I’d like to share the exciting news about the launch of CityZen app (http://cityzenapp.co/) here at the OSM community. Before presenting the project though I’d like to share some context. Today, the main feature of city-navigation or Points Of Interest (POIs) apps is exactly what their name says: they are supposed to help you navigate from point A to point B. But what happens when you don’t know the address of the POI you want to visit (point B)? In this case you are searching for POIs that are close to you of a category such as ‘drug store’, ‘gas station’ atc and not a specific address, since you supposedly don’t know the address in the first place.
With this in mind and some additional research done during this year related to the OSM project, the design thinking behind the app was simple: it needs to be an easy way to heal you find POIs that are near your location by using OSM without tracking you. After months of work, development and testing with fellow OSM contributors, CityZen app was launched on the F-Droid free software app repository: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.cityzen.cityzen/.
As mentioned before, the app is based on OpenStreetMap data and at this stage features predefined categories such as transportation, tourist attractions, ATMs, restaurants, bars etc. You can also search for specific POIs of course and get guidance if you want to got from point A to point B.
In addition, you can also edit or/add new POIs if you have an OpenStreetMap account. In case you have not created an OSM account you can even create one using CityZen.
Here are some of the main pillars of the project:
Privacy by default
The app has a special focus on privacy. This is why it does not keep your location or any other personal data. Technically there is no server for keeping data from the app, which makes it impossible for the development team of the app to track you. This is what should be the standard for any app out there.
Community first
After the initial testing from some OpenStreetMap community members the app is now at ver 1.0 and hosted at the F-Dorid app store. The community will also have a crucial role in the decision making process of the project through discussions at the Github profile of the app. If you want to get involved at this stage and be part of the project have a look at the Github repo https://github.com/CityZenApp. That is the place where you can add your proposals and improvements.
Open source, of course
The app is published under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 making it easy to everyone to get involved and improve the app.
Next steps are to incorporate crypto-payments of goodies from physical stores through the app, but this is a feature that will probably take a while to go live. What do you think of it? Please share your thoughts about the app because it will definitely help it become better.