[talk-ph] OSM Philippines meet-up

maning sambale emmanuel.sambale at gmail.com
Mon Feb 9 03:17:01 GMT 2009


Hi,

Some report on the meet-up last Saturday (20090207) at Grappas in
Greenbelt 3.

7 people attended the meet-up ( a geospatial researcher, a computer
hardware engineer, an IT/real property consultant, an IT security
consultant and his relation, a travel site/webcam/python hacker, and a
java programmer ). Mostly geeky (not the looks) but all are free map
lover.

The pizza was good and the micro-brewed beer was excellent.

On the way to Makati, I turned-on my GPS to test my new update of
Openstreetmap data for Garmin. The data for EDSA is quite good for my
GPS, I did found a few bugs (missing flyover).  Just in front of
Grappas is the PowerMac center so I opened openstreetbugs and reported
the missing flyover I passed by ;).

The transcript below some of the things discussed (please fill in
missing things):

On forming an organization:
We had a previous mail discussion on "should we have a formal
organization representing OSM Philippines" so this was a main
discussion point in Grappas.  Basically two points were raised:

1. There is a need to create a "legal personality" for OSM Philippines
to be able to represent the group to various institutions and to be
able to access funding support if needed.  There are a 3 options to
choose from: as a foundation, as a non-profit or as an NGO.  The
minimum requirements would be a SEC registration and an annual
reporting. The pros for this is, we as a group can engage in formal
tie-ups, sponsorships and project grants.  If we can access such
opportunities, we can greatly expand OSM Philippines advocacy.

2. Do we need one already (as in ngayon na)? Creating a formal org
needs a lot of work specifically paper work. Is there anybody here
committed to take on such task?  Many of us would rather just do
mapping (fun) than do organizing and coordinating (not so fun, but
maybe fun to others).  Judging by the
number of people in the meet-up, we guess just not yet.

But the prospect of having an org is a good proposition and we are leaving the
options open.  We hope someone can take on the challenge and help us.
As matter of "urgency", one of us shared an incident where a local
volunteer group just doesn't see a need to formally organize and yet
after six months, they need a formal org to attend and represent the
group to some event.

On the the GPStoGO program:
I brought the GPS units with me to show to the group.  Many thanks to
those who pitched in and share the load to cover the custom duties.
Currently, 3 units are with me.  One is with Michael Cole.  Anybody
can request a reservation via this mailinglist and the wikipage:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Philippines/GPStogo_program

Possible collaboration with the realtors and property
brokers/appraisers:
One attendee is a member of a "federation or real property
appraisers/brokers" (can't remember the exact name of the
federation).  He raised the problem with geographic data of Phil. real
properties and sees an oppurtunity to collaborate with OSM.  I see
this as a good opportunity for the group and perhaps we coud think of
ways we can help them.  No specifics for now, but I hope we can discuss
them here.


On helping new mappers:
A concern was raised on how we can help new mappers.  I am seeing a
lot of contributors lately and we should make it a point to help
newbies.  An important lesson was while some of the "little things"  maybe
obvious to "seasoned mappers", it may not be so for newbies.  In
short, we should make it a point to welcome new mappers and point them
towards the appropriate documentation/guide/wikipage to get them
started the right way.


Overall, the group was a great bunch and perhaps we could meet again
(hopefully bigger).

On other things:
I was also invited by a local car group the Subaru Club of the
Philippines last wednesday (2000204) to talk about OSM and GPS.  I
think I gave a fair amount of overview of what our project is all
about, but I think it was too much info overload for the group (too
much geeky stuff in my slides ;)).  They
like Openstreetmap very much because they can use it for their GPS and
and is willing to contribute data.  Collborations with other local
groups like this can greatly expand our reach especially to end-users
of the data.  There will be another round of discussions with them and
will post details.  Hope you can also join.




-- 
cheers,
maning
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"Freedom is still the most radical idea of all" -N.Branden
wiki: http://esambale.wikispaces.com/
blog: http://epsg4253.wordpress.com/
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