[Talk-us] Operation Cowboy - preparations

[Matthias Meißer]

Hi US community,

so now the details of the next global mapathon are fixed:
It's called "operation cowboy" and covering the weekend *23.11-25.11* so 
every local team should have a fair chance to join in.
Tomorrow I would like to announce it to the whole community, but some 
things are still missing.

But as this is a community project, I need your help, as there is still 
a lot of work and of course you are the locals:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Operation_cowboy

1. *Mission statement:*
You should discuss, what people should do. Adding details is very 
general, but what is interesting? (buildings, landuse, ...) How can 
TIGER get improved without creating more worse data by strangers?
We would need 2..3 sentences for motivation and a bigger text for the 
/join page. (TIGER catalogue see down).

2. *Target areas in tasking server:*
Where should we work? Let there enough space for everybody to edit (last 
NOTLM was 200guys working) but keep in mind that we from the rest of the 
world, have no idea about US in general and where it might be helpful to 
add details (so everybody would pick a random place).
Simon was kind to allow to use his OSM tasking server to manage the 
areas: http://rebuild.poole.ch
You will need admin rights, so it would be great if 2..3 people would do 
this job of entering suggested areas
(BTW should we now add a "orga team" tab for who is who?)

3. *Short TIGER problem guide/gallery:*
Need a very short (people are lazy!) page about what’s usually wrong 
with TIGER. Using images only with Top5 bugs would be fine, e.g. so 
people learning fast that TIGER is usually bad placed and can be wrong 
for >10meter

4. *Further Imagery*
Is there other or better imagery than Bing for certain areas? How can we 
promote this to the other volunteers?

5. *OSMF sponsoring*
I already contacted OSMF Communications working group to see if the 
foundation would sponsor local parties to buy junkfood, drinks etc. 
(still no response) Last year the german FOSSGIS gave 50Eur (~65USD) for 
all parties (~5) which was very ok and a good motivation for local 
organisers.
If this fails, could we get sponsoring by other companies (or would they 
like to cater a own local party and invite mappers?)

6. *More social media channels:*
Can anybody start and maintain further accounts as facebook, ...? A logo 
will come if Ken returns at end of the week, but maybe you could start a 
skeleton so we could start promotion in 1..2 weeks. Personally I will 
put my focus on Twitter only (sorry lack of time).

*Later stuff:*
- Checking and translating final wiki pages next days
- Announce to US media in 2..3 weeks
- Creating a "thank you"-photo poster of all remote mapping teams
- Creating a thank you video? Anybody with compositing/cutting skills?

Ok that's the start. It would be very helpful if some of you would 
helping by coordinating some of this aspects. In every case I'm glad to 
assist you, but it's just to much for a single (foreign) person.

I guess this will become fun :)

bye,
Matthias