<div dir="ltr">Hi, Serge.<div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_extra">As a member of the chapter board, I feel a bit erased? misrepresented? by your email. It hurt, especially because I think you and I share some common ground about why we map and that it is important to feel a connection to a place. </div><div class="gmail_extra"><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">At any rate, while you are more qualified to speak to the history of OSM as a whole than I am, I do want to say a few things that will maybe help you get the know my personal history with OSM:</div><div class="gmail_extra"><ul><li>When I was new to OSM and first learned about editathons, I didn't know anyone involved with OSM or have any preconceived ideas about the project. All I knew was that editathons sounded amazing, so I made the effort to connect with other local mappers and start building more of a community in my region. My first editathon - led by another community member - involved walking around outdoors on a college campus. My second editathon - led by myself - involved walking around outdoors in a neighborhood commercial district. In my experience, editathons have always been a way for community members to get together and map in whatever manner made the most sense - sometimes outdoors, sometimes indoors. There can be value in both. </li><li>I remember Paul's post, I was elected to the chapter board, and - it's true! - I don't have very many OSM edits compared to many members of the community. That doesn't mean I don't go out and map my community - I described in a different email how I do so. But I contribute in other ways as well. Last month, I led a group of students in a survey of a nearby neighborhood. I spent hours walking through the neighborhood with them, helping mark points, and then helping them enter their data when they returned. I did not personally make a single edit with my OSM user name. However, I contributed to those edits invisibly, behind the scenes, and I believe several of those students will become regular contributors.</li></ul><div>Thanks for reading!</div><div>Eleanor</div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 1:55 AM, Serge Wroclawski <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:emacsen@gmail.com" target="_blank">emacsen@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Eleanor,<br>
<br>
I want to clarify some things:<br>
<span><br>
On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 1:06 AM, Eleanor Tutt <<a href="mailto:eleanor.tutt@gmail.com" target="_blank">eleanor.tutt@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
> Paul - If perception of mapping in the US isn't aligning with reality, we<br>
> probably *do* need to do a better job as a chapter board of telling the full<br>
> story.<br>
<br>
</span>I believe that the story that the board tells reflect the overall<br>
experience of the board. Paul did an analysis of the mapping activites<br>
of the prospective board members before they were elected. Some of the<br>
board members are not active OSM mappers, so it shouldn't come as a<br>
surprise to anyone that people who don't do manual surveying don't<br>
talk about manual surveying.<br>
<span><br>
> I see what you mean about the blog posts, though I do think your<br>
> interpretation is a bit harsh. For example, the mapathon post that you<br>
> characterize as an "indoor event," while it does admittedly have a photo of<br>
> people at computers, also makes it clear that the theme for the upcoming<br>
> mapathon is "the great outdoors."<br>
<br>
</span>The events are characterized as "Edit-a-thons" and they were designed<br>
to be run indoors. They were essentially a response from some members<br>
of the community who felt that Mapping Parties were not for them. The<br>
advantage of an Edit-A-Thon is that they can be run indoors (unlike<br>
Mapping Parties), but if you look at most Edit-A-Thons going on next<br>
week, and you look at the history of them (look at the talk-us<br>
archives) they're still largely indoor events.<br>
<br>
The only reason that OSM NYC runs them as outdoor events is that I<br>
believe strongly that the experience of going out and surveying has<br>
value- not only data quality value, but emotional value. There's value<br>
in being connected to the place you live that can't be captured via<br>
areal photo or governmental dataset.<br>
<span><font color="#888888"><br>
- Serge<br>
</font></span></blockquote></div><br></div></div></div>