[Talk-ca] Edmonton OSM gathering

[Richard Weait]

On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 8:03 PM, James Ewen <ve6srv at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 7:16 AM, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com> wrote:
>
>> May I suggest that you "just do it", and go ahead and set it up and
>> that you reach out through other channels for attendees?
>> [ ... ]
>> The drawback to advertising your event _only_ on this list, is that
>> not all Canadian mappers are on this list.
>
> How many OSM mappers in Edmonton are on upcoming.com, or meetup.com?

We don't know until we ask.  :-)  openstreetmap.meetup.com shows the
existing OSM meetups.  I think it used to show "interested" members
who were waiting for a local meetup?  Anybody know where that map of
"interested" people went?

But!  Even better, "how many upcoming / meetup readers will be
interested in OSM when they hear about it?"  Local meeting groups are
a way to reach potential new mappers.    To find existing mappers,
announce here and talk at .

Those not on lists are tougher.  I don't know of previous Edmonton OSM
events, but there were OSM talks in Calgary, so a note to the Calgary
Linux User Group might find a few; perhaps even some who will make the
trip?  Add the local meeting template to the Edmonton wiki page, and
your group will appear on the user groups map here:

http://usergroups.openstreetmap.de/?zoom=3&lat=40.58058&lon=-97.03125&layers=B0TFT

> Upcoming.com is a website that is for sale,

My apologies.  http://upcoming.org (upcoming.yahoo.com).  I shouldn't
try to "freehand" urls.

> and on meetup.com, I can't
> even figure out where OSM might fit in their list. I can't even figure
> out how to go about finding anything related to OSM on the site. Aha,
> finally figured it out a bit. I see there's an OSM group in Toronto...
> now, how do you get people interested in OSM mapping that are members
> of the OSM community to now move their focus over to this totally
> unrelated site to be notified of things of interest to members of thisAdd the local meeting template to the Edmonton wiki page, and your group will appear on the user groups map here:

http://usergroups.openstreetmap.de/?zoom=3&lat=40.58058&lon=-97.03125&layers=B0TFT
> site? Seems kind of silly when you say it that way, huh?

It doesn't seem silly to me. :-)  Meetup does have an OpenStreetMap
category, so those looking specifically for OSM nearby will be alerted
when you create a new OSM group.  I chose some, more or less, related
categories as well.  Those interested in the follow categories were
notified about the Toronto group when it started.

Linux · Open Source · Bicycling · GIS · Geocaching · OpenStreetMap ·
Community Builders

That list shows some of my biases. :-)  One could easily add mountain
biking, hiking, or a number of other categories to find folks who
might be interested in OSM.

>> I encourage mappers in other places to host local events as well.
>> It's fun and a great way to learn from other mappers.
>
> Yup, it would be good to share ideas and learn from each other, but I
> would think that there's a better chance of communicating with people
> interested in OSM in Canada here than on some other random site.

Sure.  This is the perfect place to find existing ca.mappers.  I'm not
suggesting that you have to reach out to find new OSMers.  You can if
you wish to.  :-)