GNOME Maps will support OpenStreetMap editing in its next release.

OpenStreetMap is a free, collaborative project to create an easily editable map of the world — the Wikipedia of maps, if you will.

Version 3.20 of the desktop mapping tool will see other improvements too, including improved translation behaviour and support for custom geo-json map layers.

Expanded place bubbles appear for ‘points of interest’. These pop-overs display basic information, such as a cafe name and its address.

Additional info, including website links and phone numbers, can also be revealed within these location pop-ups by clicking an ‘overflow’ button, as pictured:

More interestingly though is support for adding and editing OSM points of interest through the GNOME Maps client.

It’s a feature that GNOME Maps developer Marcus Lundblad explains in more detail on his blog:

“These fields are also possible to edit on OSM now, and if you copy a tel: URL from i.e. a web page, it would […] reformat it into the raw telephone number. The title of the editing dialog has been adjusted to better communicate the fact the changes are actually uploaded to the public OpenSteetMap database, and not stored locally or something like that.”

GNOME Maps 3.20 will ship as part of the Core Apps suite in the next stable release of the GNOME desktop environment.

GNOME 3.20 is (currently) scheduled for release in March, 2016.

See the official GNOME Wiki page for the GNOME Maps project for more details on the app and its features.