[talk-au] OSM representation in Australia

[BlueMM]

John Smith <delta_foxtrot at ...> writes:

> 
> 
> Just to let everyone know what's happening, the guy I work for has become
interested in both helping the
> community and to get into selling mapping services. He also has numerous
business connections.
> 
> There has already been some unofficial talks with a company that makes phone
handsets with GPS/3G and they
> seem willing to donate quite a number of these for some kind of
schools/education programme.
> 
> The idea is the phones would be lent out on a per month basis, along with an
education pack describing all the
> ways schools can get involved in various activities, hopefully it can be made
fun and exciting. :)
> 
> For this to happen there needs to be some kind of official presence for these
companies to deal with, if they
> donate goods it has to be owned by some entity, as the company offering phones
won't want to deal with
> schools directly.
> 
> Most government departments don't like dealing with individuals so there needs
to be an official group
> behind this.
> 
> I don't know if starting a local chapter would be the best solution, but on
the other hand things might be made
> more difficult, if things default to OSMF in the UK.
> 
> However before any of this can occur I really need to know if people have a
genuine concern with setting up a
> local chapter or not.

I've been thinking about this for the last 6+ months, after the local chapter
idea was first mentioned on the Talk mailing list. Mostly in relation to
contacting potential sources of data who would be willing to submit their data
compatible with the OSM license (federal/state departments, local councils,
trucking companies etc.)

Being backed by some form of official entity would make the discussions much
easier, who wants to be thought of as a few nerds doing their own hobby for fun
(which might be correct, but ignores all the advantages of having world-wide
open mapping data). I've had some discussions with the GIS boss of my local
council, but it seems copyright of most data ends up with state & federal
agencies, most of the remaining data is tainted by sharing boundries/nodes with
existing copyright data :-(

Therefore, I support the local chapter idea, even if I don't yet know what is
involved.

BlueMM