We just created Planet Stream a Twitter-like firehose of OSM data. Planet Stream combines the Augmented Diffs capabilities of the Overpass API with the contribution metadata from osm-meta-util in a fully-featured real-time data stream that developers can use to analyze OSM contributions in real-time.

Planet Stream is a powerful tool for analyzing OSM feature data and contribution metadata side-by-side. You can use Planet Stream to coordinate tracing efforts around a natural disaster, to build an app showing the leading OSM contributors in your neighborhood, to quickly build a community of people editing hiking trails, or to provide automated feedback for common tagging mistakes.

Mapping efforts such as MissingMaps and the HOT tasking manager use hashtags to track efforts. During the Nepal crisis, organizations used osm-meta-util in combination with OSM History to analyze volunteer contributions per hour. Planet Stream takes this even further by providing access to complete OSM data in real-time. Dylan and I built an OSM Hashtag Leaderboard that uses Planet Stream to show what hashtags are trending in contributions over the last six hours. Tools like the OSM Hashtag Leaderboard can help to build better mapathons and increase community engagement.