How Do I Become a Contributor?
To become an OSM contributor go to http://www.openstreetmap.org/ and click Sign Up
Enter your details as follows
Then check your email and activate your account.
SUCCESS - now you're a contributor, aka an editor or community member
Now you can login to OpenStreeMap.org and you are able to change the world!
OpenStreetMap Tutorial
The OpenStreetMap Tutorial is a great way to learn how to become an OSM contributor and understand the difference between a point, line and area or how to add a road, a building or an address. To start the tutorial follow these steps:
Login to OSM with your credentials (see How to become a contributor above).
Once you are logged in navigate to the top left part of the map and click the Edit dropdown arrow.
Choose Edit with ID (in-browser editor)
Your map is now editor mode and some mapping tools are displayed on the right hand side of the map.
The last icon ? links you to a tutorial so you can practice updating the map.
Note: these are not real world changes so you can practice and make mistakes. Click on the highlighted blue topics to get an overview of understand more about Points, Lines, Areas etc. Once you have read enough then click on Start the Walkthrough and you will be ready to make changes in a test map.
The tutorial takes you through multiple stages to add lines, points, areas. Try them all, practice and when you are finished you can exit the tutorial.
It may be useful to checkout your local area and see whether any of the roads, addresses, names of buildings etc. where you live require any updates. For example a new café or shop may have recently opened and may not be on the map yet. If so, add it in.
Once you are comfortable with being an OSM contributor start adding destination addresses for any heavy vehicle trips your trucks are making.