Anthony J. Bentley writes:
Hi all,
Here's a subject near to my heart: open source maps (and other big data projects).
Mine too! I spend a lot of time fiddling with map data, partly for my own interest and partly as part of a group compiling trail maps for the Los Alamos area.
- Edit OpenStreetMap! https://www.openstreetmap.org/
I second that suggestion! The cool thing about OpenStreetMap is that it can actually be more accurate than Google and the various proprietary navigation systems: they all import their initial road data from the same (buggy) source, but with OSM, locals can fix the errors. Google does an amazing job of sending their StreetView people down streets, but they can't match local knowledge and crowdsourcing for trails and dirt roads.
Maps.me: offline Android maps OSMAnd: offline Android maps (free on F-droid)
I haven't used Maps.me, but OSMAnd is excellent and I use it all the time, especially for recording my tracks and waypoints while hiking. Then I upload my tracks to my computer when I get home (as GPX files) and view them with a Python mapping program I wrote, PyTopo, http://shallowsky.com/software/topo/ (mentioned since I don't know of any other Linux program that solves the same problem, displaying tiled maps and track files). Editing track logs is still a problem, though, and a weak point on Linux. There's a program called Viking but I've found it too crashy to be usable, so I've ended up using Google Earth to edit track logs when I can't just edit the GPX file directly. I wish there was a better open source track editor for local files, where it's not something you can just put in OSM and use JOSM or something.
Mapbox: create hosted maps to embed in your website
A more free alternative is the opensource JS library Leaflet, http://www.unknownerror.org/opensource/Leaflet/Leaflet/ No registration needed, and you can make maps like http://shallowsky.com/losalamostrails/alt/osm.html using a variety of free tile sources. ...Akkana