[Talk-us] OpenStreetMap US elections: October 12 townhall with candidates

[Steve Coast]

Picking up on the SOTM point - SOTM US isn’t for the community, it’s a corporate showcase. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just probably not what OSMFUS should be focused on.

A more interesting question is what should OSMFUS try to do to build editors in the US, and what metric should we use (presumably active editor headcount)?

What we’ve tried so far:

* SOTM getting bigger every year
* We tried paid ambassadors at CloudMade, running mapping parties with some success but the timeframe was very long to see people turn in to editors.
* We've tried making the web editor nicer multiple times (potlatch, mapzen, iD etc) and that doesn’t lead to meaningful growth in editors.
* Mapping parties appear to have some traction, but take a long time
* Getting schools involved appears to work briefly, then everyone goes home or to the next class
* Competitions to map areas (google also tried this for mapmaker)

All of these are good things to go do, they just don’t seem to impact active editing very much.

It feels like we should try some different things (ideas?) on a per-state basis. For example, we run 100 mapping parties in Idaho and we engage 100 schools in Tennessee and so on so there’s distance between them and we can really measure the effectiveness of anything.

Some ideas to try:

* Linux User Group outreach (do these still exist? Very successful back in the day)
* Mass media (billboards, newspaper stories, magazine advertising)
* Tighter partnerships with existing orgs (USGS?)
* More scoreboards & leaderboards. We seem to have some success with ranking people and places against each other (e.g. Wyoming is more mapped than Nebraska)

Best

Steve

> On Oct 14, 2015, at 8:44 AM, Michael Reichert <nakaner at gmx.net> wrote:
> 
> Dear US electorate,
> 
> Am Thu, 08 Oct 2015 20:16:50 -0700 schrieb Alex Barth:
>> And - it's not to late to run for elections! Get your name up on the
>> list by October 10th.
>> 
>> https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Foundation/Local_Chapters/
> United_States/Elections/2015#Candidates
> 
> And this is my censorious analysis reviewing all candidates:
> 
> https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Nakaner/diary/36098
> 
> *Summary* I think that some candidates are suitable and some are not 
> suitable. It looks as the number of edits and the time since the first 
> map edit is proportional to the suitability of each candidate (with some
> exceptions).
> 
> You, the US community, have got some very great candidates which have
> recognized the bad situation the US community is in (see posting by
> Martijn van Exel). These candidates have realized that the board has to
> change its focus and focus on the community all over the country and not
> the so-called "community" attending SotM US. A good map needs a large and
> active community and not an annual conference which is present in the
> media and tweets 1440 times per day.
> 
> Reading some of the manifestos, I threw my hands up in horror. Some
> candidates have less experience – neither in editing nor in OSM-related
> coding. I believe that following fictional conversation might have
> happened:
> "I want to join OSM." – "Well, you just have to run for OSM US board
> elections. You'll get to know the US community after election and learn
> mapping after election, too."
> 
> I myself wonder if these people just want to become a board member to 
> have a nice entry in their CV. If someone is really crazy about OSM, he/
> she invests more time into OSM than just uploading 40 changesets.
> 
> This user diary entry is not neutral and shows my European-based opinion.
> That's why editing/coding experience is a very important criteria from my
> point of view. I don't pussyfoot aroung, I clearly write what's in my 
> mind.
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Michael aka Nakaner
> 
> 
> PS I have already watched the first half of the virtual townhall.
> 
> 
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