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Hi,

I was referred to OMS following a question that I sent through my Ipad to Galileo Offline Maps, one of the on-line maps that I use. The kernel of my inquiries are detailed below:

  1. I discovered in my use of on-line maps that my country is virtually fully covered. I believe all communities are captured although not all of them have their names listed.

  2. I wanted to find out the criteria for listing the the names of towns on on-line maps.

  3. Specifically, I wanted to find out how I can add my town (Oke-Ako Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria - approximately 7. 57' 22" North and 5. 32' 53" East is the centre of the town) to the map. Towns of similar size and population (like Ipao [written Ipawo], Itapaji [written Itapalu] and Ogbe appear on some on-line maps. The best I have seen so far for Oke-Ako in some maps (at very close zoom-in) are the "market" and "baptist day school". I can in actual fact see my family house in the on-line map.

I will appreciate your advise.

Thank you.

asked 12 Apr '13, 11:12

oluwadare's gravatar image

oluwadare
1111
accept rate: 0%

edited 12 Apr '13, 12:02

aseerel4c26's gravatar image

aseerel4c26 ♦
32.6k18248554


Welcome to OpenStreetMap, oluwadare!

I suggest you start on our documentation main page. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is an open project about collecting geographic data of the world - of which can be made many different maps and services.

re. 1 and 2: At OSM it is mostly a matter of existence in our data. If nobody has entered a specific city to our database then it will not appear on any OSM-based map. If there are much names and symbols to display then map creation alorithms decide which names will be displayed in which zoom level.

re. 3: Great that you want to help, unlike with many other maps you can! It is just important to not copy from other maps (also if they are free to use) or databases. Just use your own knowledge of the reality, a satellite positioning system (e.g. GPS; but without using potentially pre-loaded maps on the device) and the aerial imagery (currently sponsored by bing) which is displayed per default in our editors.

You get help on how to edit at the Beginner's guide or at LearnOSM. Also search this site for questions/answers, or browse by tags (example). Since you mention "Ipad", have a look at the OSM editors available for Ipad.

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answered 12 Apr '13, 11:34

aseerel4c26's gravatar image

aseerel4c26 ♦
32.6k18248554
accept rate: 18%

edited 12 Apr '13, 12:05

2

This is good advice. To just mark your town you could go to your link above, zoom in a bit and click Edit http://www.openstreetmap.org/edit?lat=7.956347&lon=5.547414&zoom=18 If you select Bing background it looks to cover half of your town. To add the town name you'd need to drag a town place icon from the left. You could add more detail from the imagery and your local knowledge, though I'd suggest looking at the guides mentioned above first.

(12 Apr '13, 11:42) EdLoach ♦
3

I think a lot of names were loaded in this part of Nigeria from a US source Geonames. They are likely to have quite a few faults, not least that they would not have been compiled by a speaker of local languages. We'd love it if you can improve the area (and I would hope make your offline maps better too). Feel free to ask for help if you need it.

(12 Apr '13, 14:26) SK53 ♦

The short answer is that you can add it yourself. After you have registered for an account, go to the map and zoom in to the required coordinates until "edit" appears at the top of the window. Click "edit" and provided you have Adobe Flash installed the Potlatch editor will load. Then scroll down in the left hand window until you get to a tab marked "places" then drag the relevant icon onto the map. Once it's there, left click on the icon, fill in the name then click save on the menu bar. All done!

Best, Feilipu

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answered 12 Apr '13, 11:37

Feilipu's gravatar image

Feilipu
90239
accept rate: 10%

Hi oluwadare, please have a look at this question and answer, it explains a lot. https://help.openstreetmap.org/questions/9159/buildings-and-names-showing-up-at-different-timesnot-showing-up Greetz

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answered 12 Apr '13, 11:25

Hendrikklaas's gravatar image

Hendrikklaas
9.3k207238387
accept rate: 5%

welcome the best place to start is the beginners guide http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Beginners%27_guide

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answered 12 Apr '13, 11:35

andy%20mackey's gravatar image

andy mackey
13.2k87143285
accept rate: 4%

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question asked: 12 Apr '13, 11:12

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last updated: 12 Apr '13, 14:26

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum