[Talk-us] What does the community want from a US local chapter?

[Lars Ahlzen]

On 09/30/2011 10:25 AM, Richard Weait wrote:
> 1) What would you like to see the US local chapter do?

When Cloudmade hosted events, their representatives brought banners, 
brochures, stickers, loaner GPS units and similar things. I'm not sure 
GPS units are needed these days (with a smartphone in everyone's 
pocket), but advertising material - like the tall OSM banners - really 
make an event look a little more professional.

Maybe the OSMFUS should explain OSM as a project a bit better to 
newcomers? Especially from a US perspective, where we've been spoiled by 
online maps and free government geodata for a long time.

Finally, having a server and development infrastructure for US-specific 
projects - such as the US-style slippy map mentioned elsewhere - would 
probably make OSM more attractive to both mappers and developers in the US.

I think some of this is already being worked on (Thea, Ian, ...). When 
ready, make sure that it's clearly documented on the website how these 
resources are available to users.

- Lars