I heard the podcast on FLOSS weekly (www.twit.tv) with guest Steve Coast.

This podcast is usually about Open Source Software. In episode 81, the creator of OSM, Steve Coast talked about OSM and about open source data. It certainly got me interested.

Using the yahoo satellite image and the www.openstreetmap.org web editor, I added two roads in my area which has been in service for over a year, but aren't on any maps, including the big commercial you-know-whos. Fun! But not satisfied.

I already had MotionX GPS lite on my iPhone, so I rode my bike on some more of the recently added roads in my area and created a gpx file. Now, using JOSM, I added those streets too. That was fun, but not still not satisfied.

There is a major bridge in Folsom, CA that has been in service since March, but all the nav software won't route me across it. I created a couple gpx files of it, spent a couple of hours getting it laid out in JOSM and recently uploaded it too. Now I just need to wait a day or so for the changes to propagate and see if it will route me across.

I keep finding little errors in the dataset that cause routing hiccups. The tutorials on the osm wiki are very helpful in finding out how to remedy these.

This new addiction is way better than sudoku puzzles!!