Humanitarian Web Mapping
Helping
Contributing to the OSM is very easy – they've built a really great interface that lets you contribute through your web broswer. You can download a slightly more sophisticated piece of software that allows more control over contributions (JOSM: tutorial), but the browser-based editor "iD" is perfectly good.
To learn how to edit maps, go to the OSM tutorials on the US government's MapGive site. Watch the "Learn How to Map in OpenStreetMap" video, making sure to try the suggested practice. Once you're happy you can edit in iD, go on to watch the "How to Select a Task in the OpenStreetMap Tasking Manager" video. You can then go into the OSM Tasking Manager and pick a task -- it's as simple as that!
If you're interested in more advanced tutorials, there are a set on the Learn OSM website.
The Tasking Manager has a wide variety of tasks. Each task will say if you need some experience to engage with it, so pick one that doesn't say "for more experienced mappers" to start with. Each task has a small "progress" bar associated with it which shows three colours: clear/grey on the right for the percentage of the task that still needs doing, orange on the left for the percentage that has been mapped but needs someone to double check it (all maps are double checked, and this is just as vital a task to volunteer for once you are used to the system), and green in the centre for the percentage completed. Start by tackling a task that has some clear stuff still to do.
That should be enough to get started. The site is relatively easy to use. For a few helpful hints, see our tips page.