<div class="gmail_quote">2012/2/13 Michael Kugelmann <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:MichaelK_OSM@gmx.de">MichaelK_OSM@gmx.de</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Hello all,<br>
<br>
following my short summary of the FOSDEM 2012 at the first weekend in February at Brussels.<br>
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As discussed in advance we had an OSM stand at the FOSDEM.<br>
See e.g. at <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.fr/f/IMG_3746_web.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.openstreetmap.fr/f/<u></u>IMG_3746_web.jpg</a><br>
* we had quite a lot of interest on the stand on completeley different areas:<br>
+ complete newbies (What is OSM? Never heared about it.)<br>
+ OSM users just saying "thank you guys, it's wonderful what you as project are doing" => I want to forward this to worldwide all mappers!<br>
+ some mappers asking about "how can I map this and that"<br>
+ quite some people asking about "how can I use OSM on my device xyz" (including Garmin devices)<br>
+ developers who want to show a map on the web e.g. with a special overlay<br>
+ people asking: "can I do this and that" with the data? I would be interested to to do "xyz"?<br>
+ question: "can I trust the data? How verified is it?"<br>
+ ...<br>
* once more a big Thanks to Geofabrik / Frederik for the printouts, they have been very helpful to point to the project!<br></blockquote><div><br>I got the one of Brussels/Etterbeek and I'll use it on some mapping parties I'm planning to organise. Thanks Frederik! It makes the project more 'tangible'.<br>
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* flyers went away very quick: after 2..3 hours they were gone (also Thanks to Geofabrik / Frederik for providing them) => next year have more flyers<br></blockquote><div><br>Yes, with 5000 attendants to the conference, we should have around 1000 of them. But who has money to create them? I took a sample, which I'm planning to translate into Dutch to hand out to random people I meet while mapping.<br>
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* tablet devices are a good way when you want to show somebody e.g. a map within a discussion or in the crowd in front of the stand<br></blockquote><div><br>I'm glad I was able to bring mine and that I was able to help people install OsmAnd and Vespucci on their Android devices. I was a bit worried about it getting stolen, though. There is no way to secure it with a Kensington lock cable. Most people at FOSDEM are decent, but it takes only one...<br>
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* For me it was very interesting to work in a multinational team (mappers being present from Belgium, France, Germany, Slovakia or Slovenia, ....).<br></blockquote><div><br>Yes, that was a great experience for me as well. Especially since I went to present OSM in Normandy the weekend before.<br>
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* It is benificial to talk to people who have questions in their own language which we have been able with the international team.<br>
* maybe somebody from the OSM community should do a talk (or lighning talk) to get some SW developers and not mappers, the audience at FOSDEM has a great potential to get other people interested than mappers [1].<br></blockquote>
<div><br>Somebody should indeed get in front of a room of developers and explain where we stand and what more is needed. I've been doing a presentation in Holland about the advanced possibilities of JOSM (in Dutch) and another one in France as a general presentation of the project (in French) and I might step up to do one in English, if noboby else does. But I'm a bit reluctant to actually do it. I'm not really used to talk in front of a public.<br>
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* IMHO OSM should be present at FOSDEM 2013 again (another stand).<br></blockquote><div><br>Absolutely. I'd prefer to be in the K building though (now we were in AW) and with 2 or maybe even 3 tables.<br><br>We should also have some 'swag'. I liked the warm headwear the OpenSuse project brought. Maybe selling stuff like that a little bit above cost, could pay for the flyers.<br>
<br>A cap, or a sticker, or a high-viz vest. Or T-shirts, of course. Preferably something that's useful during cycling or hiking to give the project the name recognition it needs.<br> <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
* the WLAN provided for the conference was working very well at our stand<br></blockquote><div><br>It's the WLAN of the ULB. I'm sure it works fine throughout all the buildings, although the FOSDEM crowd probably stresses it quite a bit :-)<br>
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* on (very) cold weather don't have your stand located too close to the entrance door...<br></blockquote><div><br>Ask to be in the K bulding. <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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add [1]: don't get me wrong, I am not at all complaining about mappers! We need more of them worldwide. But the overall project has not only a need for people collecting geo facts, IMHO there is also an increasing need for people developing the tools to process and work with the data.<br>
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Best regards,<br>
Michael.<br>
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PS: genereal comment on the FOSDEM after my first visit: very interesting but very tight arranged event (10...20 talks in parallel) who is worth a travel.<br></blockquote><div><br>Fortunately quite a few of them are recorded so we can still 'attend' them on line.<br>
<br>Cheers,<br><br>Polyglot <br></div></div>