Seamlessly integrate FOSS image/photo contribution

[NotSoImportant]

🚀 feature request

Description

Have a seamless flow from taking / selecting a photo to uploading it with having the data added to OSM and photo being displayed in OsmAnd again.

Reasoning

Right now there is following options in OsmAnd to deal with photos:

What	Show photos	OSM data	Take photos	Upload	share
Mapillary app	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes?
Audio/video notes plugin	own	-	- at gps location - at point	no	via "share" menu
Wikimedia Commons image	yes	yes	-	-	-
Notes	link only	N/A	-	-	-

As seen above besides Mapillary (not sure how/if it really works without gaps) there is no easy way to have a complete roundtrip.

Use cases

1. Adding a poi image (not using Mapillary)
   a. any: Take picture with camera / OsmAnd audio/video notes plugin / Wikimedia Commons app
   b. (any: share with the WC app)
   c. WC: fill WC data and upload
   d. (browser: if not part of the image: check OsmAnd for gps location and add as metadata)
   e. WC/Browser: copy or remember name
   f. OsmAnd: edit poi, add WC name, upload
2. Adding photo to OSM note
   a. any: Take picture with camera / OsmAnd audio/video notes plugin / StreetComplete / other app
   b. (any: Upload to a share hoster)
   c. OsmAnd: add note with the link

Proposed solution

• Direct upload to Wikimedia Commons from poi & photo notes
  • either have a seamlessly integrated flow with the WC app, or provide own interface
  • always adding gps coordinateds to the WC upload
  • POI: e.g. use "add photos" not only for Mapillary
  • POI: always adding the correct osm data as osm edit
• Possibility to add images to notes (like in Streetcomplete)

Related Issues

• Share photo notes #9958 Share photo notes
• [REQUEST] Mapillary FOSS alternative #4942 Mapillary FOSS alternative

[vshcherb]

Working on https://openplacereviews.org/, hopefully will be soon in nightlies

[NotSoImportant]

Interesting to hear (although I am not looking after any sort of rating).

• how is this planned to be included? Is this done/wanted by only you or the community?
• as my request is about to improve the flow with already integrated Wikimedia: can you please also comment on this?

[vshcherb]

Wikimedia Commons image has too many limitations to be used directly for upload, so we have no immediate plan to upload it.

For OpenPlaceReviews we already support download and we're working to allow image upload soon

[NotSoImportant]

Ok, this anwers question 2.
Follow up of it would be

• What kind of limitations are these and why would't they apply to OpenPlaceReviews?

However more important (as you did not comment on question 1)

• who of OsmAnd community decided / supports to go this way (in favor of other possible ones)?
• is OpenPlaceReviews osm integration accepted osm-wide? Where can I find relevant discussion?
• as I am getting partial information about ongoing development / plans without seeing it reflected in issues / readme: Where is discussion or announcements of these happening?

I just want to understand and get some more transparency.

[vshcherb]

https://forum.openplacereviews.org/

the project is only starting, so all discussions will be there I think. Later on some other tools will arise around it.
Anyway the project about specific and prominent places (not about every point in the world).

[NotSoImportant]

Sorry, maybe did not express it well.
What I meant is:

1. is there a place where the OsmAnd roadmap is discussed / documented?
   Because then I could have read about it there instead being surprised and asking lots of questions.
2. As I understand osmand as a community project: is adding openplacereviews to osmand your personal project or supported by the osmand community (back to where can I find the community)?
3. Is adding openplacereviews just a rough idea or are you (and others?) actively working on it and results can be expecpted in some weeks/months?
4. more broad: as data is about to be added to osm: was it discussed at any osm own mailinglist, forum, wiki,...?

• or am I wrong here and data will not go through osm at all?

[vshcherb]

1. https://forum.openplacereviews.org/
2. OsmAnd is a tool, it doesn't have contribution community. OpenStreetMap has a community.
3. OpenPlaceReviews will be a special project for detailed contribution about places
4. Data won't be added to OSM otherwise there is no need for OpenPlaceReviews.

[NotSoImportant]

Hi @vshcherb

thanks for your reply.

1. I was looking for a roadmap for OsmAnd, not openplacereviews
2. Are you the only developer / maintainer of OsmAnd? I thought this is an open source project with an open source community. Am I wrong?
   So @sonora @jsmakaayb @Chumva @crimean @AlexSyt @franco999 (and a lot more)
   Who else can comment on the roadmap / agreement process / priorities / decisions for OsmAnd features?
3. Unfortunately that did not answer my question. But I guess you meant I should check the link https://forum.openplacereviews.org/ for the current status / plans (also regarding the OsmAnd integration)?
4. With data I am not referring to the pictures, but a link to them (like it is for Wikimedia Commons). Is a similar osm attribute planned and discussed in the OSM channels (form, wiki, maillists)? Or will openplacereview linkage be an "OsmAnd"-only thing / integration?

Wikimedia Commons image has too many limitations to be used directly for upload, so we have no immediate plan to upload it.

5. Can you please elaborate what kind of limitations would block you from more seamlessly integrating a Wikimedia Commons upload and so why it would be better to wait for a not-yet existing and not-yet-established solution?
6. What about my request to upload pictures taken by the "photo note" plugin. Guess openplacereviews would not be interested in photo uploads of guideposts, crossings, trees, road surface, ... However that could be helpful
   • either to the end user
   • or by adding them to notes for mappers (like Streetcomplete does)

Thank you

[vshcherb]

This request is still open and it is worth to discuss. We don't have public roadmap and select features based General Vision / User requests. I'm a product leader but the contributing team is much larger you can find it by Github commits.

I think I will be the main public person to comment on OsmAnd plans

[swedneck]

What makes wikimedia commons too limited?

[NotSoImportant]

Hi @vshcherb Thanks for commenting on 1, 2, 3

We don't have public roadmap

Could you imagine maintaining a page with current / future roadmap for OsmAnd?
I would love to see this getting more visible.
This could e.g. help getting mote clarity while discussing ideas and requests.
Or is all work findable via tags (where can I e.g. find work / plans for openplacereviews integration)?

As an osm contributer I am mainly concerned about 4) - please help me with that.

Regarding 5 and 6 I understand discussion should go on here. So please comment on 5 and let me know what is needed to discuss 6

[NotSoImportant]

1. @vshcherb can you comment about how openplacereviews is discussed with the osm community? At least I have not found anyhthing about in the wiki: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/w/index.php?search=openplacereviews&title=Special%3ASearch&profile=default&fulltext=1

2. I found a good workflow for FOSS image contribution (there is room for improvement):

   1. take a picture with the Audio/video notes plugin (this will add coordinates to the picture)
   2. click the share icon to share with the Wikimedia Commons app
   3. fill respective fields and upload
   4. copy the link (e.g. click on "share") in the WC app now, strip away the server url part
   5. add a wikimedia_commons attribute to the POI using the OpenStreetMap editing Plugin

   When offline steps ii.-v. can be done at a later time.

3. Improvements wanted

   • Feature: OSM Edit Plugin: wikimedia commons link preview, like iD editor has it #11389 Feature: wikimedia commons link preview, like iD editor has it
   • Feature: Add possibility to directly copy the filename / category commons-app/apps-android-commons#4350 Feature: Add possibility to directly copy the filename / category

[laralem]

What makes wikimedia commons too limited?

@swedneck @NotSoImportant : Wikimedia Commons is limited because photos must fall in their scope: for "educational purposes". See https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Project_scope#Not_used In other words, lets say: If the subject of that photo doesn't have a Wikipedia page, forget uploading that to Commons. Of course is not really like this (many things in Commons don't have a Wikipedia page and are not even used in any page by various reasons), but is a good guidance.

So, if I take a photo of a little shop, that is out of scope and will be deleted, because that little shop is not notable, not known by everyone, except a few people near it. And that little shop will never have a page about it, unless it becomes really special and appears in many newspapers, at least.
A big one like IKEA, is notable so it has a Wikipedia page, it's ok to have a photo of them in Commons.

So most photos taken by OsmAnd users would be deleted, like restaurants and shops (could be considered also SPAM in Commons, to promote private businesses). The only ones suitable would be tourist attractions (generally monuments). That's why openplacereviews.org is more suitable for photos taken in OsmAnd. May be photos of meals too (seems a good idea to Wikipedia pages!) but not business facades or indoors.

Considering this, OsmAnd could still have that option with a warning "just upload educational (tourists attractions, monuments, museums, plants, animals, meals...) or your images will be deleted". But, at least to me, it seems a bit unnecessary because Wikimedia Commons have an app just to do that, with many features like help choosing licenses, categories, etc. That's a lot of unnecessary work to OsmAnd developers since we have a good alternative and they should invest in other priorities.

[swedneck]

@laralem I'm not sure how you're reaching this conclusion, from what i can read using wikimedia commons for example photos of locations is perfectly valid, and https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Commons notes that even something like a photo of bicycle parking is within the wikimedia commons scope.

Of course, the most conclusive answer would be to just ask wikimedia commons directly whether OsmAnd is within the scope.

[NotSoImportant]

"they" think collaboration is good ;-)
commons-app/apps-android-commons#4371

[Discostu36]

So, if I take a photo of a little shop, that is out of scope and will be deleted, because that little shop is not notable, not known by everyone, except a few people near it.

It doesn't seem that you have much experience in contributing to Wikimedia Commons. I have and can assure you that the scope of the project is much wider than that of Wikipedia. The only images that might get deleted are copyright violations, personal photos (of your family, for example) and blatant advertising (not meaning photos of the exterior of a shop).

[zipav]

Our user asks to improve the audio / video plugin so that it is possible to add photos with GPS tags.

[mnalis]

Our user asks to improve the audio / video plugin so that it is possible to add photos with GPS tags.

@zipav is your user having Use system app enable or disabled in plugin settings? I'm using system app on EMUI 12 (with GPS enabled in system Camera app), and photos are geotagged in EXIF headers. Also, note the filename itself encodes geo coordinates in using OSM shortlink format.

e.g. if the name of the file is 0IrMdvqo--.1.jpg and you go to https://osm.org/go/0IrMdvqo--?m it will position you at exact coordinates where that picture was taken (?m is just to add visible marker at that point in the map, without it you would only get map centered around that point, but without marker).

[Halihallo44]

There are a lot of OsmAnd users who for a selected position (My Places/Favorites)
want to insert/add their own, external photos. Unfortunately this is not possible with the current
version of OsmAnd and the available plugin "Actions > Take photo".
Also with the app and the service "Mapillary photos can unfortunately only be included from the street level.
After a few attempts and efforts, however, I have now succeeded in uncomplicatedly implementing any (own/external)
photos into OsmAnd, as follows:
FILE FORMAT"
• All (own/external) photos can be edited in advance, but must have the file extension
jpg - not jepg.
FILENAME/GEO ENCODING
• Own/external photos you want to insert do not need Exif GEO coordinates. But for OsmAnd to recognize the
position of the photos, the GEO coordinates have to be encoded in the photo filename - in the OSM
shortlink format - as follows:
• On the web page: https://www.openstreetmap.org - open/start "OpenStreet-Map".
• In the "Search" window (left) enter the position/location or coordinates of the corresponding photo.
• Click the "Split" button (far right) and check the "Set map marker" box.
This allows you to move the blue geo symbol on the map to the desired position.
As an example here is simply the "Alexanderpatz" of the capital Berlin.
• If the aforementioned position is found, are now displayed in the blue bar - with the options "Link, Short-Url, HTML".
Link:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/?mlat=52.52191&mlon=13.41319#map=17/52.52191/13.41319
Short-Url:
https://osm.org/go/0MbFhuSxB-?m=
This short url consists of https://osm.org/go - followed with the binary quadtile address, encoded in ASCII - 0MbFhuSxB-?m=
• The photo filename should then be e.g.: "0MbFhuSxB-?m--1.jpg" or also "Alexanderplatz, Berlin 0MbFhuSxB-?m--1.jpg".
The geo-position of the photo is then recognized by OsmAnd only by the file name 0MbFhuSxB-?m--1.jpg.
• The next step is to upload your own, external photos - with the aforementioned file name encoding - to the correct
into the correct OsmAnd directory. This is e.g. for Android the storage/folder:
Internal Storage\Android\data\net.osmand.plus\files\avnotes.
However, this directory is not visible with the Android file manager, but only with the file manager of a PC.
Therefore, own external photos can only be imported into an Android device via PC.
• Under "My Places" (Favorites) > AUDIO-/VIDEONOTIZES - are then all, with the above correct procedure -
file names of the inserted photos. With one click, the respective map section with position and
now additionally newly added photo maker. A click on "Show" then shows the corresponding, newly added photo.
photo. A subsequent "renaming" of added photos is possible without any problems.
It would be very desirable and certainly in the interest of many users, if the OsmAnd developers would finally also for
a plugin would decide/engage to be able to insert afterwards simply own photos - THANKS!

[zipav]

Instruction.txt
We also attach a text file that you sent us by mail, thank you very much for helping us to become better.

[petitminion]

Hello,
Openplacereview seems not maintained and specialized on reviews more than photos. Also it seems block by a very complicated architecture.

I think mediawiki is perfect to save poi images and they can be used in Wikipedia, wikidata and a lots of other project too. And this seems doable faster and easier than opr.

So I would love to have an option in osmand that allow to upload a photo to mediawiki o/