[OSM-talk] Cancel Västerås

[Andy Robinson]

Joerg Ostertag (OSM Munich/Germany)
>Sent: 11 October 2006 8:54 AM
>To: schildberg at scoid.de
>Cc: talk at openstreetmap.org
>Subject: Re: [OSM-talk] Cancel Västerås
>
>On Wednesday 11 October 2006 08:38, Stephan Schildberg wrote:
>> Lars Aronsson schrieb:
>> > I don't think I can be
>> > the locomotive when the train is missing.  Maybe OSM is a great
>> > idea whose time just hasn't come (to Sweden, anyway) yet.
>>
>> If I would announce a mapping weekend in Hamburg, I wouldn't expect many
>> people to show up then, even if some would like to go (officially we are
>> 3 for 755km2) , there are always reasons not to come. We spread the idea
>> in several societies who are either interested in IT, sports and nature
>> conservation.
>> It has to grow, the momentum we generate is just not quite enough, but
>> following further promotion I calculate with some awareness next spring.
>
>Even in Munich where we are at least 10-15 people mapping, we just tried to
>meet all together and didn't succeed by now. There seem to be different
>reasons:
> - Not everyone is on the talk-* lists
> - Even not everyone has an OSM Account yet
> - Not everyone has time at any date
> - Maybe we havn't set up the location early enough
> - Maybe many more
>
>But we'll try to spread the Idea and I think latest by mid of next year
>we'll
>have a community here in Germany too. But as many things it'll take some
>time.
>You can see that the Idea is already spreading by looking at small things.
>You
>remember the 10 NaviGPS I had for borrowing; 5 of them are already out
>mapping regions in Germany. I think we need small steps. Trying to install
>all the osm-tools on a newbie PC is still a little challenge. So I think
>we'll have to work hard on this side first.
>
>B.T.W. the first Munich meetup is tonight 11.10.2006
> 20:00 im Lindengarten,
> Ecke Solalindenstraße und Friedenspromenade,
> 48,115 Nord und 11,678 Ost.
> And Up to now we only have 2-3 People comming.
>

Have you reported what a good time you had last time you met? What was
discussed, how good the beer was etc?

I'm sure most of its apathy or they think there is something better to do
instead.

Sometimes I think you have to make people feel left out so they take an
interest next time.

>From personal experience these meets are great fun. Everyone I have met who
is involved in OSM has a new story to tell and I'm learning so much about
any number of things as a result. We had 10 I think turn up for our first UK
Midlands meet. Some driving for over an hour to get there. Was a real
pleasant surprise to get such support and a very enjoyable evening.

So the point I'll stress for anyone wavering about coming along to a meet-up
or mapping weekend is that these are not events trying to shoehorn people
into a particular shape, rather its an opportunity to meet a huge variety of
people from many walks of life who all have at least a small shared interest
in OSM but have far richer lives beyond that. I say that we should let
people do their own thing with OSM, use it as a framework to enrich our own
lives rather than becoming a slave to the almighty OSM server :-). Meeting
up for laughs and social banter is great for achieving that.

Cheers

Andy


>--
>
>Jörg (Germany, Munich)
>
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