[OSM-talk] 3000 registered users but the stats arn't all rosy

[Andy Robinson]

I've just uploaded a new set of graphical charts to the stats page.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Stats

They show that we surpassed 3000 registered users yesterday and that the
amount of hard core OSM activity is still on the rise. For instance we are
close to reaching 30 million track gps track points, a feat that should be
attained sometime next week. Also when ignoring the Tiger import it is clear
that the appetite for editing the map data (adding new nodes) continues to
rise. These are all good trends.

There are however a couple of other trends which are perhaps a warning and
where we should perhaps gather our focus in the coming months.

The first relates to the overall user base. The rise in users to 3000 belies
the fact that the increase over the last 3 months has been linear when we
have increasing trends within the project itself. That suggests that to
widen the user base we need to get out more and promote the project and I
think the biggest turnoff to achieving that at the moment is the website
homepage. 

It would be helpful therefore (especially to head off criticism) if we can
have a platform development status page on the wiki with a more defined
roadmap for the coming 6 months. I know Steve and others are working on
certain aspects but we need some idea of where coding is being done and what
it hopes to achieve. At the moment I'm kind of at a loss to know what is
being done, what it will produce, and what would then need to be done on top
of that to change what we see as the flag waver for the project, i.e. the
home page and the navigation ability to basic OSM mapping (static or active
data).

To further this point I'd very much like to suggest we nominate someone to
be the development officer for OSMF who would at least in the first instance
be able to hold the central information about who is working on what and
where more support is needed. Hopefully some specific tasks might come out
of that to encourage the less ardent coders.

The other trend I noted related to the mailing list statistics. We had a
very heavy month in July with a lot of postings to talk. The postings in
August were almost half those of July and the number of subscribers dropped
for the first time  in the 10 months I've been watching the numbers (now
243). Of course the summer holiday period may be part of the reason, it's
not clear.

The other point is that the number of subscribers to the dev list has been
static at 50 now for 7 months which is a sure sign we are not drawing in new
coding interest. That needs to change. What we need is not just ideas to the
mailing list but activity to draw in support so please get out there and
encourage and spread the word.

Please keep any responses to this email on a practical and supportive level.
We are all friends here and this is not the time or place to criticise. The
project is already a huge success; we just need to focus on making it more
so.

Cheers

Andy


Andy Robinson
Andy_J_Robinson at blueyonder.co.uk