[Openstreetmap] our little meetup today

[Saul Albert]

Hi Jo, All

On Sun, Mar 20, 2005 at 03:12:41PM -0800, Jo Walsh wrote:
> this afternoon steve, matt, saul and i met for drinks and talked
> openstreetmap. we talked about data interfaces and about possible
> intending publicity and how that image might jar with our world image.

Just to refer back on that last point - that jo didn't expand.

After the NS article, and the starting of collection of monies, it seemed wise
to begin to formalise responses to press attention, and how to deal with money
that gets pushed at the project. I saw too much fractiousness with free
networks when they got attention and bits of money here and there - it all
ended up fragmenting projects and everyone forgot the point of it - which was
free networks! 

So, here's what we planned - 

1. representation:

Set up a group website at http://okfn.org/geo that explains the Free Geodata
principle, the openstreetmap project and the various interfaces to the database
- and the various approaches the projects here have - with links to all the
projects, names and contact details. The projects on the list I made might be
incomplete:

    * openstreetmap
    * geowiki
    * london free map (or bristol free map.. etc.)
    * Freemap for the UK
    * navsys

any missed out?

These are essentially the 'investor' projects in the combined free geodata
effort, and should all be represented federally when the project gains
attention.

There'll be 3 kinds of people we want to attract: interested contributors,
interested developers and interested journalists/funders. So there'll be simple
'how to' stories for each of these interest groups, along with an explanation
of the big picture - maybe a gpx upload for the punters (temporary solution), a
list of press clippings, contact details for press relations, technical
enquiries (the list) and a 'donate here' button. 

2. money:

I assumed we'd mentioned on the list that through a series of conversations
around kitchen tables in bristol and cambridge Rufus agreed that okfn could act
as a 'holding' company for cash for the free map. This seems ideal as they are
a charity and a company - so can do the books, attract tax-incentive donations,
and spare us - an ad hoc collection of developers, enthusiasts, rogue
academics, and gonzo cartograhers, from having to form ourselves into an
awkward bureaucracy.

I'm immensely grateful for this..  along with webdav access to the site (if
anyone wants to help admin it - let jo know..) and the wiki/list services, it's
a great service!

It seems like a good idea - until it doesn't work, to orchestrate the spending
of this money by trying to achieve some kind of consensus on the list about how
it's spent.

So far I think the proposals are for ikonos purchase (once it's proved with
some test-data that we can use it) and for Steve's gpsdrive the sunday after
next. Both these solutions will be tested for effectiveness and cost/benefit
and I guess we'll look to the 14th April to make decisions... But I think
there's been general consensus - (correct me if I'm wrong - this is a call for
concensus :) http://seedsforchange.org.uk/free/consflow.pdf that if both are
proved - we should spend what money we can on both.

One more thing - it seems necessary, after the conversations and posts to the
list to persue both GPS *and* sattelite photo routes. 

- Sattelite photos because it allows mass remote participation in the process
  (this is a niche interest area and will benefit greatly from
  the non-exclusively-local participation that this form of tracing and
  annotation will allow.

- GPS because we need maintenance. The OS spends a huge amount on this yearly,
  but as devices drop in price and get ubiquitous, if we get in there early we
  can have our maps talking to and getting updated by lots of devices - black
  boxes stored in cabs (matt's idea), bluetooth/gps chip keyrings (steve's idea),
  or subcutaneously implanted telepathy antennae (neal stephenson's idea). 

Cheers,

Saul.