[OSM-talk] Introducing CloudMade mapping ambassadors

[SteveC]

Hi

CloudMade feels that helping the US community grow would be a good  
thing and to that end we've been hiring, for want of a better term,  
mapping ambassadors. These full-time employees will be doing things  
like running mapping parties, speaking at events, doing webinars and  
anything else we, they or you come up with to help get the US  
community as strong as the European one.

So far we've found three great people. Richard Weait (richard at cloudmade.com 
) is kicking things off in the North East of the US. Sarah Manley (sarah at cloudmade.com 
) is working on the Bay Area (the 50 miles or so around San  
Francisco)  and Brandon Aguirre (brandon at cloudmade.com) is focusing on  
the West of the US - Washington down to California essentially.

We'll be looking at helping groups like linux user groups and cyclists  
run mapping parties, answering questions and generally trying to take  
all the lessons learned in the EU and apply them in the US. We're very  
open to ideas and think that some things work differently both between  
EU nations and the US - for example there seem to be more cars and  
driving in the US. The mapping ambassadors are focused on helping  
people find and use openstreetmap and they will be travelling a fair  
amount running these events. Feel free to mail them about anything  
OSM, like maybe if you want help running a mapping party or want to  
borrow some GPS units.

We're also looking to hire more ambassadors too, so get in touch if  
you're interested.

Best

Steve