[Talk-us] Community Involvement

[Steven Johnson]

It comes down to this: what a formal organization offers is
*infrastructure*, -both physical computing and organizational
infrastructure. If the organization can marshal the resources for the
Tagwatches, extracts, tile servers, education, conferences, etc., it frees
up the community to concentrate on doing what they do best: collecting
tracks & waypoints, tagging, exerting quality control, and lending their
knowledge to creating the OpenStreetMap.

SEJ
----
"Wretches, utter wretches, keep your hands from beans." -Empedocles



On Tue, Jul 20, 2010 at 04:01, Kate Chapman <kate at maploser.com> wrote:

> So I think having a formal organization can enable people to do
> certain tasks.  There are plenty of situations where it isn't needed
> of course.
>
> Examples where it can help:
>
> -We wanted to put on a conference, it is much easier to have a formal
> organization for sponsorship and reserving a venue.
> -There has been talk about wanting to have Tagwatch and Extracts for
> the US.  Can you do that without a formal organization?  Sure.  Can
> you get donations for hardware as an individual? Perhaps.  But it is
> easy to have an organization own such a resource.  The actual day to
> day running I would hope would be the community.
> -Some people want to set-up OSM education programs.  Not impossible as
> an individual but can be easier as an organization.
> -There is a crew that wants to get a bus and drive around the US
> having mapping parties.  Could someone just buy a bus and do it on
> their own? Sure. Do we think it would be easier as an organization?
> yes
>
> So none of these things have to happen with a formal chapter, but
> there are those of us that think they would be easier with one.
>
> -Kate
>
> On Mon, Jul 19, 2010 at 8:35 PM, Apollinaris Schoell <aschoell at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > On 18 Jul 2010, at 6:07 , Serge Wroclawski wrote:
> >
> >> I want to be clear on the outset that this mail is personal, and while
> >> I'm going to discuss some OSM US business, I'm not speaking on behalf
> >> of the organization or the board in this mail.
> >>
> >> With that out of the way...
> >>
> >> At the OSM US board meetings, one area of frequent discussion is "How
> >> can we get the community to be more involved with us?"
> >
> > did you ask if there is a community at all? Even this list is literally
> silent.
> > why bother with an US board if there is so much to map and so few
> mappers.
> >
> >>
> >> So this is an open ended question:
> >>
> >> If you're in the US, what are your thoughts on the OSM US?  Is there
> >> something you wish we were doing that we're not? What would you like
> >> to see the organization doing? And how can we get you (personally)
> >> more involved?
> >>
> >
> > What can a US board offer? I know there was much talk about what can be
> done. All this is on a legal, organizational, governmental contracts,
> fundraising level…  I'd say community first and the rest will follow
> >
> >
> >> I'm really looking for practical answers, something we can take action
> >> on and accomplish.
> >>
> >> If you joined the organization, first, thank you, and second: What
> >> were your reasons for joining?
> >>
> >> And if you haven't yet joined the organization: Why not, and is there
> >> something we could do to encourage you to join?
> >
> > Simply don't see a personal reason for it or where and how it will help
> osm in US.
> >
> >
> >>
> >> - Serge
> >>
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> >
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