Make sure they're in Public Domain, or otherwise have a license compatible with ODbL. Sometimes those maps are copyrighted by the government for some reason.
this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2025
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Everything #OpenStreetMap related is welcome: software releases, showing of your work, questions about how to tag something, as long as it has to do with OpenStreetMap or OpenStreetMap-related software.
OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.
Join OpenStreetMap and start mapping: https://www.openstreetmap.org/.
There are many communication channels about OSM, many organized around a certain country or region. Discover them on https://openstreetmap.community/
https://mapcomplete.org/ is an easy-to-use website to view, edit and add points (such as shops, restaurants and others)
https://learnosm.org/en/ has a lot of information for beginners too.
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Most of them with compatible license should be already imported, so there is a huge chance OP's changes will be reverted as soon as someone notices from the local community.
Afaik most communication between US mappers are happening on the osm us slack, other ways of contacting them are listed on their website: https://openstreetmap.us/
The houses on my street/surrounding area are only listed as an address range covering the whole block instead of individual addresses for each house. I've been tempted to fix it for my house, but I stopped each time because I know the "right way" is to do it in bulk.
I'd love to have more info/guidance about how to accomplish that (ideally without having to talk to people on Slack).
Osm is a community project, so some communication and coordination is necessary. Most active mappers usually follow multiple channels, so if you find some more fitting way just try it there (e.g. I'm subscribed to the local mailing list and osm forum local topics and I read the local matrix room).
You can find your local communities with this map: https://openstreetmap.community/
Osm US doesn't have a mailing list, but you can use the osm forum with your regular osm account, so you don't have to register there again.
Imports usually consider existing, already mapped features, so your surveys wouldn't be lost. It's possible that it would take years to get the official data, so it can be a shortcut to add some addresses manually. Official sources can be wrong as well, here we got some speed limit data from a road maintenance company, but we have to report back a lot of discrepancies based on surveys and mapillary... They thank our efforts at least.
The easiest way would be to ask why it's not imported yet, without it we can only guess.
@grue There is a US category on the community forums: https://community.openstreetmap.org/c/communities/us/78
(uses OSM login).
The requirements for doing an import are here:
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Guidelines
And there's nothing wrong with doing a bit of piecewise improvement with @streetcomplete in the meantime.
@infeeeee @openstreetmap