[Talk-GB] Open Knowledge Conference and Spacemakers Brixton

[Harry Wood]

On Saturday 24th April there are two really interesting (but unrelated) possibilities for bringing OpenStreetMap to new audiences. We need one person to give a talk at the Open Knowledge Conference. ( http://www.okfn.org/okcon/ ) and we need a couple of people to run a mini mapping party at Brixton Market as part of a tech themed.

Sadly I am out of London that weekend, so I can't do either of these things myself, so I'm calling for volunteers. I posted this on the wiki ( http://bit.ly/9SVHrl )  but let's try the mailing list too. For both these things I need to get back to the organisers ASAP. It would be a shame if I have to reply "nobody wanted to do it", so please, if you're available let me know


---- The details ---

Open Knowledge Conference. ( http://www.okfn.org/okcon/ ) They would really love to have a presentation about OpenStreetMap and the Haiti response. It would be really worth doing too (even travelling into London to do) because you'll be taking the message to lots of new people. You don't need to be an expert on the Haiti details, just tell the story of OpenStreetMap in general and how we were able to create great maps quickly after the earthquake.

It looks like the speaking slots are one hour long, so aim for 45 mins + questions perhaps.  I did a small slide deck with Haiti info for a talk the other day http://www.harrywood.co.uk/blog/2010/04/10/aid-information-challenge/  and found it quite easy to ramble for more than half an hour on this topic. But the talk can give a lot of details about OpenStreetMap in general. I'm happy to help putting together slides.

As I say, it would be shame if nobody took this opportunity. Please let me know ASAP.

Spacemakers brixton is something completely different. We've been invited by Pete Gravell to run a mini mapping party at Brixton Market as part of a tech themed event, which in turn is part of the wider project by spacemakers  "I think it would be great to get a bit of open street mapping going on - wouldn't have to be all day. It sounds like we'd be able to do something interactive (which is great) and also raise the profile of the open street map amongst the general public. If you think you can get a few people together to run a stall for a few hours that would be great"   This seems like a great chance to get local people involved. Maybe a micro-mapping small scale thing around Brixton Market would work well. Use walking-papers? Having a stall means we could give people a quick editing lesson on the spot.   Once the event is set up I imagine it will attract the usual crowd of London OSMers, but the trouble is I wont be there, so to set up the event I
 really need a couple of people to volunteer *in advance* (i.e. the opposite of what people normally do for London mapping parties)  Let me know.