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

[Lars Ahlzen]

On 10/02/2011 02:41 PM, Paul Johnson wrote:
> On Sun, 2011-10-02 at 10:20 -0400, Lars Ahlzen wrote:
>> 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.
> Never overestimate the accuracy of phone GPS.  Google Maps does well
> with positioning because they're using wifi and cell networks as
> secondary location sources, the GPS alone is usually off by several city
> blocks.

Let me clarify: I'm not sure dedicated GPS units are needed *for mapping 
parties* these days. The concepts can be taught with pretty basic 
equipment. Besides, in many areas, what's left to map are details that 
are better recorded with a notebook than a GPS.

I completely agree with you, though. The trace from my cellphone is 
horrifically bad compared to that of my GPSMap60, so I still use the 
latter a lot for mapping.

- Lars