[Talk-GB] [Talk-gb-thenorth] SotM 2011 UK? Setting up a GB OSMF chapter?

[Simon Ward]

On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 06:15:37PM +0100, Gregory wrote:
> When the SotM 2011 venue bids were coming in, it seemed likely it would
> finally leave Europe. I heard some chatter that maybe it would make sense to
> hold a national/continent conference (like there is SotM US). Who is in
> support of that?

+1, although I would like to see more material directly aimed at mappers
at conferences too.  It’s alright garnering business support, and going
into all of the technical details of running OSM, the cartography, etc.
How about some practical aspects of going out and gathering the data?
Sure, the mappers get their bit at mapping parties, but why not at a
conference too?

> What sort of numbers do you think it would attract?

Um… twelvety! ;)

> But I actually think it would be really good to
> hold a national event in North East England.

Why not?  Everything else seems to happen in Birmingham or London these
days (I possibly exagerate, this year I did go to the Maker Faire which
takes place in Newcastle every year).

> But then this summer we never made a GB chapter of the OSM Foundation.
> Should we be focusing on that instead?

What advantages would it bring to us to do this, and are there enough
people prepared to be the core of the chapter?

OSMF itself is incorporated in the UK and, as far as I understand, has
been doing much of what a local chapter would be doing in the UK. On the
other hand, OSMF may wish to delegate to a local chapter so they can
concentrate their efforts globally, and in turn the chapter can
concentrate on the needs of the UK.

This maybe one to push over to the local-chapters and/or osmf-talk
lists.

> I hope the mapping passion isn't sliding away from the UK.

I have a small backlog of data that I have yet to incorporate into OSM
pending my acceptance of the CTs, which I still can’t bring myself to
do.  I could submit the data while the new CTs are not yet enforced for
existing users, but there is a reasonable chance that would be just a
waste of time.  If anything, my passion for mapping for OSM is waning
because I am in conflict with the new terms, but I still like mapping.
I’m looking for other ways to make my data accessible to the world, I
just need to implement them (and by that time all of the world’s geodata
will be free data and we’ll all be happy anyway).

Simon
-- 
A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a
simple system that works.—John Gall
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