[OHM] We need a forum!

[Peter Cooper]

I think I am the person who last started a thread on the OHM mailing list (Feb 2016 - https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/historic/2016-February/000963.html) prior to this latest conversation. I was very new to mapping then, wanting to do historical mapping for a “one-place study”, and hoping to start a conversation with people who knew what is possible etc. Nothing came of that, so I assumed the OHM list (and project?) was dormant. I am not sure if my impression then was valid, but that can be a danger if something on the web is public but not used (possibly because the main conversations are elsewhere). I was not aware of any other context OHM was being discussed.

Personally (I am old!) there are quite a few technologies I will not use for various reasons unless I absolutely have to (Facebook included). I considered how to take my musings, researches and conversations about mapping for one-place studies forward, and so set up a forum using SMF – you can see it at mapping4ops.org. Unfortunately, now that spring is here in the UK, I am not getting much time on mapping but I hope to get back to it soon.

I do not know how relevant it is to this conversation you are having but my experience with a forum has been:
  a.. I do not have many contributions from others yet (but I have only recently started publicising the forum at all) 
  b.. SMF was easy to set up technically (we have a small grant to help us, but so far that has only been needed for the domain) 
  c.. I am still struggling to find the right Category/Board/Child Board structure, as currently it is not as easy as I want to find your way around 
  d.. It has been invaluable for me to document my findings and thoughts in a (sort of) structured way 
  e.. It is excellent for searching 
  f.. Even if not many contribute to the forum it will have been valuable for me, and will be useful as a basis for documenting whatever approach we eventually take 
  g.. I realise that I need to keep posting to the forum so that anyone visiting realises that it is not dormant, but these posts need not be very long 
  h.. As with many forums, unless there is controversy or people get something really useful out of it, I am not expecting many to contribute
This has been my two-pennyworth on Forums; but if anyone wants to comment on the way in which OHM might be relevant to Mapping for One-Place Studies I would be very grateful – either as a new thread on this mailing list, or on the mapping4ops.org forum.

Peter

From: PauLL170 . 
Sent: Saturday, April 9, 2016 10:04 AM
To: Sam Wilson 
Cc: historic at openstreetmap.org 
Subject: Re: [OHM] We need a forum!

I already created a facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Open-Historical-Map-515547755294262/) and a group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1513784935591521/). It's nice-to-have, but like all other suggestions it is bound to a specific institution. A forum is the most neutral and public platform in my opinion. If i would be a able to install one i would have done it already. A new permanent section in the openstreetmap-forum sounds good for me, too! But in this case we are dependent on the beneficence of others when it comes to the question if that would be okay.


Beside my principles, the wikimedia-discourse could be a good platform, indeed!


P.S.: Don't get me wrong, i appreciate that way of communication here, but it is not the optimum for getting in touch with (possible) new users, discussing their ideas, answering questions etc.




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