Open Sea map: Free charts soon(ish?)

[sam_uk]

(in 5-10 years maybe!)

OK so first up I am not suggesting using this for navigation:

Online:
http://map.openseamap.org/map/

Offline:
http://www.openseamap.org/index.php?id=navigationhardware

But I do think it's a interesting project. With another 5-10 years contribution from the boating community it could be a useful resource. It's about in the same state that http://www.openstreetmap.org/ was in 5 years ago. Open Street map is now a useful project for getting places.

I could imagine that with wide usage it could get updates quicker than conventional charts. Trawler lost trawl net at X, marked with a red buoy, updated by community within hours potentially?

Anyway I thought I would post to raise awareness of the project and encourage people to contribute.

You can edit it here: http://translate.google.co.uk/trans...ttp://www.openseamap.org/index.php?id=mapedit

(also Android apps etc available for editing)

 

[sam_uk]

Just another thought on this. If anyone was interested in contributing the best way might be to just check/update your home port, then work out from there.

I will undertake to do Bristol + 10 miles within a year..

 

[aussi]

I did the Conwy and Caernarfon approach channel buoys last year… Need to update them for the latest positions though!

 

[Boreades]

I remember when Open Street Map started, and we were uploading GPS traces and drawing paths and roads on the map. It was great fun, but I'm struggling to see how that applies to a "marinated" version. What are the best ways the likes of us can contribute?

 

[Boreades]

Ah, Aussi thanks - marker and channel buoys for sure.

Moorings and pontoons as well?

For some reason I was thinking of depth sounding so the charts would have depth contours.

 

[[70521]]

I've just started updating this. JOSM is a complete nightmare, and I us some complex software in my day to day work, does anybody have a "Dummies Guide to JOSM"?

Looking forward to downloading the charts onto the GPS, I use OpenStreetMap and it is great.

 

[aussi]

There is a separate project linked to OpenSeaMap for Bathymetric data. Last time I looked this was very much in its infancy, but it looks like they have now made some progress: http://openseamap.org/index.php?id=bathymetrie&L=1 I'm at work at the moment so can't really examine how good this is right now.

Edit: Didn't answer your question about what to add to the chart. I would be guided by the markers available in JOSM - if there are icons available, I would say go ahead and add them.