is what would make some people prefer it over Google Maps, but I don't think that's everyone or even most people. A deal breaker for a lot of people, for example, would be lack of aerial imagery, which OsmAnd allows you to use via a third-party. (I like the Carto UI enough now that I don't use aerial imagery, but back in the day, I literally never would've used a maps app without imagery tiles.)

    I think something like "I use CoMaps and really like it because of its simplicity, but there are a lot of other applications if that's not what you're looking for" might be good. Whenever I'm telling someone about OSM, I tell them I use OsmAnd because I like how feature-rich it is (and link to a good tutorial), but I also mention CoMaps because it's a more streamlined experience and note that there are other good applications depending on what they're looking for.

    Notably, a mirror of this happened to me when I learned as a confused Windows user that Linux was just Ubuntu. Tried Ubuntu, hated it, and gave up on Linux for probably 5 years because it felt like I was using a low-rent macOS. Came back and fell in love with KDE Plasma.

    TL;DR: I understand decision paralysis, but I don't think showing someone a couple of options is problematic.

    Edit: That said, I do think CoMaps should come up in any discussion with new users, so I agree with you on that.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Just checked out OsmAnd and managed to blow through the "free" downloads just downloading the maps local to me before even learning that it limits how much we can download of the free community data before charging... It's a bit off-putting that they're charging for open source data, unless I'm missing something...

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)

    Just checked out OsmAnd and managed to blow through the “free” downloads just downloading the maps local to me

    On the Play Store version, you're able to download seven offline maps, where a map is either (your choice) a country or a state/province/etc. (some smaller countries don't have the state/province/etc. level and just give you the whole country). I haven't pushed it, but I think you should be able to have seven countries(?) available for offline view (maybe the world map counts as one, so six?).

    It’s a bit off-putting that they’re charging for open source data, unless I’m missing something…

    OsmAnd is a BV (besloten vennootschap, effectively an LLC), so similar to something like ProtonMail, there's a "Start" (free) tier, a "Maps+" one, and a "Pro" one, where both paid tiers unlock unlimited offline map downloads. (You're able to use online maps as much as you want.)

    The maps are stored on and downloaded from OsmAnd's site in a .obf file, which is OsmAnd's own format. So they're essentially charging for open-source data that they've converted and are hosting as a way of incentivizing users out of the free tier, which as far as businesses go, I see no real problem with. They're making that open-source data more accessible with a powerful app and making features that encourage people to contribute back to it, not parasitizing it.

    OsmAnd, to my understanding, is well-liked among OSM's contributors for having a great app and a healthy business model.

    Anyway, with that out of the way, the "Maps+" and "Pro" features are free on F-Droid. It is, after all, free and open-source.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    I'll have to check it out on fdroid then

    The free downloads, BTW, isn't even enough to cover my entire state (California), but it's a pretty big damned state.

    It's still a little off-putting to me that they are charging for freely available data from someone else, but if part of that is their processing and formatting of the data, then I guess that's not quite as bad

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Thank you for the long write up about open street maps. I keep putting off figuring out how to use it because I don't know where to start and it doesn't work like I expect so hopefully this will help me get started

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    It would be nice if comaps had a web version like google maps. The osm site doesn't show a lot of stuff by default, like info from businesses

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  • [–] 3 points 2 months ago

    That's true, I wonder how difficult it would be. There are desktop apps for MacOS and Linux, but it's more friction to force people to download something

    Startpage has maps, but they're pretty bad. Duckduckgo uses Apple Maps, which are alright. I'd love to have CoMaps on there

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