StreetComplete

2021-10-24

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Like many people, I have a number of apps on my smartphone that I don't use very often. I'm trying to change that habit with respect to one app in particular: StreetComplete.

OpenStreetMap is one of my favorite open-source projects, and while some of its data is not as libre as other movements, I still appreciate it immensely more than similar projects by Google or Apple. I also live in a part of the United States where quite a bit of data is present, but very few people maintain it. I'd like to help end that state of affairs.

StreetComplete is one of the best tools I've ever seen to help contribute to an open-source project. The app accesses the user's location and displays it on the map, finds unreported data nearby, and presents it to the user in the form of "quests". The user can then fill in the data to complete the quests, gaining achievements, adding to a total quest score, and ranking their contributions compared to other StreetComplete users.

I'm not typically a fan of applications that gamify tasks, since they can be quite addictive. But StreetComplete uses that hook quite cleverly, to add open data to a free project. The data isn't used to track users, monetize their interactions, or try to invade their privacy. It's simply used to make OpenStreetMap a better service for everyone.

As of last week, I've completed just under 250 quests in StreetComplete. I don't want to fall into the trap of simply aiming for the "highest score", but it is quite satisfying that my efforts are also going to a good cause.

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[Last updated: 2021-10-28]