[Talk-ca] SOTM 2008: The State of The (Canada) Map

[SteveC]

James you sound super sarcastic and skeptical, do you really want to  
run something like this?

On 8 Jul 2008, at 20:44, James Ewen wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 8:00 PM, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com>  
> wrote:
>
>> When is your party?  I have some GPSes for loan to other OSMers in
>> Canada.  That goes for other Canadian mappers as well.  Let me know  
>> and
>> we'll work something out.
>
> I haven't planned any yet, but it sounds like all I need to do is
> create a web page template and then simply change the name of the
> city/town/village/highway/road network, and post that to the wiki...
>
> On the how-to page though, there are a few things that seem to be a
> bit of a problem that I might need help figuring out...
>
>    *  When Once you have a rough venue ('London' or 'Berlin') and a
> couple of people, then put up a wiki page with all the details and
> confirming the date. The rest is easy. On the day, unless you get a
> lot of newbies, it will all just happen.
>
> I have lots of venues, but where do I come up with the couple people?
>
>    * Where The simplest venue is a pub, preferably with free WIFI.
> You may find though that you can get a local company, arts centre,
> library or hall to provide free space for the weekend.
>
> I don't know all the local "pubs"... Most small locales in Alberta
> don't have internet access let alone free wifi...
>
>    * Who The next thing is to get some people signed up. It's a good
> idea to contact two or three local mappers in advance and find out
> what dates would suit them. If possible, get them committed before you
> make a general announcement.
>
> When there are no local mappers, who do you contact?
>
>
> The problem is that these mapping parties are designed for areas with
> OSM mappers in the area. We might be able to swing a mapping party in
> Edmonton. There are 10 OSM members within 20 km of my location, which
> covers all the users in Edmonton (a metro area of 1 million people).
> We could possibly garner enough interest to map out a neighborhood.
>
> This leaves the other 95% of the province as an empty page.
>
> Again I will ask, is there a provision for finding OSM users in a
> specific geographical area?
>
>> I like Alberta.  Let me know when you are planning and perhaps I can
>> bring the GPSes personally.  Air Canada isn't going to send me for  
>> free,
>> but if I can combine a business trip with some fun mapping; why  
>> wouldn't
>> I?
>
> Yup, having someone else foot the bill is certainly a good way to
> defer the costs involved. I make use of my work trips around the
> province as an opportunity to gather GPS tracks. You can tell where I
> go to work by looking for GPS tracks uploaded by VE6SRV...
>
>>> I'm also not sure how you keep the OSM project a secret from these
>>> people that you get to map out an area for you. It sure seems like  
>>> you
>>> would be spreading the word, and bringing more people into the OSM
>>> community through these activities.
>>
>> Why would we keep it a secret?  Who's doing that?  It seems silly  
>> to try
>> to keep OSM secret when you are showing people the osm site, the  
>> wiki,
>> sample maps, the svn ...
>
> Read this thread... I'm trying to say that we need more OSM members to
> be able to make local interest mapping happen, let alone mapping
> parties.
>
> James
>
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Best

Steve