[Talk-it] Your experience with Wikimedia Italia being a local OSMF chapter

[Aury88]

I can answer from a simple mapper and wiki* contributor POV:

I don't know what part of WMI expenses are related to OSM but I can say that
from after Wikimedia Italia  became a local chapter of the OSMF I saw an
increase in the number of events and talks OSM related.

Also I think companies and government institutions prefer to talk with a
well know organized/structured , and preferably local, entity like WMI
rather than a single or group of "simple" volunteers or an unknown
international foreign entity like OSMF (think about the convenience of be
able to speak with a secretary or make an appointment in your own language
and possibly near your city)

Last point is that I think the joining between OSM and WM is the natural
evolution of both projects (they both have the goal of share free crowd
sourced knowledge and you can't obtain this without dealing with both atlas
and encyclopedic knowledge)... for me it's strange that one project was born
outside the other. 

Even without advantages in terms of funds and visibility given by WMI I
would have greatly wanted and encouraged the WMI local chapter of OSM.



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Ciao,
Aury
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