I’ve contributed to OpenStreetMap (OSM) in the past but mostly as part of Azavea’s monthly HOTLunch where we work on open mapping campaigns across the globe by adding features visible on satellite imagery. Closer to home in southeast Pennsylvania, the map has always seemed pretty complete and I’ve struggled to find edits to contribute - pretty much all of the roads and interesting buildings are mapped. But then the other day I saw that a local trail we use for evening walks was missing and a short time later I was able to make my first local edit using a GPS track!
It turns out that the process pretty straightforward, thanks to the OSM community’s documentation. First, my wife and I went for a walk and recorded our track using a smartphone app capable of exporting GPX files. Once back home, we uploaded the trace to my user account at https://openstreetmap.org/traces,