CoMaps & Me

Context: CoMaps is a fork of Organic Maps. The reason for the fork can be found here. The TL;DR is that there was a growing concern amongst contributors about the direction of the project (specifically with regard to the shareholders).

OpenStreetMap & Me #

I started contributing to OSM back in November of 2023 (although, my account was created in 2019). At that time I was still relying very heavily on Google Maps, but had started testing some OSM-based maps. Initially, I tried Magic Earth and really enjoyed it, but changed to Organic Maps (OM). I briefly tried OsmAnd, but it was too advanced for me and I gave up on that. At some point in 2024, I uninstalled Google Maps, and tried to go fully in on OM.

Organic Maps to CoMaps #

Back in 2023 was also when I joined the Fediverse and I think without that, I may not have heard about the drama with OM in 2025 (the open letter, and eventual split). I remember downloading CoMaps before that was the official name, and wanting the project to do well, I tried to file some bug reports and help the team out. For a little over a year, my only contribution to the team was in bug reports, feature requests, and occasionally interacting with the community. I always had this desire to be able to contribute code to the project, but I just couldn't do it (mainly due to imposter syndrome). I had wanted to study computer science after school, but due to financial reasons, I was unable to, and started working instead.

Helping Develop CoMaps #

At the end of May this year, I found out that I was potentially impacted by a company-wide layoff. Then in June, it was confirmed. Around the same time that this was confirmed, I decided to just go for it and try to contribute code to the project. One of my reasons being that I wanted the experience to help me with the upcoming job search.

I started small, and had plenty of questions for the other contributors (who were all incredibly helpful!). Since then, I have been a lot more active and trying to improve the app and make the changes that I'd like to see. I'm currently working on an Android Auto "refresh" and am hoping to get this wrapped up soon so I can start work on other projects in the app.

Final Thoughts #

I've been using an OSM based mapping app (as my primary map) for ~2 years, and for the most part, it has been fantastic! Sometimes I will search something, and it's not on the map and I then have to go find it, but when I get to that location, I just add it to the map (via CoMaps). If needed, I can then add more details when I get home via JOSM. Another great help has been GeoShare as it allows me to open a Google Map (amongst others) link, and then see the location in CoMaps.

I'm really looking forward to growing my skills as a developer and watching CoMaps grow along the way!