New Android App: What's Nearby?

General talk
1

I’ve been working on a new Android OSM app called What’s Nearby? for the last few months and I feel that it’s ready for testing by a wider audience.

The app is designed to provide a simple method to add details to OpenStreetMap points of interest. Once installed, it keeps an eye the users location and occasionally runs an overpass query (provided several criteria are met). If the query returns results, the user is notified via an android notification. If they press the notification, they are asked with several yes/no/unsure questions regarding the location. The data is then uploaded to OpenStreetMap under the users account.

Example questions (which depend on the type of location being queried) include:

  • Does this location take credit cards?

  • Is this location wheelchair accessible?

  • Does this location have outdoor seating?

Download

The app can be downloaded from Google Play at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teester.whatsnearby. Note that the app is in Beta on Google Play.

Code can be viewed and issues tracked at https://github.com/Teester/Whats-Nearby.

I welcome any feedback and suggestions that people might have.

2

Sounds interesting. Could be a good way to fill missing tags for POIs.

2 suggestions:

  1. What happens if there are 2 POIs with the same name close together? How can I determin which one I am currently answering questions?

  2. How is “wheelchair accessable” defined? A “more information” source or a link to the corresponding OSMWiki-Page would be helpfull.

3

You should probably simplify the question “Does it take credit cards” to “Does it take cards”. It is exceedingly rare for somewhere to take debit cards and not take credit cards. Places that take neither are not so rare.

My question as a map user is do I need to get cash.

4

Thanks for the feedback.

This isn’t something which has come up during my (admittedly limited) testing. I suppose I could include the location address somehow. Can you provide a location where this might be an issue? Locations would have to be less than 50m apart for this to be an issue at the moment.

I’d prefer not to have the user navigate away from the question. The idea is that they are notified about the location and spent perhaps 10 seconds answering questions about it and that’s it. If they have to read a wiki page about the question, the the app isn’t doing its job properly. Perhaps the question could be phrased better, ‘wheelchair friendly’, for example? Alternatively, it might be possible to fit an explanation on the card itself.

That seems like a valid point. I’ve set it up so that one question affected one tag (payment:credit_card or payment:debit_card) to prove the concept, but there’s no reason why one question couldn’t change more than one tag.

5

Think it’s a good an easy way to improve POI’s data quality.
Additional the App should offer the possibility to show/edit existing POI details for control and corrections.

Wolfgang

6

I have removed spammer message and reply to this to not continue it - sorry.